Class Notes

From Linkey: First of all, I need to make a correction to the Fall/Winter 2014 notes. In my section under Anne Rasmussen Lyles where it says, “While attending her 55th High School reunion…” That was actually my news, not Anne’s. The correct version is, “I attended my 55th High School reunion in Richmond this spring. While there I managed to squeeze in a brief visit with Sally Tarrant Bernert and Nancy Lee Leidy. Betsy Chamberlain Hartz unfortunately was not able to join us, as she had to work and my free time from reunion activities was brief.”

While in Wilmington, Delaware, in June 2014, David and I visited Nemours, which was the home of Alfred I. du Pont. His third wife was Jessie Ball du Pont, for whom MWC’s du Pont Fine Arts Center is named. Do go visit it if you are nearby. I continue to enjoy AAUW (Dean Hargrove would be proud) and recently became a board member of the local Library Friends organization. David and I purchased a camping trailer last fall and traveled during the summer of 2014 to Yellowstone, Mount Rushmore, etc. Prior to the trip I still had eight states I have not visited. Our trip was wonderful, but we only made it to seven of my eight missing states. I guess I’ll have to fly to North Dakota for lunch!

As for favorite professors, mine will always be Dr. Castle. I didn’t know him from the classroom but got to know him well because he was our class sponsor. I kept in touch with him until he died.

In January of this year we went to California and had hoped to reconnect with Barbara Scherberger Offerman in Santa Barbara. Kathy Friedman Levinson and her husband, Sandy, spent this past winter in California instead of Florida so the three of us were to get together for lunch. I got sick, so I never saw either of them, but they had a couple of months together to catch up. Barbara wrote later that her recent travels have been in California going to Sacramento to visit son Steven and his family. Barbara has twin grandsons and a granddaughter.

Betsy Chamberlain Hartz wrote that she and Nancy Lee Leidy drove to Suffolk for a wonderful candlelight Christmas program that Mary Saunders Latimer and her husband Art were in at their church. Nancy Gibbs drove up from New Bern, North Carolina, and has been coming to it for years. She said it was wonderful, very professional, and had a great orchestra and choir. Nancy noticed that Mary was the last one in and was front and center and she told her that she conducts if needed, so she is still very musical. Nancy said it was such fun to visit at a delicious reception afterwards, and she thinks they will make it an annual event. Also, Nancy and I celebrated a little Christmas gift exchange with Sally Tarrant Bernert and loved being together for pizza and a jolly visit.

In response to an email Betsy Lydle Smith sent about an article in the New York Times on the closing of Sweetbriar College, Susan Rutan Joehnk replied that she often thinks about MWC and wishes she could go back to that time when we were there—probably one of the best, if not the best, times of her life. She doesn’t think she ever thought we girls/women were inferior to boys/men, and we can thank our education and experience at MWC for that. When she applied to law school twenty years later, she was told that the school looked at college transcripts and because of the year we graduated, they bumped up her GPA a letter based on the quality of education in the 1960s. Lucky for her! Thank you, Susan. I think you speak for many of us.

From Betsy: Arlene Drescher Wilson of Nashville, Tennessee, had a great time visiting her “old” roomie and friend of 60 years, Betty Chilton Finkle, in March. They hiked to the beach at Big Sur, California, for a picnic. Arlene also had lunch in Nashville with roommate Julie Burch Southall and her lovely daughter, Sherrod. They had so much fun talking about their years in Virgnia and Bushnell dorms, each of them remembering different views of the same events. Julie has forgiven Arlene for playing the ukulele during exams, a guilt Arlene has carried for decades!

Meanwhile, life has led Arlene far from her major in Medical Technology. She asked if aging make us more right-brained than we used to be. Arlene is presently painting abstracts embracing elements of nature. See more with her statement of purpose on her website www.arlenewilsonearthwork.com.

For Lila Davis, of Virginia Beach, Virginia, 2015 has been a year of travel, from Florida in January; Texas and Utah in February; England, Wales, and Iceland in April; California and British Columbia in June; to Idaho and Washington in September. Lila still enjoys being involved with Girl Scouts and received her 65-year pin last year. She is active with her church and several other non-profit organizations.

Anne Rasmussen Lyles shared that on June 20, five alumnae from the classes of 1962 and 1963 gathered in Charlottesville for a reunion! They had lunch and spent almost three hours together. Those attending were Rosalyn Lester Murray, Clara Middleton Leigh, Lillian Ann Dix Smith, and Georgianna Malloy Hull, along with Anne. They were all home economics majors at MWC and went on into teaching fields at high school or university levels. Some of them had missed their 50th reunions recently, so they really enjoyed talking about fun memories, current-day happenings, and sharing pictures, etc. It was a wonderful time together and they plan to do it again soon.

Kay Barret Bilisoly had just returned from a week-long plein air painting trip to Spain. Their group was in Barcelona for two days then stayed five days in a beautiful seaside town called Calella de Palafrugel on the Costa Brava. What a rewarding experience! After being home for five days, Kay and Win were off to Charleston, South Carolina, to see their only grandson graduate from high school. Great family time!

Nancy Slonim Aronie continues to teach writing workshops on Martha’s Vineyard, at Esalen, Omega Institute, and in Costa Rica! She organized a tribute gathering for 107-year-old poet Peggy Freydberg in April, and Nancy was featured on NPR and in an article in Vanity Fair.What an inspiring story about an incredible woman!

Pete and I had a wonderful visit with Susan Rutan Joehnk and her husband, Karsten, in Seattle in June as they were headed to Alaska on a cruise. Pete and I will celebrate our 45th anniversary while sailing to Alaska through the Inside Passage in July on a large boat with five friends. The scenery should be spectacular! Between working part time, twin grandsons—who at eight months are thriving after a very difficult beginning—granddaughters, my mom—who is now 97 and has macular degeneration, deafness, and dementia—I, like so many of us, am trying to balance my life.

I recently began a program called Strolls for Well-Being at the Bloedel Reserve, which is 150 acres of gardens and forest trails on Bainbridge Island. The program was developed in Florida at the Morikami Gardens, with twelve healing walks incorporating themes such as Awareness, Connection, Transition, Forgiveness, Joy, Gratitude, and Fulfullment. I love that our generation is working at aging mindfully. I’ll also go on a week-long annual retreat in August with my women’s group of 10 women—we’ve been getting together since 1995! It’s hard to get us all together, as we live in such places as Cook Islands, Namibia, Portland, Oregon, British Columbia, and Washington State.

Just FYI, some things are changing with the UMW Magazine due to the rise in printing costs. For those of you who have email addresses registered with the Alumni Office, you will receive Betsy’s and my uncut class notes. The Alumni Office will be shortening what is printed in the magazine. So, if you don’t have email, you may want to get it. If you’d like a reminder with some photos of class members emailed to you before the next deadline, email Betsy. We won’t inundate you or send anything else. Thanks to all who sent news. Let’s hear from more of you!