Class Notes

Hello, one and all. My apologies for the lapse in news. It seems we all stay too busy.

I saw Gale Mattox and Kathy Deneke Clatanoff at an October UMW cocktail party in Annapolis, Md. Gale planned a trip to Germany and is in touch with Debbie Gill, Susan Hanson Roberts, and Eileen Reynolds Cantoni. Kathy and husband Bud downsized from a house in Alexandria, Va., to a condo in downtown Annapolis, where they can walk almost everywhere and sometimes go weeks without driving. One grown child lives in Italy, the other in Arkansas, and Kathy and Bud try to visit at least once a year. It’ll be fun having them in Baltimore when they get a chance to visit.

Many girls from the third-floor front of Virginia Hall spent a November weekend in the Nelson County mountains. Shirley Harris Sutton hosted Nancy Mahone Miller, Mary Saunders Williams, Terri Hall Alford, and Martha Stansell Vogel in her mountain home near Roseland, Va. Brenda Franklin, Anne Toms Richardson, and Ilona Kardos Tonelson, visiting from her Wintergreen mountain retreat, also attended. They caught up with Laurie Clark Crigler, who many hadn’t seen since graduation, in Charlottesville. Highlights included buying apples in Piney River and Gouda from nuns in Crozet. It’s wonderful to hear about these lifelong friendships and annual traditions.

Dennis and I joined Cheryl Prietz Childress and husband Dave at a Fort Frederick Market Fair reenactment last April. The Childresses had reenactments all over the place this past year. Cheryl got requests from organizations for the custom buttons she made for historical costumes. Son Alex works for a Richmond radio station. The Childresses visited daughter Thea and husband Eric in Montreal, where Eric’s company sent him on assignment. They were to be closer to home after the first of the year.

Dennis and I planned to spend part of Thanksgiving weekend at their farm and part of it, as well as Christmas, with my mother, 91, who still drives, gardens, and lives independently. We keep busy with cultural activities in Baltimore. My law firm position remains hectic but satisfying. We vacationed in Portland, Maine, and Boston in June and spent a weekend in Carlisle, Pa., seeing foliage and the Army Heritage Museum.

Would love to hear from more of you, so don’t hesitate to write. I hope you had a happy holiday season and a terrific beginning to