Class Notes

The clock is ticking and we are getting very close to our 50^th Class Reunion!  I can’t believe that it will be here in just over one year.  I urge you to come if you are possibly able as it would be great to see each other and to see all of the changes that have been made on campus.  It is amazing what has been done to enhance the looks of our “MWC”!  Our class voted at our last reunion to designate our class gift to benefit the mental health center on campus.   As of this date we have still not met our goal and every donation would be greatly appreciated.

There was not too much news reported to me for this edition.  I think Christmas kind of gets to be a little frantic for many of us and too many people have stopped sending Christmas cards.  However, you can email me anytime with your news!

Donna Accettullo DeNyse is expecting her fourth granddaughter in NY this spring.  Barbara Forgione Tansey is doing well and enjoyed the Outer Banks of NC with her daughter and grandson.  They visited the Currituck Beach Lighthouse and Cape Hatteras.  Lee Howland Hogan has been traveling quite a bit during this last year.  She and Ed visited the Peruvian Amazon and Patagonia and then took a Mediterranean cruise with the family to celebrate their 30^th anniversary.     Susan Duffey DiMaina’s daughter graduated from Johns Hopkins Nursing School with her MSN degree and she is presently working in the Cardiac Care unit at INOVA Fairfax Hospital.  Susie’s husband John’s retirement from the International Monetary Fund made it possible for them to have an unparalleled travel experience. They have rented a flat in Florence, Italy for a year and, as of the end of 2018, are only halfway through this excellent adventure. Last June they started out in Greece (Athens and Santorini) then went on to Rome, Positano, and Florence. The art, history, food and people are exceptional in Florence and its central location has made travel to other places in Italy and other European countries quite easy.  Susie is keeping a blog (lots of pictures, not too much writing!) if anyone is interested in their adventure.  In Oct. I took a river cruise from Nice to Paris and enjoyed the wonderful weather and sights.  John and I are planning to move in June to an over 55 community just across the river in Stafford. It is tough to move after living in a house for 39 years!

In June our class celebrated our 45^th reunion sharing memories of the past and learning about the future of Mary Washington. Since then you received a postcard asking you to send me your news for Class Notes.  As your Class Notes agent, I encourage you to take time to send at least two or three sentences once a year. Let’s stay in touch.

Our four-year-old granddaughter was in her first dance recital and stole the show when, in her enthusiasm at “9 o’clock rock”, her tap shoe flew off and she spent most of the dance putting it back on, only to jump up and rejoin the dance in progress. There she was all smiles and a look of determination. The audience went wild and applauded loudly.  In August we explored Alaska on the Alaska Railroad. Starting in Fairbanks we covered the 600 miles to Seward with incredible stops along the way.  While we were in Alaska sister Grace Hines Sorey ’70 traveled with Bill to Norway. We both took tours crossing the Arctic Circle within hours of each other – just in different countries.  Spent time with Anne Bevins Cooper, Jeanne Coats Black, Virginia Davey Addison and others at the Richmond Alumni meeting in October.  Anne and husband Jerry also traveled in Alaska this summer, taking a cruise. Virginia and Will enjoyed a trip to Maine; otherwise they are devoted to their five grandchildren. I recently learned that friend and fellow parishioner, Sally Smith, is a graduate of the class of 1958. Sally is an energetic world traveler.

Marianne Schwartz Reed:  I retired a year ago last October from my job in a mental health clinic, where over a 35-year period I was privileged to have the opportunity to work in many different areas to serve people in my community. My husband Smokey and I are lucky to be able to have time to travel, read, go to music concerts, sleep late, and when the mood hits us, to pare down our possessions! We enjoy our families more, who are spread out around the country, because we have the time to get in the car and go see them! We are putting more balance in our life, including a daily water yoga class. After breaking a shoulder, the spring before I retired, I am determined to have no more falls!  Some of my various step children are grandparents, one of my nieces has a baby coming soon. I am putting my faith in the young new generation to battle all the battles. I am nostalgic about all the concerts I managed to attend: The Doors in 1967, The Allman brothers in 1971, Ella Fitzgerald in 1978, Placido Domingo in 1982, Bonnie Raitt in 1990, John Prine many times, James Taylor, Joan Baez, and many more.  It is a good feeling look back and feel good about it all, knowing that one of the major foundations of my life was the 4 years of freedom I had at Mary Washington. It is great to anticipate future concerts and adventures and new friends and family.

Diane Smith reports that she finally retired in March 2018 from the fast paced world of academic librarianship at George Mason University. She and her husband, Steve, sold their Great Falls house in April, and moved to Westmoreland County to a house on Rappahannock River. The nearest town has one stop light…after you pass through the town! It is lovely no longer being in the daily grind of living and commuting in Northern Virginia.  In June she hosted an “old girls” reunion with Pam McGahagin and Pat Denton’s daughter, Kate; it was bittersweet but healing for all. In August she and Steve traveled to Thailand to visit their son, daughter in law, and two grandsons, ages 2 and 4 months. She reports that Bangkok is an amazing city and the Thai culture is a welcoming one.

Bev Hayes Vaughn is now a grandmother. Sloane Ella Shafer was born to daughter Amanda and her husband, Ben, on Jan. 8.

Wendy Francis wrote from the Sunshine Coast of British Columbia near Vancouver where she moved in 2016.  She intended to work less, but has been the Executive Director of the Sunshine Coast Community Foundation.  She plans to retire in about three years.  She stays in contact with Robin Rimmer Hurst and spent New Year’s with her family in Mexico.

Patti Finnamore Wingfield, Margaret Spivey and Ann Chryssikos McBrooom traveled to Virginia Beach in January to visit Robin Hotchkin Warren at her beautiful condo two blocks from the beach!  The weather was fine to walk to the ocean, shop a little and have some great food.

Lundy Baker Updike had a bit of a Hallmark/Folgers Coffee Christmas (remember those teary ads?) with one son coming in by plane, another one by train, and the third by car. They decorated the house with everything they could find, baked too many cookies, cheesecakes, and breads, and had a wonderful time! Next year they are wondering about a destination holiday, but where to go? She and Jim are planning round two of house improvements (siding, windows – all the exciting stuff) which will fit in and around a late-spring trip to California to visit son Tom as well as a few warm weeks down south.

Mary Ruth Burton is still at the helm of Burton-Fuller Management, an organizational development and executive coaching firm she started 32 years ago in Richmond.  Their clients are all over the country.  She is now grandmother to three under two as her son and his wife had boy/girl twins who are not quite two and a new baby boy in November.  Christmas was a blast as she gave the twins tap shoes!  She and her husband and enjoy their house in Irvington when not working in Richmond.  Dawn Hill and her husband visited Mary Ruth at the river this past summer.  They are planning a sailing trip to Spain this summer.  She saw Hannah Patterson Crew at Christmastime.  She and Todd have a grandson, Winston Crew Johnson, born to daughter Elizabeth and husband Chris on December 12^th.  Hannah retired last fall and loves it.  It gives her the time to visit daughter Emily and husband Brandon in St. Petersburg, FL and help with Winston, too.

Eva Grace is still working at the American College of Cardiology in DC.  She and her husband Brett, son John and his fiancée Noelle recently visited her sister Ellen Jaronczyk,’70, in Williamsburg.  They are busy planning John and Noelle’s July wedding.

Ann Singleback Devereux is enjoying retirement in Ashburn, VA, and likes having her kids visit.  Her daughter Allison is in her 11^th year of teaching elementary strings in Fairfax County.  Daughter Meredith is a television news producer in Baltimore at WBFF.  Her son Andrew. UMW ’12, is working at REI in Woodbridge and finishing his MS in Urban Planning at Tech in Alexandria.  Ann is in 2 book clubs, spends time exploring Loudoun County and sleeping late!

Jan Biermann wrote that she was let go at work back in March ’18 and thinks she might have to declare herself retired.  This is earlier than she planned, but she is going to try to enjoy life while she can.  Her boyfriend of 10 years had a knee replacement, so she is helping nurse him back to health. Jan’s former roommate, Carolyn Roberts, is retiring in March after 40 years in the commercial banking industry.  She is looking forward to lots of travel and spending time with friends.  She has a trip planned to Chile and Easter Island in April with hiking and biking!

Henry and I celebrated our daughter Anna’s marriage here in Fairfax to Abel Ferreira Mendes who hails from Paris last August.  He just completed his master’s degree in philosophy.  They have settled here in Northern Virginia.  She recently started a consulting job in the food industry.  She has been a chocolatier for the past 3 years.  Our older two children William and Ellen and their spouses are also in Northern Virginia and we often see them and our four grandchildren.  It is a blessing to have our family close by and I think it keeps us young.  Might be wishful thinking on my part!

Margaret Nichols Honeycutt moved to Richlands, Virginia, with her husband Don in June 2016 to practice General Pediatrics under the flagship of Lifepoint Hospitals in a large multispecialty clinic serving several surrounding counties in Virginia and West Virginia.  Don died in August 2017 after a long battle with congestive heart failure. His stepson and grandchildren were loving and attentive, Maggie was with him when he died, and his passing was bittersweet. Maggie bought a small home near the Clinch Valley Medical Center, 3 minutes from work, and enjoys living in a neighborhood..  She is active in a Pentecostal church and local Bible study, has begun travelling a bit, and is learning how to be engaged in life after being consumed by caretaker responsibilities.

Janice Wenning, husband Brad Stewart and their Schipperke Blaze continue to split their time between their home in Berkeley, CA, Ambergris Caye, Belize, and exploring the USA and Canada during their annual cross-country driving trips from California to Virginia and New Hampshire (hoping to do the Summer of 2019 trip in a Class B Sprinter RV).  Janice continues with her online consignment business (helping folks downsize by finding new homes for their treasures) and continues to volunteer for Seacology, a non-profit that supports conservation projects on islands world-wide.

Life has really been busy since we last reported.  Washington Capitals had a great year winning their first ever Stanley Cup.  Happy to report that my husband Tom and I enjoyed attending the games and cheering our team to victory.

Carol Mills, who retired from full-time teaching in 2014, continues to work part-time for Prince William County Schools. In the fall of 2018, she took on an adjunct position with Old Dominion University in order to supervise a student teacher. Carol continues to be an avid baseball fan and enjoyed going to the All-Star game, hosted by her favorite team, the Nationals. Besides attending concerts and theatrical performances, the highlight of 2018 was a tour of Italy with her church choir.

Martha Weaver Campbell writes to say she and her husband Dave enjoy their 3 grandchildren and are so glad they live close enough to help out when needed.  She continues to keep busy with her business, Trinity Title but she is encouraging Dave to retire after more than 35 years with Lowes.  In 2017 she started the Weaver-Vaden Cousin Reunion, hosting 3 generations of cousins for a weekend and has happily watched cousins from 5 states come together to catch up and enjoy family, food and fellowship.  Martha says it has strengthened those bonds and now they all connect with each other on facebook almost daily as well as more visits in person

Pamela Brown writes, “Our mothers tried to warn us~ time speeds up as you age, and this year has flown by. The passing of some good friends reminds us to enjoy life as much as possible as we go along… so while I do the occasional 75 hr week in application support, I also make sure to take ALL of my vacation days.  The biggest batch this year was used in May for cruising on Carnival Vista’s inaugural journey out of Trieste, to Croatia, Montenegro, Greece (Athens & Crete), Malta, Italy (Sicily, Rome, Florence), Marseilles ( with tour/tasting at Chateauneuf du Pape vineyard), and ending in Barcelona in time to join the street celebration of team Barca winning an all-Spain championship.  My roomie on this trip was a cruisepal who lives in Edinburgh – Scotland, not VA~ hadn’t seen her in years, and we enjoyed hanging with my many office friends who were also enjoying the inaugural cruise. I still had enough leave left for a long weekend for the opening of Ortanique restaurant at the Cliff Hotel in Negril Jamaica.  A handful of friends & I are great fans of Chef Cindy Hutson and her partner Delius Shirley (and dine at Ortanique in Coral Gables at least once a month), so we were very happy to see a LOT of positive press coverage for them. And then there was Fantasy Fest in Key West… Halloween for adults.  While what happens at Fantasy Fest stays at Fantasy fest~ I will admit I stopped well short of going the body-paint route. But I highly recommend it for anyone who still has ‘body issues’ – you will see bigger smaller wider thinner taller shorter and EVERYONE is having a fabulous time.  I was with a handful of friends in a group theme, and we came in 4^th at Sloppy Joe’s costume contest. Thanksgiving was spent quietly with a few friends – and then the town exploded on Black Friday with news that Fidel Castro was dead {some pointed out the irony of prime socialist passing on the most capitalistic of ‘holidays’). I think some Cuban friends are still celebrating down at Versailles restaurant ; Between that and a new president, it will be interesting to see what happens in the coming year (Folks might want to take advantage of Fathom cruises or flights to Havana soon, just in case we go back to embargo-era tactics!)  Whichever way the wind blows – I wish all the best to my friends!

Rebecca DelCarmen Wiggins, Ph.D. wrote that she recently joined the Office of Research on Women’s Health in the Office of the Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), working to address the sex and gender imbalance in biomedical research. She is in her 28^th year working at NIH. After receiving her BA degree at Mary Washington, she earned a master’s at Catholic University and a Ph.D. at Ohio State University.  After teaching briefly at American University and Georgetown University, she began her career at NIH. Married to Stephen E. Wiggins, M.D. (a graduate of the Medical College of Virginia) for 25 years, they have two children, Daniel, 23, and Elizabeth, 20.  They moved to Potomac, Maryland from DC in 2016.  She added, “I recently visited Mary Washington and was so happy to see how the campus has grown.  It is in many ways just the way I remembered it but even better! The library is very nice, and I did some reading in a quiet corner of the 2^nd floor while I was visiting. It is great that it is open to the public and to alumni.”

Dr. Keith Littlefield and Ellen Erskine Littlefield’s daughter, Katie Littlefield, was married at the beautiful UMW Jepson Executive Alumni Center on Oct. 27, 2018. The UMW a cappella group “One Note Stand” performed the Australian Football League ‘Richmond Tigers’ fight song for a surprised and enthusiastic groom Will Mosley. Grandmother Mary Jo Lacey Littlefield (MWC Class of 1953), attended as did Keith’s twin brother Michael Littlefield (Class of 1983). Glenn Markwith (Class of 1976) ably represented early male residents of Trench Hill – the hub of the Jepson Alumni Center. Katie and Will reside in Melbourne Australia.

Gayle Weinberger Petro wrote that Lisa Bratton Soltis was recognized with an award for her economic development efforts as “Small Business Advocate of the Year” by the Roanoke Regional Chamber. Gayle added that Lisa Carle Shields has retired and is now living at Smith Mt. Lake. Nancy Quaintance Nelles retired as well from teaching. She went with Donna Anaya and her brother and friend to the National Parks out west this past summer. Nancy and Karin Hedberg also went to St. Kitts in the West Indies the week after Thanksgiving.

We hope everyone in the Class of ’79 has May 31-June 2, 2019 on your calendars for our 40^th Reunion. You won’t want to miss it!