Class Notes

Greetings! I hope you all had a good summer and fall.

Several classmates have been honored in the past year. Patricia Weller Wigginton was named Maryland Consumer Rights Coalition Volunteer of the Year and received a Governor’s Citation on behalf of the Maryland Homeowners’ Association for her service and contributions to protecting homeowners’ rights. Congratulations, Patricia! Her son, Jonathan Wigginton ’10, who studied history at UMW, volunteers at the Smithsonian, where he hopes to land a job.

Karen Kilgore Ralston was featured in the “StreetSeen” section of RSVP Memphis magazine. The article, Karen Ralston: Hats Off, detailed her extensive work as a volunteer milliner. She has made more than 1,000 hats for Memphis’ Playhouse on the Square during the last eight years. A stickler for historical accuracy, Karen recently was named Volunteer of the Year in the Association for the Preservation of Tennessee Antiquities’ western region for her work in cataloging costumes at the Woodruff-Fontaine House Museum in Memphis. Kudos, Karen! She and husband Jim spend time at their second home in Breckenridge, Colo. They took a trip to Israel this year with friends, touring Jerusalem, Masada, the Red Sea, and Petra; Shimon Peres’s son, Yoni, showed them the local color. The couple planned a fall trip to Ireland, and they watched the last Discovery launch while visiting daughter Emily in Florida.

Jane Jackson Woerner, a native of Bristol, Va., and a member of UMW’s Heritage Society, was featured in the spring/summer issue of the Heritage newsletter. She makes a monthly gift to the Fund for Mary Washington and has pledged through a bequest to establish a need-based scholarship for UMW students from southwest Virginia.

Linda Gattis Shull sent sad news that Christie Wineholt lost her son, Vicar Warman, 38, to complications from diabetes in May. Memorial services were held in Florida, North Carolina, and Virginia. Our sincere condolences go to Christie. Linda also sent news that Barbara Burton Micou retired in June after 23 years with Chesterfield County Public Schools, the last 18 years as site coordinator for Communities in Schools, a dropout prevention program. Congratulations on a great career, Barbara! She now plans to spend more time gardening, reading, and visiting her three grandchildren in Chicago.

Jeanine Zavrel Fearns and daughter Erin traveled to San Francisco and spent several days in Yosemite National Park, hiking and enjoying the mountains. Jeanine was in Duck, N.C., in September with her family. When she isn’t working, she reads, gardens, and uses ideas from HGTV to decorate her house. Jeanine had a great visit with roomie Anne Witham Kilpatrick last spring. Anne and husband Roger brought granddaughter Jennifer to Washington, D.C., to see the historical sites and gave her a tour of UMW while in the area. Jeanine also visited with suitemate Toni Turner Bruseth of Austin, Texas, who was in town for her father’s funeral at Arlington National Cemetery. Toni, we are sorry for your loss. Toni’s husband, Jim, is chief archeologist for the Texas State Historical Commission, from which Toni recently retired. Another suitemate, Suzy Bender Winterble, and husband Charlie took a summer cruise on the Aegean Sea, visiting Croatia and Turkey. Jeanine forwarded an article from The Free Lance-Star in Fredericksburg about plans to demolish Chandler Hall to build a student center to include a small auditorium, a ballroom, offices for student clubs, the University post office, and more. The project is due to be completed in summer 2013, so we should be able to see it at our next reunion in 2014. Put that on your calendars right now!

Please write to me with news of our classmates. Happy holidays to everyone!