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UMW Magazine – Class Notes
1301 College Ave.
Fredericksburg, VA 22401

1960

Joanne Campbell Close
jodycampbellclose60@alumni.umw.edu

Karen Larsen Nelson
karenlarsen60@alumni.umw.edu

Can you believe it? As you read this, our 55th reunion is only about six months away! We’re looking forward to everyone joining us on the Mary Washington campus May 29-31, 2015. Put it on the calendar now! If you’re traveling to visit children and grandchildren, cruising the seas, or flying to exotic foreign ports, surely you can manage a laughter-filled trip back to Fredericksburg. Please promise to join us.

Joyce Neil Krost
flew to Madrid in April to visit her sister. They went to the Cezanne exhibit and visited family and friends in Pamplona, where Joyce often sets up a studio for her painting, and luxuriated in the Mediterranean atmosphere.

Liz Hill Heaney and Bob went back to Snowshoe, West Virginia, last winter for a ski vacation with their daughter and grandson, who’s on the Lafayette College ski team. They enjoyed new snow and skiing, while Liz enjoyed the spa.

Margie Saunders Howell had a hip replacement in July 2013 that went from bad to horrible. After three surgeries and two months of meds and convalescence following an infection, it was discovered that further surgery would be more complicated. Margie decided to forgo a fourth surgery and live with the temporary system for now. She’s learned to walk again and can drive. She didn’t let all this interfere with the annual gathering of nursing majors. In April, Margie, Barbara Broome BellElinor “Lulu” Omasta Clark, Marilyn “Mel” Petit Freidag, Margaret “Meg” Reed McPherson,Faye Pierce Sims, Beverly Lindauer Sullivan, and Carol Dixon Yonan had their annual reunion week at the Outer Banks. Margie is in touch with Joyce Moore Becker of Fairfax, Virginia, and Mary Anne Beeler Niksch of McLean, who, along with Kinsey Green, were her suitemates junior year.

Nancy Rorabaugh transferred to Richmond Professional Institute, now VCU, to study graphic design. She married a fellow art student, moved to North Carolina, had two girls, and got a master’s of fine arts degree at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. She divorced and ended up in Atlanta, where she’s been since ’76. She retired in December 2013 after a 30-year career in advertising and a 19-year stint as a graphic design instructor at a private Atlanta college. Now she spends time on meditation, exercise, and fine art work. Nancy was a figure painter in grad school, and she and her youngest granddaughter, a 16-year-old artist, take figure-drawing sessions together.

While prowling through her box of Mary Washington mementos, Karen found an envelope addressed “to my Peanut from your Shell, Nancy Rorabaugh.” It was a freshman get-acquainted gimmick, where we picked the name of a classmate to send notes and gifts to, and later got to meet them. Karen and Nancy didn’t remember anything else about it. Do any of you?

We sent wishes for a speedy recovery to Bonnie Davis Hall after knee surgery. She was determined to press through rehab and make an extensive trip overseas last summer.

In our monthly news flash, we shared a photo Bayla Goldberg Manis sent of her family, including two granddaughters.

Terry Eagles Dow’shusband, Albert, passed away in late April from complications of a fall and hip surgery. His seven sons came from both coasts for the memorial service. Terry was doing well with the support of a sisterhood of widows. We also sent condolences to Iris Newton, whose daughter, Vena, lost her husband, Russell, after a long illness.

Nancy Engle Burkhardt and Brad visited their daughter and granddaughter in Texas. The kids have a shared airstrip behind their backyard, and they were excited to see their son-in-law take off with his son from there. To celebrate their grandson’s graduation, the family gathered at their Crystal Lake cottage, where they tubed, biked, boated, and kayaked.

Gaye Roberts Olson gets out in her motorized chair in the neighborhood, to go out to eat and run errands.

Cyd Day Getchell sent pictures of working her dog for competition and skill in agility and odor recognition training. Cyd fell last winter, slipping on the ice and landing in the gutter. She threw her arms up to protect her head and injured her shoulder. Cyd’s son moved to New Hampshire near his sister, and they both now live an hour from Cyd.

Barbara Wageneck Gardner welcomed a great-granddaughter last year. She arrived on the birthday of her grandmother, Barbara’s daughter. Her youngest grandchild graduated from high school in the honors program and is studying chemical engineering on a full scholarship at the University of Texas. All of Barbara’s granddaughters have gone to college, which is nice because Barbara completed only two years at Mary Washington.

Sandy Poole underwent a successful seven-hour surgery in March to remove what proved to be benign growths in and around her skull. The surgeons were amazed at how quickly she recovered.

Jan Latven Allnutt sent a picture from a June visit to Maine. A year ago, Susan Cramer Drouin rented a house there, giving her Mary Washington friends plenty of time to make plans to attend. Betty Bruce Shepard and Joey Van Tol Goetz flew into Boston and headed for Kennebunkport, Maine, with Susan, where they spent three days laughing, reminiscing, and sharing photos. Unbeknownst to them, former President George Bush was celebrating his 90th birthday with a skydive in the same town. While walking beside the beach, they saw the helicopter rising from the Bush property, watched him sail downward in his red, white, and blue parachute, and were interviewed by the local TV station. They hope to get back for his 95th.

In March, Karen Larsen Nelson’s son visited from Florida, en route to visit his son, a Marine stationed at Twentynine Palms, California. They’d been to Florida many times, but it had been 20 years since his last trip to Arizona. Karen and her husband traveled with their new 10-year-old rescue cat to the Arizona mountains in May and through the Northwest and British Columbia in their RV in July, stopping at Jane Denslow McCrohan’s home outside Seattle.

I (Jody Close) am trying to de-clutter. It’s the first time I’ve lived in one house long enough to worry about it. I’ve had a busy year with the usual assortment of illnesses and hospital visits, family visits, and crashed computers. I use a backup service, so my files could be restored. We had two high school graduations in June, and my children and their families came here for a short August reunion. It was the first time since 2008 that all 14 were together in the same place.

If you were going to say your news is too ordinary to send, you’ve got nothing on me! These events keep bringing home the passage of time and the evolution of our lives. We’ve learned to live in a world much altered from the mid-50s, getting used to new technology, deciphering a new language, “friending” and “unfriending,” and seeing young adults who seemed like infants yesterday. I can’t take credit for those darling grandchildren who live with strangely familiar 50-year-old parents. I’m impressed at the excellent parents my children turned out to be. As I’ve read your comments over the years, I’m just as proud of the achievements of all of you. Who knew those circle pins and madras Bermuda shorts and raincoats (not to mention classwork) would produce such admirable, diverse, adventurous, amazing women. Please keep writing and plan to come to Fredericksburg in 2015. We rarely hear from those without email, and we miss you. Please take a moment and send news.