Class Notes

Good wishes to all in the Class of ’64. There were several emails with reports of family, travels, work, home, visits with classmates, and health on the mend.

Connie Marsh Pollard and former roommate Martha Hanks Cooper got together at Martha’s Richmond home in August. They prepared a birthday dinner for Martha Wangler Ryan ’65 and husband Chris. Martha visited the Pollards in Boston in September, and they “almost walked her off her feet” sightseeing. Rough seas canceled their whale-watching expedition. Connie has been trying to contact Ann Everett and keeps in touch with Suzanne Mason Haff ’65, Mary Fitch Harahan ’65, and Anne Plummer Linn ’65.

In June, Carolyn Hawker Ginsberg welcomed grandbaby Alice, who joined cousin Emily, 17 months. Carolyn’s daughters, Sarah and Laura, live close by. Carolyn still works at the University of Connecticut, Stamford, and participates in silent retreats in the Theravada Buddhist tradition in Barre, Mass., and NYC. An accomplished artist and art historian, she engages with her surroundings through drawing.

Ruth Pharr Sayer’s path and mine keep crossing because of our engagement with Convent of the Sacred Heart schools, her in Princeton, N.J., and NYC, and me in Greenwich, Conn. Ruth’s daughter, Lorena, was honored at Sacred Heart, Princeton’s recent 50th anniversary celebration as one of four graduates whose lives embody the goals and criteria of a Sacred Heart education. Ruth and I recommend a new book, Mastering the Art of French Eating by Ann Mah.

I have 27 years of service to Convent of the Sacred Heart schools and in September was named an honorary alumna at the Sacred Heart school in Greenwich. In July, I conducted a tour of Paris with colleagues, visiting the places where Sacred Heart schools were founded. The building that’s now the Rodin Museum belonged to our religious order from 1819 to 1905 and was our first boarding school in Paris. I run an adult education cultural program at Sacred Heart in Greenwich. This fall we presented sessions on the art of Gustav Klimt, Monet and his garden at Giverny (the water lily paintings), and 18th-century French and Italian “outdoor” painting. Our class took a field trip to the Neue Galerie in NYC to see works by Klimt and Kandinsky.

Barbara Kellam Latham and husband moved from Wilmington, Del., and built a one-story house in Cape Charles, Va., where Barbara grew up and where her older daughter’s and sister’s families live. Their younger daughter lives in London but visits the U.S. often on business. Patti Jones Schacht planned a trip to Northern Ireland but health intervened and she ended up in a hospital instead. She’s fine now. Her interests include genealogy, travel, and community outreach work.

Sandra Eastridge Plummer sent Class Notes news for the first time. She and husband Tom love to travel and have son Tom Jr. After 32 years teaching fourth and fifth grades, she at last has granddaughter Darcy. Sandra keeps in touch with Jean Chewning Rayman, with whom she sat up many a night preparing for UMW Professor Emeritus of English Reginald W. Whidden’s tests on Shakespeare, Nancy Hewetson Cooke, Patricia Paytes, and Jo-Anne Christian Serio, who she saw at their 50th high school reunion.

Susan Orebaugh Nicholson is excited for our 50th reunion in May! Her oncologist visits are scheduled every six months, down from every three. She traveled to Colombia last February, visiting Bogota, Medellin, and Cartagena. Susan said her MWC Spanish classes came in handy.

Lou Davis Smith of Fairfax, Va., and husband David have a son, a daughter, and six grandchildren, and they all spend time at their Lake Anna cottage. Lou and David got hooked on sightseeing when they were stationed in Europe for four years. They’ve visited every continent except Antarctica, 49 countries, and all 50 states. They traveled to Australia, New Zealand, and Fiji in November 2012, and cruised the Elbe River in Germany and visited Dresden last July.

Lou said Jackie Williams Towler and her husband moved to Allentown, Pa., to be closer to son John. Sharon Belknap Brown lives in Leonardtown, Md., Jean Fornes Wendt is in Midlothian, Va., and Clara Forlines Conner is in Greensboro, N.C.

Professional actress, singer, and spokeswoman Ilona Dulaski-Williams has worked in theater since graduating from Mary Washington. She played Dorothea in Eleemosynary by Lee Blessing at the Compass Rose Theater in Annapolis, Md., last May and recently played Susan in a staged reading of Dire Wolves by Kristen LePine, UMW adjunct instructor of theatre and dance, at Spooky Action Theater in Washington, D.C. She also does voiceovers and commercials for political notices in Virginia and Maryland. Her Cantanti  Ensemble trio performs opera at retirement homes, festivals, and restaurants. Ilona was elected a delegate to the newly merged union of SAG-AFTRA in Los Angeles in September.

My former freshman roommate, Sally Crenshaw Witt, and I continue our extensive correspondence, which by now must rival that of the great 18th-century letter writers whose lengthy correspondence filled volumes.

That’s it for now, folks. It’s great hearing from all of you. You may think nothing’s new and life is humdrum, but to the rest of us, it’s all news. I hope to see you at the reunion in late May. In the meantime, keep happy, safe, and well.