Home » Class Notes » 1960

Class Notes

If you prefer to submit Class Notes by mail, send to:

UMW Magazine – Class Notes
1301 College Ave.
Fredericksburg, VA 22401

1960

Joanne Campbell Close
jodycampbellclose60@alumni.umw.edu

Karen Larsen Nelson
karenlarsen60@alumni.umw.edu

Hello, dear Class of 1960. We hope you had a great holiday season, survived the winter, and are looking forward to summer. We have lots of news to share; a few of our ladies reported for the first time. Jody contacted many of our East Coast classmates, whom we were worried about because of the unusual weather last summer and fall, and most were fine.
 
The results of my (Jody’s) hospital stay last fall were negative, and I send thanks to all who sent good wishes and support. Everything is back to normal and I’m running on all cylinders again. After putting off getting another pet for decades, I acquired a miniature schnauzer rescue dog, and my lifestyle and budget are undergoing massive reinvention. I attended three genealogy conferences this fall and find myself sneaking up on the confidence needed to go pro. New career? At 72? I met a mature younger woman at one genealogy conference who waxed eloquent about her father who was, in her words, “an elderly Vietnam vet.” I nearly choked on the “elderly” part but kept smiling. My eldest granddaughter started college this year, which made me look at the calendar and count the years, but elderly? We aren’t there yet. The Class of 60 still rocks (no rocking chair retorts, please)!
 
Darrell and I (Karen) survived our eight days of round dancing in New Mexico, but it took us a week to recover. Our bodies are telling us that, from now on, we can do the Albuquerque weekend but not the five additional days in Red River. We’ve been going to both for 12 years, and it’s a bittersweet decision, but we know it’s the right one. In August, we decided to “run away” from senior summer camp, loaded the little camper on the truck, and headed to the north rim of the Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, Grand Teton, Craters of the Moon, and Colorado National Monument to see what it would be like to visit without kids and grandkids in tow. We camped in primitive campgrounds and enjoyed the scenery. This past winter, we danced our shoes off in Mesa, Ariz., and, for the first time in two years, I had no back pain. We hoped to be there in March when our two new great-grandchildren turned 1. They keep their mother and two aunts (our three granddaughters) and grandmother (our daughter) very busy. We look forward to traveling to Florida in May for the graduations of our son’s older daughter, who is to receive an associate’s degree, and his second daughter, who is to graduate from high school and possibly attend the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs.
 
While Nancy Diess was on Caribbean vacation, a neighbor blacked out from heat exhaustion, smashed his car into their garage, and demolished the door and the rear bumpers of both their cars! The neighbor spent three days in the hospital but was fine. It took two months to get the cars and garage fixed, then Hurricane Irene uprooted two large trees, which thankfully missed their house. The earthquake hit while Nancy was at work on the seventh – top – floor of the National Gallery of Art, but an inspection revealed no damage.

Jayne Linton Ely of Nashville, who only attended Mary Washington for two years and remembers few of the girls, matches names with yearbook photos when she receives our monthly newsflashes. She said it’s interesting to read what women her age are doing and has realized what an active group we are as we push into our 70s. Jayne has belonged to a tennis-lunch bunch-bridge sisterhood for 20 years, and the members spend a week together at Hilton Head Island, S.C., each year. Jayne is in constant communication with her son and daughter, who live in Houston and Denver, but these ladies and their husbands have become her local family, even vacationing together in Europe. She stays in touch with Barbara Ashburn Rodriquez ’61 through Betty Lewis but lost track of her freshman roommate, Sharon Rogers, who transferred to Katharine Gibbs in New York.

Katie Quintus Stanton of Purcellville, Va., is retired. Husband Chick died in 2007, but daughter Kasey lives just six miles away in Bluemont, and Katie sees her and her two children often. Sadly, Patricia Whittaker Hanscom and Willie Burton Calhoun left us last fall.

Page Shafer Frischkorn and Jim, who live on the Chesapeake, weathered the big storm without major repercussions. Page hoped to see Jan Rutan Wright and Joyce Neil Krost at her 55th high school reunion in October. Afterward, Page, a veteran traveler, was to join a small group of close girlfriends, who have traveled together throughout the U.S. and beyond for 25 years, at Bourton-on-the- Water in the Cotswolds, where they rented a cottage. Cyd Day Getchell is raising and training a German shepherd that recently earned Canine Good Citizen and Herding Instinct certifications. Cyd chatted recently with college chums Syd Chichester and Natalie Robins Lehmann-Haupt.

Jane Denslow McCrohan remains bicoastal, due to the continuing state of the housing market, and spent the summer in Kingston, Wash., rather than Point Pleasant Beach, N.J., due to high airline ticket prices. Their New Jersey beachfront property weathered the storms well, and Jane said she has a deal for anyone who’d like to own 50 feet on the Atlantic Ocean close to NYC and Philadelphia. On the other hand, she said, she has an entirely different deal in mind for anyone who’d like to visit the Northwest and bunk for free in the guestroom of their new home with spectacular views of Puget Sound.

Jean Eubanks Holland of Rockville, Md., was bedridden all summer with a twisted pelvis from a fall. During the earthquake, Sarah Forsyth Donnelly of Esmont, Va., thought a helicopter was trying to land on the house, since it was noisy and the house shook. Irene took out their power for several hours but they had no damage and not much rain. Sarah is a genealogy nut, and her family has been diligent in keeping records, except for the French Canadians who immigrated to Louisiana. (Jody, Cyd, and Kay Neese Smith are into genealogy, too.) Sarah’s four grandchildren (and some of their parents) visited during the summer and had a wonderful time, except when the AC went out overnight.

Sandy Poole of Maryland’s Eastern Shore survived the hurricane with less damage than an ordinary nor’easter would cause. Sandy leads a prayer group at a nursing home and hopes to start groups in all four area nursing homes. She planned a short trip to Poland in October with a friend who lives in Sweden. Betty Ditmars Prosser of New York fared well during Hurricane Irene, which struck farther west, but the summer weather was erratic – hot and humid one moment, and cool and fall-like the next. She said she’d take long cold winters anytime over tornadoes, severe thunderstorms, f loods, and hurricanes!

Molly Watson Womble of Clearwater, Fla., has been a widow for seven years, still lives in her house, and feels lucky that no hurricanes have touched them. Molly is a quilter, volunteers at church, does needlepoint, and gardens when it’s not too hot. Her oldest daughter lives in North Carolina, has two boys in college, and is an elementary school teacher. Molly is thankful that her youngest daughter, who has a 16-year old and a 2-year old and teaches in a private school, lives nearby. Molly has talked to suitemates Nancy McGinnis Barto and Shelby Davis Porter and said it doesn’t seem possible that more than 50 years have passed.

Gail Picard Bonifay suffered through one of the worst Oklahoma summers ever but escaped the heat for 10 August days by taking their sons and families on an Alaskan cruise. They got together again in San Diego to celebrate son Brett’s retirement from the Navy. Barbara Wageneck Gardner of Texas has been in the same house for 32 years. Her daughter, who moved back from New England, is close to her, and her son is in San Antonio. Being a widow has been challenging, and she travels a lot less now but still volunteers at the hospital and is in two Bible study groups. Syd Collson Chichester had cataract surgery, one eye at a time. She was terrified the first time, but the second one wasn’t even as bad as being in the dentist’s chair. Syd had news from Patty Morgan Connelly, who visited Jane Choate Lorentz on Cape Cod. Jane had hip surgery but, apparently, is doing well. Syd also talked with Travey Moncure Evans, who sounded good, with her usual upbeat, infectious laughter, and loves living in New York City, going to plays, and having everything she needs within a block or so. Syd said Travey, though born in Fredericksburg, has become a true New Yorker.

Mona Allen Spilo moved from Armonk, N.Y., to Stonington, Conn., in September. Sue Smith Goodrick of North Carolina had to clean up tree limbs and debris and was without power for a couple of days after Hurricane Irene, but a home generator filled the gap. She took a European river barge cruise late last summer and enjoyed the city stops, good food and wine, company, and adventures. Susan Archer Hinzman was checking on their place on the coast in Morehead City, N.C., but hadn’t heard back. Liz Hill Heaney and Tucker Freeman Viccellio, also in North Carolina, were too far inland to experience anything more than rain.

Keep those cards, letters, emails, and phone calls coming, ladies. Jody and I love hearing from you – and so do your classmates. Please let us know if you want to be on our email list so we can keep you updated every month.