Class Notes

As your new class agents, we shout out huge thanks to Linda Eadie Hood and Iris Harrell, who have so ably taken on this responsibility in recent years. We now know how much fun it is, but it does come with some effort! 

Jean Polk Hanky was thankful to isolate with her husband of 48 years in a downsized house near all of their eight children, from whom they received lots of drive-by visits during the pandemic. 

Alec and Betty Olander Adams moved from their farm of 22 years in Maryland to a new farm in Fauquier County, Virginia, last October. “Totally different lifestyle, but glad Alec achieved his dream retirement.” 

Betty’s MWC roommate, Chris Phillips Farhood, and her son, Nick, caught COVID independently in New York City. Nick recovered well, but Chris experienced lingering exhaustion and has shifted her psychotherapy practice to an all-Zoom format. She’s finished her home painting studio and calls painting and cooking her COVID-vanquishers. 

It’s no surprise that Iris Harrell has been busy during the pandemic. She’s on the building committee at her 3,500-home retirement community in California, and they recently completed several major projects. Iris and wife Ann Benson, who will celebrate their 42nd anniversary in May, bought a second home six hours north in Ashland, Oregon, (home of the Shakespeare Festival) to have a place to escape to during the fire season. 

Maria Canizares Daski and Lyn Howell Gray both checked in with us and promised to share in a future issue. 

Debbie Morrison Gibson and husband Frank celebrated their 25th anniversary in 2019. Debbie had a 38-year career as a flight attendant with Pan Am and Delta, and Frank is a retired pilot. Last year Debbie and Anne Hoskot Kreutzer, freshman and sophomore MWC roommates, reconnected. Debbie lives in Arlington, Virginia, a block from where Anne’s family lived when she was in college. 

Dianne Johnson Clover married a Marine and has lived in Texas for 51 years. She retired from teaching, and husband Carl retired from law practice. A planned 2020 cruise to the Baltics was canceled, but they were able to take four of their five grandchildren to Lake Buchanan, in the Hill Country of Texas, for swimming and exploring. 

Pam Hogan Baynard found Roman Art and Architecture while cleaning out her bookshelves during the pandemic. From the inscription “E. Watters, Mason 120, Ext 485,” she realized she’d had roommate Chibba Watters Miller’s book all these years. Chib’s not been looking for it, but she is missing her MWC yearbook, which she thinks she left at a reunion. Anyone have it? 

Carol Greenwood Trejo shared that monthly Zoom mini-reunions have been the thing for classmates Cheryl Ulmer, Tanya Belt Nickson, Judy Farrell Bechtold, Loretta Horgan Nagle, and Jan Desmond Melluzzo. Initiated by Doralece Lipoli Dullaghan ’70, they’ve also included Beverley Clare Coates ’68 and Class of ’70 members Anne Howell Wood, Kirsten Mackey Fleisher, and Darlene Greenhalgh Hines. 

Nancy Yeager Allard and husband Paul moved to the Greenspring retirement community in Springfield, Virginia, close to friends, church, and longtime doctors. Besides downsizing from their home of 42 years, Nancy has volunteered at her church since it reopened and read stories to their 6-year-old grandson via FaceTime. 

Budget cuts took Clare Burke Ardizzone’s job with the campus architect’s office at the University of Illinois at Chicago, but she’s found retirement rewarding – aside from her own bout with COVID. Free time has allowed her to learn more about vocal music and streamline 50 years of possessions. She took a New Year’s trip to Costa Rica with her daughter and son-in-law and the grands. 

Linda Eadie Hood has had a most difficult year, with a long recovery after breaking bones in her leg and foot in a February 2020 fall. By January 2021 she was finally able to walk by herself, but her ankle was still swollen and she was not allowed to drive. Eadie, we know everyone joins us in the sincere hope that by the time you read this in the magazine, you are fully healed. 

Nancy Gleason has done graphite drawing and oil painting for the past six years. During a safari in Africa in October of 2019 her group visited Tanzania and Rwanda, where they saw gorillas in their natural habitat. Nancy and Gary, her partner of 18 years, got in four weeks of skiing out West in February and March 2020, getting home just a few days before Virginia shut down. 

Carolyn Bauer LeJeune and Dave are doing OK but had to cancel a planned trip to the Rotary International Convention in Honolulu. Carolyn was finishing her first year as regent of her DAR chapter. They were hit by two hurricanes this past season, one downing many big trees. They had to go to their daughter’s house for a week. 

Lou Myers Daly and husband Andy got their first COVID shots in January – lucky them! They are amused by the role reversal they are experiencing with their two adult sons, but appreciate the boys’ concern. Lou had a shoulder replacement in late September. Ow ow ow. She hoped to be back on the golf course in March or April. 

Patti Boise Kemp sends love and well wishes to all as we endure the pandemic. “We were fortunate to have our only grandchild, who now lives in Texas, spend nearly seven months with us. Emily came for the summer and stayed to do her first semester of 10th grade virtually. It was a blessing having her with us!” 

Ruth Jones Pierce was in the Class of 1970 but finished a year early with our class. She and her husband have lived in Chesterfield County, Virginia, since 1969. Ruth retired in 2003 after a 33- year career teaching special education. They have two sons and two wonderful grandsons. 

Carol Hewitt Guida reports that her family is safe and well in Canberra, Australia. She keeps in touch with U.S. friends by email, has lots of Zoom meetings, and reads The Washington Post and The New York Times every morning. 

Cathie O’Connor Woteki says she and husband Tom are utter failures at retirement. She remains on faculty at Iowa State University and as visiting distinguished professor at the University of Virginia’s Biocomplexity Institute, and Tom heads Virginia Tech’s new graduate program in data analytics and applied statistics. Cathie serves on Dean Keith Mellinger’s advisory board for the College of Arts and Sciences at UMW. Since the lockdown began, Cathie and Tom have been at their small farm in Rappahannock County on endless Zoom meetings. 

It was great to hear from French House housemate Martha Wilbourne Cummings, who’s been able to spend time with most of her nine grandchildren. She plays tennis and pickleball and goes on careful outings with her Garden Club friends. She and Mike planned to celebrate their 50th anniversary in June with all the kids at an oceanfront house in Virginia Beach. 

Linda Medica Martin teaches art history part time at Purdue University and struggles to keep up with online components in COVID-era classes. 

Catharine Rossi Mannering and husband Jerry live in Comfort, a town of about 2,000 people in the beautiful Texas Hill Country. Both retired last year from the Comfort Independent School. They closed their bed-and-breakfast after 23 years and sold their longhorn cattle. Now every day’s a holiday, and every night is Saturday. 

Jenifer Higgins Clark is known as the expert on the Gulf Stream’s currents. In the mid-’90s she left NOAA and started a company that provides real-time information for sailboat racing, rescuing, navigational needs, distance ocean swim support, and commercial fishing needs. 

Jeanine Zavrel Fearns spent most of 2020 at home in Fairfax, Virginia, but the lucky lady did get a new kitchen put in. Her favorite hobby, choral singing with the Reston Chorale, became virtual. Jeanine spends many weekends at her family cabin in the mountains of West Virginia. 

Anne Witham Kilpatrick cleaned closets, replaced wallpaper, added pullout shelves to kitchen cabinets, put lights in pantries and closets, trimmed bushes, put up new outside lights, rearranged the living room, washed windows, organized the pantry, put together a 56- page book for her woman’s club, joined in many Zoom meetings, participated in virtual choir productions, and took part in Wreaths Across America at two local cemeteries. Whew! 

Former Virginia poet laureate Carolyn Kreiter-Foronda has relied on Zoom and Google Meet to conduct poetry workshops, readings, and presentations. One was a reading to promote her recent book, River Country: A Poem-Play, co-authored with Robert P. Arthur. Carolyn conducted online writing workshops for 500 seventh-graders at Falling Creek Middle School in Chesterfield, Virginia. 

Shirley Myers Sorrentino and Kaye Lowe Reynolds visited Barbara Mangels in Black Mountain, North Carolina, where Barbara lives after retiring from her speech therapy business in Los Angeles. Kaye, husband Alan, Shirley, and friend Richard Robbins toured Virginia’s Smith Mountain Lake in October. Shirley has lived there for eight years since retiring from teaching and real estate careers in the Fredericksburg area. Kaye and Alan recently returned from living overseas, where Alan worked in international banking and Kaye tutored. 

Betty Wade Miles Perry and her husband were able to have a family Christmas at their Virginia Beach home since their two daughters, UMW grads in 2000 and 2003, and their spouses had early, mild cases of the virus. 

Barb Crickenberger Hall and husband Bob started 2020 by traveling with friends to Bogota and Cartagena, Colombia. Then they went to New York to celebrate Bob’s 80th birthday, and in February went skiing in Telluride, Colorado. And then … lockdown. Barb continued her nonprofit board work and added a new role as chair of her Washington, D.C., co-op’s energy conservation task force. 

Sissie Burnette Orris was a chemistry major and lived in Stafford County, Virginia, near Fredericksburg. Now they live part time in Bluffton, South Carolina, and part time in Citrus Hills, Florida. 

Kent and Teri Thibodeaux Cueman planned to move from Yorktown, Virginia, to Fredericksburg in May. Teri and Kent have weekly Skype visits with Kathleen Hill Marks, Debbie Blythe Weise ’70, Gail Shifflet Astor ’70, and their husbands – all Randolph-Macon College graduates from the Class of ’69. 

Barbara Macon Sacha and Barbara “Bobbie” Amos Roessler reconnected after 50 years. They found they had both been living in Winter Park, Florida, for more than 20 years. 

Two years ago Bill and Cece Smith Riffer moved to Patriots Colony in Williamsburg. She thinks she may be the queen of quarantining, but they’ve been able to enjoy happy hours in their building and play computer bridge with a couple from their old neighborhood. 

Cece sent sad news of French House amie Joan Mueller Goertz, who passed away Jan. 13, 2021, after a diagnosis of colon cancer. Husband George predeceased her. She leaves a daughter, Jennifer, and a son, Jonathan, a priest who was with her for the last couple of weeks. 

Susan Seay Ledbetter sadly shared that her husband of 38 years, William Ledbetter Jr., passed away in October 2020. He was a retired circuit court judge in the Fredericksburg area. We send our condolences. 

At the request of our children, Tom and I, Anne Hoskot Kreutzer, have isolated for most of the past year in southern Virginia. If not for FaceTime, our 2-year-old twin grandsons in San Diego wouldn’t have a clue who we are. 

I’m also grateful for close contact with MWC roomie Marianne deBlois Zentz. Marianne happily agreed to take on the class agent job with me, sent out a lovely note soliciting your news, and immediately caught COVID! She was fortunate to participate in a monoclonal antibody study, got an IV infusion of Eli Lilly’s bamlanivimab (I swear) and felt immediately better. 

Marianne has kept up with Linda Gattis Shull, Patti Boise Kemp, Betsy Crews Neilson, Betty Wade Miles Perry, Barbara Burton Micou, and Christie Wineholt Warman. 

Linda and Barbara objected to an “unflattering portrayal” of Mary Washington in a University of Virginia alumni magazine article about the history of coeducation at U.Va. Their response, which the magazine published, quoted the article’s author saying Mary Washington had “gone on to become a full-fledged university.” They added, “And a darned fine one, at that!” 

The Class of 1969 has three scholarship recipients. Cedric Anash ’21 and Cathryn Puglia ’22 received the Laura V. Sumner Memorial Scholarship endowed for our 25th reunion. Morgan Bates ’21 received the 50th reunion scholarship.