If you prefer to submit Class Notes by mail, send to:

UMW Magazine – Class Notes
1301 College Ave.
Fredericksburg, VA 22401

1961

Renee Levinson Laurents (A-L)
arjle@aol.com

Lynne Williams Neave (M–Z)
lyneave@aol.com

[Editors’ note: With this issue, we thank retiring class agent Connie Booth Logothetis for her long service to her classmates and alma mater.] 

From Lynne: 

I had hoped that by the time I submitted this, the dreaded virus would be history. Sadly that isn’t the case, but we do appear to be moving in the right direction with immunization. Maybe by the time you read this we will have received the vaccine. 

I had also hoped that the transition from Connie Booth Logothetis to Renee Levinson Laurents and me, Lynn Williams Neave, would be smooth, but Renee had computer issues and was not able to communicate with classmates A-L. I did hear from quite a few in group M-Z. Here goes! 

Pat Kenny recalled thinking that as a well-rounded human being, one should live in New York City for at least two years. But after living in Washington, D.C., and Baltimore, Maryland, she got her dream job at the National Institutes of Health and settled in Silver Spring, Maryland, without ever living in NYC. As for the pandemic, she wrote, “The sooner we all listen to the scientists, the sooner we will all get through this era on Planet Earth together.” 

Lloyd Tilton Backstrom and Art spend half their time in Hertford, North Carolina, with their two pups. They meet up with friends – masked and outdoors – about once a month on the grounds of a museum in Richmond, Virginia. They mentally replay past trips and look forward to working on their travel bucket list once it’s safe. 

Marcy Trembath Pitkin lives in a 17th floor apartment in Philadelphia. New cat Butterscotch keeps her amused. 

Jane Riles will stay in San Diego until the virus calms down. 

Graham Walker Burns sadly lost sister Ann Walker Abney ’58 to COVID in September 2020, and that made her very scared and careful. She has enjoyed more family time, not less, since the pandemic began. Son Jim and family came from London, England, to Lookout Mountain for four months during lockdown. Daughter May and family have moved to Lookout Mountain from New York. Now five of her seven children live near her. Graham has continued to work as a real estate agent, but showing houses has been a challenge. For Christmas, Graham lit her 100-foot-tall dawn redwood tree with 1,200 lights. She says, “Just call me Clark Griswold!” 

Debbie Phinney Stoke is following masking and distance guidelines and volunteers with her local food pantry packing boxes and answering the phone. She misses contacts with clients. She also misses tennis. Two grandchildren virtually graduated from college last spring, and two more were to graduate this spring. 

[Editors’ note: Lynne Williams Neave and Renee Levinson Laurents also prepared notes for the online-only fall/winter 2020 issue. We republish a shortened version here.] 

Connie Booth Logothetis fractured a vertebra and spent time in a hospital and rehab, sometimes in pain. She couldn’t have visitors, so she and Andy communicated by phone. 

Sadly, Jean Ryan Farrell passed away May 22. She is survived by her husband, Frank, and three children. Jane Riles’ husband, Jim Dietz, passed away Feb. 13. 

From Connie’s group (Lynne Williams Neave reporting): 

Clara Sue Durden Ashley and Clarence had a visit from son Park and his three oldest children. They looked forward to a summertime visit from son Dennis and family, visiting from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where Dennis works for the Navy. Soon after that visit, the Ashleys planned to drive to Beavercreek, Ohio, for granddaughter Anwyn’s senior recital – originally scheduled for spring but delayed by coronavirus. Anwyn and another granddaughter, Abby, graduated from high school in 2020.

Pepper Jacobs Germer and Hank were fortunate not to have been touched by a category 3 tornado in March that flattened 600 homes, a mall, and an airport in Jonesboro, Arkansas. They were obeying COVID rules and actually enjoying staying home. 

The pandemic curtailed Jeri Barden Perkins’ travel plans for Italy, Mexico, and Greece. She stayed home but enjoyed Zoom classes, especially those from UMW. She wrote: “The pandemic has offered me the opportunity of using my voice for my community, the university, and NPR. It has taught me that I can live with less and have even greater appreciation for what I have. During the AIDS epidemic I was on the front lines seeing patients in a free clinic. During this pandemic I was afforded the opportunity of using my voice and the importance and power of messaging.” 

Maddy Contis Marken cleaned the refrigerator, scrubbed the shower stall, and baked bread. “Now that those chores are done, I probably won’t do them again for a long time,” she wrote. She took up sketching, reconditioned her bike, and has worked part time doing telehealth. 

From Renée: 

Mary Hatcher shared some pandemic and mask-wearing observations: “You have not lived unless you have had your hair cut wearing a mask, but it can be done. If you wear hearing aids, as I do, taking them out is the only way to wear both a mask and sunglasses at the same time.” On a much sadder note, she lost a sister-in-law to a non-COVID issue, and was heartbroken that her brother was not able to be with his wife while she was in the hospital for nine weeks. 

Margaretta Kirksey Bir was glad her Alabama county was requiring masks. Both of her daughters have autoimmune diseases, and her son-in-law and son’s oldest daughter have severe allergies. She was angry that mask-wearing had been turned into a freedom of speech issue, and that the U.S. hadn’t been able to devise strategies to contain the virus. “Once Americans went to the moon; now we can’t even go to Europe,” she wrote. 

Residents of Marcia Minton Keech’s retirement community in Winchester, Virginia, decided to grow vegetables in cottage gardens and on balconies as a way of coping with quarantine. Now they all have plenty of fresh vegetables, and the dining chef is thrilled! Marcia and Bill were faring well but missed seeing their children. 

Sandra Judkins Armitage was at Mary Washington for just two years but enjoys reading our class news. The pandemic brings thoughts of her grandmother, who lost two children to the 1918 flu. 

Betty Pace Rose attended Mary Washington for a year and loved living in Trench Hill even though the distance from other residence halls made it difficult to meet many people. 

Like many of you I, Renée Levinson Laurents, am finding quarantine just not easy. I read a lot, watch TV a lot (including Hamilton – Lin-Manuel Miranda is beyond gifted). My book club now meets on Zoom. A friend since junior high school lives nearby in Santa Monica, and I visit her and her husband in their large backyard, sitting 10 feet apart. I also escape these four walls by taking a drive-through lunch to the ocean and gazing out at the Pacific. My cats help a lot. 

Sadly, in May my cute little rescue dog ran out as I got the mail. A huge husky attacked her before I could get to her, and even with surgery the emergency veterinarian was not able to save her. The attack happened one year to the day after my dog Buddy died. The universe is telling me not to get another dog, I guess. 

From Lynne: 

I have been extremely fortunate during these hard times to escape New York City for a place in northern Connecticut. There are marvelous places to hike, plus I have great neighbors for occasional distant socializing. 

Sue Wilson Sproul, husband Dave, and dog Cooper returned to Virginia to be near three children and three grandchildren. They moved to a continuing-care community on the south side of Richmond in January and barely got to know other residents before the shutdown in March. Sue observed Richmond’s removals of Confederate statues with interest. She wrote, “Yes, Monument Avenue was ‘lovely’ to our eyes, but we have been insensitive to what [the statues] represent to so many others. Time marches on.” 

Lynne Wilson Rupert started 2020 with a cruise to Mexico to celebrate her 80th birthday and thought it was going to be a great year. She wrote, “Well, it has certainly turned out to be a memorable one!” 

Janie Riles doesn’t leave the house for anything. She plays online bridge and signed up for a Cornell Lab of Ornithology online class to learn about the birds in her garden. She enjoys Zoom sessions with artist groups. And she’s finally cleaned out her garage. 

Elizabeth “Bitsy” Wright Coxe has used her pandemic confinement to watch operas streamed from the Met Opera and art history lessons via the Frick Museum. She’s been reading a book a week, tending her orchids, cooking more than she has in years, and walking every day in her country neighborhood. 

Polly Updegraff Champ’s husband, Dan, had a hard 2019 with vision, hearing, and health issues, and they didn’t go to Florida for the first time in 22 years. They stayed in Connecticut and have had a lot of help from Polly’s stepdaughter, Theresa. 

Eleanore Saunders Sunderland had to learn how to walk again after a broken pelvis and two surgeries on the same hip. Daughter Jane moved in for a time to help and still comes once a week to do Eleanore’s shopping, though Eleanore is now comfortable alone. As for Eleanore’s other children, Jude, who lives in Milan, had come out of lockdown but still couldn’t travel. Willard was able to be with family in Cincinnati while doing grant-funded research on 18th-century Russian history. 

Peggy Howard Hodgkins had completed a 14-day Panama Canal cruise and was in Palm Springs visiting a niece when the pandemic forced her to cut her winter travels short and head back to Maine. In May son Greg and his wife joined Peggy in her lake house for two months of quarantining together. They had weekend visits from grandchildren and great-grands. Peggy’s sister Jean and family spent time in July at her camp next door, and sister Joanne and her husband visited for two weeks.