Class Notes

Please send news to the designated class agent according to the first letter of your maiden name.

From Connie: In May, Kelly Cherry published a new book of linked stories, A Kind of Dream, which covers five generations of an artistic family. She and husband Burke were traveling to Budapest and Vienna, where Kelly was to attend a short-story conference. They planned to visit friends in Madison in November.

Jerri Barden Perkins traveled in June to speak on clinical trials in Boston, where she lunched with trauma surgeon Susan Briggs ’59, director of the Massachusetts General Hospital International Trauma and Disaster Institute and founder of the International Medical Surgical Response Team, which assisted in NYC on 9/11 and helps in Haiti. Jerri has two yoga classes, a mat class and a chair class for those who are less mobile. Her students range from her 3-year-old granddaughter to age 90.

Joan Gibson Lippold and Jim took their ninth European river cruise in May. They spent Fourth of July week at the Greenbrier watching the PGA golf tournament, and attending Maroon 5 and Jimmy Buffett concerts. Daughter Jan and family built a house on a cliff overlooking the Chesapeake Bay. Carolyn Crum Pannu planned to visit Renee Levinson Laurents in L.A. in July.

Dee Doran Cairns said Sylvia Garland Wickwire’s husband, Robert, died in June. They had lived in Savannah, Georgia, for a long time, and Sylvia had been a caregiver. Our thoughts and prayers go to Sylvia and her family.

Dee’s son Rob and family still live in Italy, and in May she traveled to Germany to see her grandchildren play soccer. Nathan finished 11th grade and is a great goalie. Katye finished ninth grade. For Dee, it brought back memories of going to high school in Heidelberg. The summer before ninth grade, Connie Booth, Patty Cairns, and Dee spent two weeks in Girl Scout camp together on the border of Germany and Austria, not knowing they’d be together again at MWC!

Clara Sue Durden Ashley and Clarence celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in July with about 130 friends and family from Boston, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Texas. Three grandchildren and son Dennis played the piano. Clara Sue was facing August back surgery.

In June, Andy and I took our first vacation since my lung transplant in December 2012. We went to our hometown, Wilmington, Delaware, where our grandson attended a farm camp and we caught up with friends and family, including Barbie Upson Welch andChuck. There was a big party to celebrate Andy’s 80th birthday! Earlier in June, Janie Riles flew up from Fort Lauderdale. She and Jim are back in San Diego but planned to return to Florida in fall. Janie still teaches art and enjoys her two local grandsons.

Thank you all for your contributions to this column!

From Renee: Thanks for writing on short notice. It would have been a shame to leave ’61 blank! Marcia Minton Keech and Bill visited Northern Virginia in June with all their children and grandchildren. They watched the high school graduation of their oldest granddaughter, Corinne, who won a full art scholarship to VCU. On their way back to Savannah, they spent the night with Sylvia McJilton Woodcock and Stuart in Williamsburg.

Debbie Phinney Wylie was in Missouri for her grandson’s high school graduation in May. He’s an award-winning artist, has an art scholarship to Missouri State, and plans to major in graphic arts. Debbie planned an August trip to Maine to visit her sister at the family cottage on Great East Lake.

Sandy Phillips Conklin and hubby Dan have lived and worked since 1968 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where they raised two children. They are in good health except for arthritis and stay busy gardening, woodworking, and grandparenting. They’ve enjoyed the Outer Banks and the New Jersey and Delaware beaches and travel to visit family and deliver Dan to whatever part of the Appalachian Trail he’s hiking. They have Bernese mountain dogs and a Tibetan mastiff. Sandy has been sad to lose fellow chemistry majors recently and remembers them and professors Earl Insley and Herbert Cover. She worked briefly as a chemist testing the water around Three Mile Island before they started the plant. Sandy earned her RN and worked in public health and as a high school nurse. She’s in touch with Liz Reddington Neff, Mimi Mayer Lewis, and Nancy Woolfolk Agee.

Donna Henninger Henderson said the dairy farm needed rain. Granddaughter Courtenay was accepted to Virginia Tech. Donna was named Virginia Farm Bureau Farm Woman of the Year for the extensive volunteer work she’s done since retiring from education 19 years ago. Donna and Jerry celebrated their 53rd wedding anniversary in June.

Sylvia McJilton Woodcock and Stuarttraveled to Italy in May with two other couples, enjoying wine and gelato. She mentioned the visit by Marcia Keech and Bill, who was doing well after another surgery. Sylvia and Stuart’s son, Ed, was married in June in the garden at Keswick Hall outside Charlottesville. Sylvia made the four-tier wedding cake with three flavors and brought it from Williamsburg. Sylvia emails with Cherry Sarff Everett.

Mary Hatcher, free of monthly meetings for the first time in 15 years, has traveled to Jackson, Wyoming; NYC; Williamsburg; and Nova Scotia. She planned trips to New York for restaurant week and to Rockland, Maine; Alexandria, Virginia; and Newport, Rhode Island. They’re thankful Hurricane Arthur did little damage in Wilmington, North Carolina.

Eleanor Knight Jensen and Cliff took a four-month world cruise. They traveled for the first time to Suez and to Israel and planned a November trip to Barcelona and another extended cruise.

I took my first trip since I got sick, visiting Santa Fe, New Mexico. I’m still in the clinical trial for a new breast cancer vaccine designed to prevent recurrence. I don’t know if I’m getting the vaccine or a placebo, but I’m getting all kinds of scans and EKGs. The most recent round found that I’m still cancer-free.

Before her May river cruise in Germany, Betty Alrich Latta was in the Fredericksburg area with her son for a re-enactment of Civil War battles. Her grandson, who’s in college near Washington, D.C., was with them. One battle took place in what used to be Betty’s father’s cow pasture! The Spotsylvania property was purchased after the war by her ancestor, and that’s where Betty grew up. In July, her son, who’d been divorced for a while, got married, and now Betty has four new grandchildren!

Please ask classmates to write me! Any news will be appreciated!

From Lynne: Thanks for all your wonderful responses, especially on short notice. We’re in good health and enjoying NYC and Connecticut. We plan a trip next year up the Amazon River. I still play bridge regularly.

Sandy Walters Julifs graduated on her birthday in July from an intensive two year Lutheran spiritual formation/theological education course called diakonia. “Thanks to my days at MWC as an English major,” Sandy wrote, “I made it through without … the difficulty some of my classmates had!”

Carolyn Spell Robertson’s husband,Jim, had heart problems and trouble walking in February. Physical therapy has been successful and they hope he’ll be able to do without a walker. They spent two weeks in June at their North Carolina beach home with family.

Kay Slaughter quit her U.Va. adjunct teaching job and other responsibilities, hoping to feel retired. She planned to visit Italy in fall with friends, stay at a friend’s villa in Tuscany, and travel to Elba, Firenze, and Rome. Kay said Suzanne Stafford, who attended MWC for two years and transferred to UNC-Chapel Hill with her, died in May of ovarian cancer in Bethesda, Maryland, where she’d lived for two years. Her brother, Ted, niece Kristen, and a chaplain were with her as she passed. Her sister-in-law, Suzanne, and nephew Erik were very attentive to her throughout her illness. After graduating from UNC in 1961, Suzanne lived 51 years in San Francisco. She worked 25 years for Crown Zellerbach and then for other organizations. Suzanne and Kay became close at Carolina, where they joined the same sorority and roomed together senior year. Many of their sorority sisters have stayed in touch and gathered throughout the U.S. One of their friends said Suzanne was the sunshine of their group. She had an optimistic, adventurous spirit and a zany sense of humor. Kay visited her regularly in Bethesda. Renee Levinson Laurents, a former high school classmate, said on Suzanne’s online memorial page that she remembered singing in a quartet with her and that she was an original.

Lynne Wilson Rupert is adjusting to life without Jim. She travels with her grandchildren and this year took her grandsons to Orlando and Cape Kennedy, granddaughter Madeline to NYC, and granddaughter Claire on a driving tour of small towns in New England.

Regina Young Hall has been married 53 years to a man she met at U.Va. They have two sons and four grandchildren. She worked for 17 years as an office administrator for her husband, a breast cancer detection specialist. She researched equipment, hired personnel, and created procedure manuals. A successful practice for 25 years, it was taken over by a local hospital. Regina retired in 2000 to spend time with grandchildren, sail, and enjoy their Orcas Island home. They cruised and sailed for 25 years in the San Juan Islands and Desolation Sound. Now they golf, hike, and play bridge. Regina has been involved in prayer ministry. She and Mac have sent two of their grandchildren to Christian school. Their oldest grandson, a Seattle Pacific University student, was worship leader this summer at a camp in Yelm, Washington. Granddaughter Shelby, a senior at a Christian high school, makes straight A’s and is on the golf and basketball teams. Granddaughter Lauren would be a junior in high school but is attending a community college her last two years. Grandson Blake plays baseball and is an excellent offensive player and pitcher.

Pat Scott Peck flew from her summer cottage in Maine to San Antonio, where she’s buying a townhome. She planned to fly back to Maine, then drive to D.C. to oversee her rental property and meet son Brian. He was to drive with her back to Miami to put her home of 46 years up for sale. Daughter Stacey and her husband moved from Miami to the Portsmouth, Virginia, area, and Brian planned to move to Arizona in September. Pat looks forward to reconnecting with Aggie Welsh Eyster. They haddinner and attended a concert together while Pat was in San Antonio. Aggie’s MWC roomie, Vicky Biggers Hinshaw, also visited her while in San Antonio for a writers’ conference.

I frequently see my goddaughter, Bonnie Cummings, Jill Cusack Clay’s daughter. Through Bonnie, I keep up with Jill, who lives in San Antonio and also is in touch with Aggie.

Polly Updegraff Champ’s youngest grandchild planned to attend Pace University in NYC in September. Sadly, she lost her friend and tennis partner, Joan, unexpectedly. Though her seven-year presidency ended in April, Polly plans to remain active with the Women’s Fellowship. She dressed an ensemble for Disney’s Beauty and the Beast in May and for Ghost, the Musical,in June. The fall schedule for the Broadway Series at the Bushnell in Hartford, Connecticut, includes Evita and Camelot, and Polly will return to Florida in November.

I think Sue Wilson Sproul should publish a travel book! She and Dave have become snowbirds, heading from Colorado to Tucson in winter. They rent a small casita there and take their border collie. They were in Virginia in June for a reunion. Sue planned a September trip to Santa Fe while Dave was to attend a Native American flute conference.

Lloyd Tilton Backstrom and Art enjoy visits from Pat Scott Peck on her travels between Miami and Calais, Maine. The Backstroms traveled to Dubrovnik in fall 2013. Dick Burroughs, Annie Hopkins’ widower, joined them again for the neighborhood Independence Day celebration.