Class Notes

Jane Crenshaw Avera enjoyed an oceanfront winter vacation in Aguadilla, Puerto Rico, a gift from children Scot and Lila. She reported that 13 family members traveled to the beautiful Caribbean coastline. Daughter Anne and family and son David and his lady friend are in California. Anne, her husband Charlie, and their youngest son, Dave Shep, enjoyed skiing at their Lake Tahoe vacation home. Their middle son, Robbie, has graduated from UC Berkeley. He flew to Paris after Christmas for a weeklong visit and then moved on to Spain for a four-week course in international studies at the University of Barcelona, after which he planned on traveling around Europe. Other son, Charlie B., is a Lieutenant, Junior Grade in the Navy. He owns his first home in Beaufort, South Carolina. Jane is filled with gratitude and contentment, and for her, at age 78, life is good and blessings abound.

Dr. Mary Lou Morris Wolsey reports that her 19-year-old Lawrence University sophomore will be studying in Uganda next fall. She also learned that one of the last “old guard” relatives in Virginia died at 100 years of age in Charlotte Court House, Virginia. She hopes to make a trip there soon, as she has not been back since her mother died 10 years ago. Her husband attended his 60th high school reunion and Michigan State 50th reunion. Mary Lou still hears from Mildred “Chick” Hallatt, who started in a class ahead of us but then graduated with us, and Ann Flanagan Gregory, who lives back in her home territory of Virginia Beach. Mary Lou said there was a lot of snow in her area this past winter, and in the spring she went on a cruise with alums from Michigan State University, departing from Lisbon and traveling to northern Portugal, southwest Spain, the Pilgrim’s Way in Santiago de Compostela, a French island, and the Isle of Guernsey. Her grandchildren are growing up quickly and she enjoys sharing in their life experiences.

The children of Joyce Butler McKee Allen created an endowed chair at Davis & Elkins College in her honor. The Davis & Elkins Joyce Butler McKee Allen Chair in Education, a $1 million endowed chair, will provide a professorship, as well as professional development opportunities, to enhance D&E’s teacher education program. After attending Mary Washington, Joyce received her Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts degrees from Salem College in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Joyce is a retired educator and has served as a Davis & Elkins College Trustee since 1992.

I am passing on information about Eloise Strader ’42, teacher, local historian, and community theater volunteer who died this past year at age 96. She was always interested in history, and she transcribed and edited The Civil War Journal of Mary Greenhow Lee, a book about life in Winchester during the Civil War. Her major at Mary Washington College, however, was mathematics, because she excelled in it. I was in Miss Strader’s Algebra I class in high school and she passed me, but I could not get a grade higher than a D. However, she prepared me for Algebra II because I went on to make B’s and C’s that year. Miss Strader attended a number of Handley High School class of 1954 reunions. She is missed by many.

I was thinking about how to end these Class Notes. On November 15 I moved from a second floor apartment at Fort Loudon Apartments—with 17 steps to get in—to a new first floor apartment. Because I only had 15 days to get out, my belongings are still not sorted. I missed the previous edition of the UMW Magazine, and when the recent edition showed up with that picture on the front cover, I was annoyed. I called the powers-that-be and expressed my opinion.

Other problems appeared—I was hit when crossing an “all way” stop sign intersection and my vehicle was damaged. Neither driver was hurt, but it took the repair shop 44 days to fix the car. Needless to say, I spent a lot of time calling the business and expressing my opinion. One last event in my life is that I was employed as a per diem therapist at Behavior Health Services at Winchester Medical Center. A decision was made to use the funds for the per diem positions and create one part time position. My last day to work at BHS was July 15. “And so it goes.”