Class Notes

From Carol: After approximately 25 years of being your class agent, I have decided to “retire.” Anne Sommervold LeDoux has graciously offered to be our new class agent. I sincerely thank all of you who have sent me your news over the years and I hope you will continue to do so with Anne.

Our 45th college reunion the last weekend in May was a blast and truly enjoyable, especially seeing so many of our classmates! There were several new activities added to the weekend and they were great fun. Please mark your calendars for five years from now for our 50th reunion!

Prior to the reunion, Ted and I visited my 95-year-old aunt in Pennsylvania. She’s an inspiration to me, still getting around with the aid of her walker and very interested in everything that we were doing. Ted and I are pretty settled now in our new home in Georgia and we are enjoying all of the activities of our community. We are both in cooking clubs, Ted is active with the Veteran’s group, the Optimist Club, and the community Advisory Board, and I have learned new card games and Mah Jongg. Ted’s youngest son lives two hours away in Gadsden, Alabama, and he recently visited for Father’s Day weekend.

In November 2015, Pat Piermatti vacationed in Florida, cruised out of Port Everglades on the maiden voyage of the Regal Princess—which was even more exciting because some of The Love Boat cast members were special guests—and then cruised on the Coral Princess to Aruba, Colombia, Costa Rica, Panama, and Jamaica. Victorian Society bus trips allowed Pat to visit Iviswold, the Castle at Felician College in Rutherford, New Jersey; Kips Castle in Essex County; Lyndhurst, a Gothic revival home designed by Alexander Jackson Davis in Tarrytown, New York; and Caramoor in Katonah, New York. Pat also visited the Little Falls (Little Falls, New Jersey) and the Great Falls (Paterson, New Jersey) of the Passaic River and the Thomas Edison National Historical Park in West Orange, New Jersey. Pat continues to write her “Historical Nuggets” articles for the Women’s Club of Upper Montclair newsletter along with completing other Historian duties and taking photographs of special church activities, one of which was published in The Montclair Times on October 9, 2014.

Martha Veasey Sawyer and her husband, Roger, visited Gatlinburg, Tennessee, several times last year, staying at The Buckhorn Inn and hiking in Smoky Mountain National Park. Martha was thrilled to see Judy Collins in concert in Blacksburg, Virginia, in January of 2014. May 2014 brought a trip to Myrtle Beach to visit Roger’s sister and brother-in-law. Martha and Roger’s big trip of 2014 was their cruise and land trip to Alaska. They were awed by the scenery and the wildlife during their stay in Denali National Park. June 2014 found them on their annual pilgrimage to Atlantic City. In November, 2014, Martha and Roger joined Kaye Webster Gary, her husband, Bob, and Mary Jane Johnson Tyler and her husband, Hugh, in Charleston, South Carolina, for their annual reunion. Their daughter Debbie graduated from Radford and enjoys her job at Trust House while working on her master’s degree in social work; daughter Beth lives in Atlanta with her husband and three teenagers; and daughter Suzanne’s field of expertise is in book and paper restoration.

Barbara Forgione Tansey enjoyed a four-day getaway to New York City with her daughter Lisa, where they enjoyed the theatre, bus tours, Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, Central Park, and Ground Zero with the 9/11 memorial. Barbara had two foot surgeries last year, but she recovered from those nicely and attended several activities at our 45th reunion.

From Anne: Our class would like to thank Carole LaMonica Clark for her many years of service as our class agent! She did an outstanding job sharing our news with us even though it was sometimes difficult to get a response from all of us! Her time and devotion has been greatly appreciated. I have agreed to take over this job and I only hope that I can do half as well as Carole did! Please keep me informed, either by email or card—even a Christmas card. Keeping in touch, especially as we approach that really important milestone, our 50th reunion, is so important!

For those of you who were unable to attend our 45th reunion, we really missed seeing you! There were approximately 35 members of our class in attendance and we had a wonderful time reminiscing about our memorable days back as students at MWC. We all agreed that it really could not have been 45 years ago since we all looked so young and wonderful. Thanks to the hard work of our planning committee, our class started off Friday night with our class party at the home of Bill and Terrie Crawley. Their beautiful home provided a delightful background for visiting and viewing a slideshow of pictures from our college days which was put together by Susie Duffey DiMaina. Susie also had designed and ordered T-shirts for us to wear which were just super! A big thanks to Susie for all of her efforts! Those of us in attendance would love to see all of you in 2020 as we celebrate our 50th reunion!

During the reunion I tried to gather as much news as possible since the deadline for news was fast approaching. I apologize in advance if I did not get news from you, but if I didn’t, send me some for next time!

Elaine Wilson Maloney now has two grandchildren ages three and one-and-a-half years. She is still working as a school librarian for Fairfax County, and her husband, Mike, is the Executive Director of the Organization for Autism Research.

Barbara Forgione Tansey is retired, lives in Chesapeake in an over-55 community, and has a three-year-old grandson, Bodie. Tilly Thiel is enjoying life with three grandchildren—six-month-old boy and girl twins and a four-month-old boy. She is also playing lots of golf. She traveled to China this year and had a wonderful time.

Jean Burges Botts is living in Charlottesville. Kathi O’Neill is retiring from her job of 42 years in August and is starting a new consulting business for non-profits. Tina Kormanski Krause is leaving Northern Virginia and moving to Richmond so she can be nearer to her three grandchildren, ages six, four, and one. She plans to split her time between Richmond and Kiawah, South Carolina.

Rochele Hirsh, author of Relationship Chemistry: Understanding the Unspoken, is driving back across the country to the West Coast to start more definitive research on cravings. Gabby Pagin is retiring at the end of the year after 45 years with the Child Support Program. She is an avid cyclist, both for charity and fun rides, and also travels annually. Her most recent trip was to Costa Rica.

Kathy Shepherd Mehfoud is the Chairman of the UMW Foundation and was just reelected to her third term. She is also on the Presidential Search Committee for the new President of UMW. Kathy also stays busy with nine grandchildren who range in age from five to 13.

Laurie King Myse splits her time between Sarasota, Florida, and Stafford, Virginia. Sharon Arthur Spencer has a granddaughter and daughter in Dallas. She retired as a full time faculty member at Pensacola State College but will return to work part time as their assessment coordinator.

I stay busy with grandchildren and traveling. John and I just welcomed our fourth grandchild, Charlotte Rose LeDoux, in February. Last October I traveled to Mongolia with some girlfriends and it was an amazing trip! We slept in gers and even a teepee! My email is ledouxanne@yahoo.com and my address is Anne LeDoux, 1113 John Paul Jones Drive, Stafford, Virginia, 22554. Hope to hear from you!