Class Notes

Our 65th reunion has come and gone and unfortunately not many of our friends were able to attend. I am sorry that I was one who couldn’t make it but my thoughts were with everyone there. Marcy Weatherley Morris made the arrangements for our class dinner at the Kalnen Inn in the Jepson Alumni Executive Center. Marcy prepared a memorial time to honor the 110 deceased members of our class. As the names were read, Marcy placed a dollar bill in a basket. At the end she also honored Florence Overley Ridderhof, who won the People’s Choice award in the Dancing With the Fredericksburg Stars event, and me, for my years of service as class agent. The $120 was to be donated to the Ridderhof Art Gallery. After the delicious filet mignon dinner they gave me a call and I spoke to everyone—Marcy and Juney Morris; Carol Bailey Miller; Billie Mitchell Hanes and her daughter, Diana, who brought her; Florence Overley Ridderhof; and Jane Frazier Snead. They told me that the earlier Brompton reception had an unexpected rain shower toward the end and several of our group got soaked.

Betty “B.J.” Vincent Sakes arrived with her son for the class picnic on Saturday. Marcy and Juney’s granddaughter Kelly decorated our tables—one in the Dr. Seuss Lorax theme of caring for our environment and the other The Places You’ll Go. Carol and the Morrises stayed to enjoy the All-Class Party and breakfast on Sunday morning. All agreed that they were treated royally with shuttle buses from the hotel and golf carts to get around the large campus and good food. A big thank you goes to Marcy and her family for all their work.

In her Valentine letter Marcy wrote that her granddaughter Erin’s house in Northumberland burned and they lost everything. Luckily they and their pets were ok and they were able to move into a temporary home for a while. On the whole, all of Marcy and Juney’s grandchildren and great-grands are doing great.

Marge Diener Knapp has moved into a retirement community in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, closer to her church and bell ringing. She had good help from family with unpacking and getting organized. She says that except that she has broken both shoulders, one arm, her pelvis, and has a titanium implant for a left arm, she feels great and loves everything about her new living experience. The only recent sad event was the loss of her dear friend, Mabel, 103, with whom she played Scrabble for many years.

Betty Gavett Breeden is still busy with church stuff and singing but no more library work or driving. She has recently moved into a retirement center in San Diego and says her eleven-year-old artificial knees appreciate the elevator in the facility.

Ginny Hardy Vance has also moved to smaller quarters in Tallahassee, Florida—a one bedroom apartment on the first floor. Her nephew Beau is nearby and helpful with transportation and other needs so she is well taken care of.

I had a brief phone chat with Kitty Keely Anagnost, who lives in Rivervale, New Jersey, and still spends summers in Maine.

Garland “Dorsey” Estes McCarthy keeps busy garden-clubbing in Humble, Texas. They judge yards each month and always have luncheons first. She sees MWC grad Betsy Gould ’63 at her Presbyterian Church.

Gerry Boswell Griffin sent the sad news that her daughter’s husband passed away in the end of 2014 of pancreatic cancer at the age of 53. He and Judy lived in Phoenix, Arizona, and enjoyed the casual lifestyle; she will probably stay there as she likes her job, her house and yard, and is active in her church.

Nan Riley Pointer and Joe have been doing some traveling. They had a fabulous trip on the Amazon with stops at islands along the way. They saw pink dolphins native to the river, went piranha fishing, and stopped at a very primitive village with a one room school, church, and shacks for houses. They had heard about this stop and took some school supplies to them. Their summer Norwegian cruise took them in and out of many fjords. In Bergen they met with a former exchange student along with her husband and daughter. That was the high spot of their trip.

Also a world traveler, Patti Head Ferguson was taking advantage of having her Santa Fe, New Mexico, house being rented for two years. In the spring of 2014 she visited family in Dubai, then went on to Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam. Right before the holidays she was off to India again on the Railway Express. When leaving there she was heading to Cuba and Papua, New Guinea. Quite an itinerary!

I received an email from Carmen Zeppenfeldt Catoni’s daughter in the spring informing me that Carmen had colon surgery which would require some rehab before she could return home. I did not receive a follow up, so I hope no news is good news.

Catharine “Kitty” Keely Anagnost and her husband, Jim, are retired and moving well but slowly. Jim celebrated his 90th birthday last summer and Catharine turns 86 in September. They spend the winter in New Jersey in the same house where they have lived since the fall of 1958. They spend three or four months in the cottage at Ocean Point in Boothbay, Maine. Their son-in-law Jim now drives them up and back since the “children” didn’t think they could do it anymore. Their son Jason teaches math in Brooklyn. Their daughter Alex and her husband, the above-mentioned Jim, live in Belgrade, Maine. He is employed by a construction company, Chinbro, and she teaches remedial math to grades four and five in local schools. Son Allan is a househusband while his wife, Linda, works. Their 13-year-old daughter, Grace, keeps Allan busy. She has a 4.2 grade point average (How does one do that?) and is active in every seventh grade activity in her school and also plays the piano. She favors math. Son Robert Jon (RJ) and his wife, Maureen, live in the south of River Vale, about five miles distant, which makes them free to come should they call on them. He works in Stamford, Connecticut, as an account. Where did all this math come from? Kitty says it’s not her genes, and that it brings to mind dear Dr. Carter. What a chore he had trying to teach sine and cosine when his students’ minds were on ensigns!

One of Mary Ann Lutz Williamson’s daughters notified me of her mother’s death in December 2014. After she graduated from MWC she received a Master of Humanities degree from the University of Richmond and her Doctorate from the University of Virginia. Mary Ann taught elementary and middle school and later accepted professorships at Virginia Commonwealth University and Virginia Union University. She created the Edinburg Virginia Heritage Foundation which resulted in revitalizing Edinburg as a regional destination. Over the years she was consulted throughout the United States for her genealogical research. Two of her daughters, Mary Wilson ’83 and Penelope Cottrell ’77, are Mary Washington graduates.

I also received the sad news that Nell Grieve Swanson died in February 2015. Her son Lynn died in January of that year and her husband, Capt. Charles Swanson, died in May. They were living in San Diego, California. Thoughts of sympathy go to both families.