Class Notes

I hope everyone had a good 2017 and has a healthy 2018! Please send me your news and updated email address! I spent 5 weeks in October and November on a cruise circumnavigating Australia. It’s an amazing country, but the trip was too long for me and the ship too big!. This summer I’m taking a more manageable cruise around the British Isles on a small ship for just two weeks. Suzanne Mason Haff writes that she received a new knee in September and has a new lease on life. She and Martha Hanks Cooper (’64) went on a Road Scholar excursion in Key West in late January. Suzanne and husband Pete’s daughter and her husband live in Canberra, Australia where they work at ANU in biology. They have two children.Their son Jesse, and his girlfriend of 14 years live in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. She is a practicing psychologist and he is founder and VP of NationBuilder. Suzanne and Pete live in Chapel Hill, NC. Suzanne also keeps up with Connie Marsh Pollard (’64) her freshman college roommate in Willard. She is going to Viet Nam for most of the month of January. Lee Smith Musgrave writes that everyone is welcome to stay at her home if they are ever in Blacksburg. Rebecca Tebbs Nunn was crowned the new Ms Virginia Senior America in Falls Church in June of 2017. Nunn performed three selections at her final pageant before relinquishing the crown. She will now take over the reins as the new State Director of the Virginia Senior America Pageant. She and husband Spike, retired American Airlines Captain, travel extensively. Spike is a certified State Planning Commissioner and serves on the Kilmarnock, VA Planning Commission and Rebecca (Becky) continues as the Vice-Mayor. She is serving her third term. Louise Stevens Robbins traveled to Maryland to assist her younger sister Joyce in rehab following back surgery. She stayed with Dianne Copty Fadely, while driving back and forth to the center. Unfortunately, her sister did not recover from numerous infections and died June 8. Meanwhile, Louise had hip replacement surgery in April, followed by a femur break below the hip, requiring another surgery May 5, keeping her homebound. She was inducted into the Wisconsin Library Heritage Hall of Fame in October. The year ended on another sad note, however, as her niece, Denise Elena Boyd (daughter of Donna Stevens Boyd ’62) died while in surgery to receive a third liver transplant. Martha Jo Dillard Walters writes that she is in several book clubs, does volunteer work, participates in choral groups, and travels. Her son and his family live in Hickory, a short trip from her in Charlotte, and she enjoys her four grandchildren from a comfortable distance! In March she went on a mission trip to Haiti. In July she celebrated the 50th wedding anniversary of her roommate, Katharine Dodd Hardin, and her husband Ennis at their home in Southport. In October she traveled with UMW Alumni on The Portrait of Italy excursion. Joanne Lott Byrne retired from Northrop Grumman in 2010. she is doing more traveling, a lot of it to visit either Dick’s or her grandchildren. This fall, she went on a Royal Caribbean cruise to New England, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia. She also has been doing some oil painting and traveled to northern Italy to do some landscape painting in the small picturesque towns. She keeps in touch with her roommate from senior year, Marcia Pexton Peura ’66 who now lives in California with her husband, Ed. Janice Deane Helvey Robinson and husband Rob are still enjoying their retirement in suburban Atlanta. Both of their children live in the Atlanta area sot they get to visit with them often. Their oldest grandchild, Katie, is now at UGA in Athens. Their other three grandkids are 5, 8, and 10 so college is a long way off for them. She and Rob spent a week in the Salt Lake City area in May and did lots of touring, including an overnight visit to the Arches National Park. In the fall, they visited Deadwood, SD, for a week and also traveled to Hilton Head for a week of marathon bridge. Evie King Cox and husband Herb continue to live in the beautiful Northern Neck of Virginia on the Coan River. They grow oysters and crab off of their dock. Alice Funkhouser Flowers’s husband George died in 2017. She is keeping busy and still doing archives, publications and special projects at St. Christopher’s School. Her children and grandchildren live in Raleigh, Holly Springs, NC, and Oden, MD. She sees Gail Owen and Martha Ryan periodically, as well as several of the 1964 MWC alums. Kathryn Burruss Stapleton (Kitty) and husband Dan still love living in their log house on Bull Run Mountain. They keep busy by volunteering in the community and at church. They also enjoy visits with their younger son and his family who live only eight miles away and their older son and his family who live in Florida. They spent five weeks in Europe traveling from Normandy in France to Kaunas in Lithuania while visiting friends along the way. Judith Strawbridge is a widow after 46 wonderful married years. She and her husband had moved to Morehead City, NC several years ago to be near their oldest daughter, who also happens to be a widow, with two children aged 16 and 11. She also visits her youngest son who lives in Kinston, NC and her older son who lives in Benton, Arkansas with his wife and almost 5 year old son. She enjoys cooking for her friends and playing an occasional round of golf, attending book seminars and reading.