Class Notes

Thank you all for responding to the post card that alerted you to send class news. We are all busy in December but I appreciated you taking the time to write. I still don’t have a computer in my home but my cell phone has many features that I am still learning to use. Your notes were clear and I tried to not delete any of them. Staff at AT&T has always been helpful tome in answering my questions.

Julia Harris Porter wrote that she had spent three quarters of a year in 1967 in Australia, and she returned there briefly in November of 2015. She has a first cousin there, and this is the second time she met her three sisters. Julia and her sisters visited the Great Barrier Reef and, after Cairns, spent a week in Sydney.

I spoke with Carol Lehmann, and she shared that she traveled in August of 2015 to Oxford, England, for the third time to participate in Michigan State University’s Odyssey to Oxford, a two week continuing education program that is in its 32nd year at Oxford. This year she took a course in the English Civil War and took trips to various sites of interest. Her garden club is planning a trip to the English Cotswolds this coming June to visit gardens, and she is looking forward to a return trip to England.

Frances Karins Updike and her husband Bud have moved permanently to the west coast of Florida where they have many friends from their past and new ones. She sees a few MWC gals frequently from younger classes. Days pass rapidly with swimming, biking, and hours spent in her studio painting in water color. Their Sarasota area is steeped in culture, so many educational opportunities. Her roommates, Jerry Sample Stocks and Carol Ann La Salle McMahon Roberts come with husbands for a great visit each February, where they catch up with each other’s busy lives. They have had these reunions since their 55th. She said, “We are aging, but well, gratefully.” Something we all hope to do.

Another “traveler” in our class, Fay Parke Cantrell and her husband Alex enjoy good health and continue to travel extensively. In June they took a cruise down the Rhine River starting in Amsterdam and traveling through Germany and France. They plan a cruise in June of 2016 going to Barcelona. While at home she volunteers, raising many flowers which she takes to Hospice patients. Her husband raises golden (white) retrievers. She enjoys hearing from UMW friends.

Jerry Sample Stocks is enjoying her life after she graduated in 2013 from college with a degree Studio Art, and she is now an assistant art teacher at Holy Trinity Classical School on a part-time basis. She is looking forward to getting together with Fran and Carol Ann and their husbands. Their friend, Mary McCardell Furr, and her husband John have both passed away.

When I read Elinor Runge Vitek’s note I had to laugh, she began by saying “Susannah, I guess you didn’t know this was a lifetime appointment.” Life was simple, I received notes, used a manual typewriter, and made a carbon copy of the notes. Now I am at the library using Word. I have my cell phone which can do most anything, but I need the program changed so it will stop going black within five seconds. I have the 1958 yearbook to check MWC names. I remember when at least three of you advised me I should do the class notes; we were at a party at the motel. I think I had just moved back to Virginia from St. Louis, Missouri in 1986.

Elinor saw Martha Kimball and Betsy Smith at the last reunion. Betsy is in Florida. Elinor and Brant are still in Annandale, Virginia. She spoke about spending time in Cotswolds. Elinor is looking forward to Aruba in February. She said we are now placed in the 1908 and onward group, which I do not understand. I hope to make it to the next event in 2016.

Lucinda West Preston shared that her sister, Cynthia West Benney, was diagnosed with cancer July 2014 and after chemo, radiation, and surgery, the cancer returned to the liver. She passed away on September 24, 2015. Our thoughts and prayers go out to Lucy.

Judy Townsend Brainbridge has been busy traveling in an elders-hostel program with scholars for five days in Iowa with “Utopian Communities” and a second trip to Crisfield, Maryland, for “The Best of the Chesapeake.” She has a book published, which is a history of Greenville since 1786.

Mary Lou Morris Wolsey provided an extensive update of her life and family, so I am going to hold her update for the next publication of the UMW Magazine.

Loretta Hutchings Tate reported that she is living at Harbourway, the assisted living wing of Atlantic Shores Retirement Community in Virginia Beach. A health problem a year and a half ago left her wheelchair bound. Other than not being able to walk, she said she is doing great. She enjoys her three grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. She enjoys keeping up with her roommate, Mary Virginia Garrett Wadsworth, and suite mates Sara Daly Rothenberger and Frances Ferguson Rowan. She retired after 20 years working for U.S. Senator John Warner, and she loved every minute working in the Senate Office.

Kay Martin Britto has had some very happy experiences lately: A trip to Paris with her 18-year-old grandson who graduated from Collegiate and is now at VT; attendance at the wedding of her oldest grandson in Richmond; and a recent visit from MWC roommate, Anne de Porey McGrath.

Mary Lou Morris Wolsey and her husband, Wayne, are now in their ninth decade. They took an Atlantic coastal cruise with the Michigan State Alumni Association, seeing many interesting places including Spain, the Isle of Guernsey, and Normandy, and they met Julie and David Eisenhower. He spoke at the D-Day 60th Anniversary Ceremony in June. Mary Lou and Wayne have tried to visit most U.S. states and most U.S. capitols. Their son, Roger, is a Methodist minister and daughter Carole is still doing special education work. She and Wayne are also involved with their grandchildren. Mary Lou is still involved with the Minnesota Chapter of the American Association of Teachers of French, coordinating its website and serving as message service guru. Mary Lou sent information about family members which, with her permission, I will report in the next issue of UMW magazine.

For me, 2015 had its ups and downs. The owner of my apartment building suggested that I move to a first floor apartment, as I had 17 steps to get to my second floor apartment (which I did not mind but I agreed to move to the first floor). Two of my cats died, and my position at BHS ended so I “retired,” and now I am finding myself.