Class Notes

Please send news to the designated Class Agent according to the first letter of your maiden name.

From Connie: As some of you know, I was hospitalized for several days in January due to a lung condition. It had gone on for about four years, and I could function without supplementary oxygen, but now I’m on oxygen 24/7, and my lifestyle is curtailed. We aren’t traveling much, and I’m being treated here in Wilmington, N.C., and at Duke, an excellent center for pulmonary diseases. Our little house in the historic district dates from 1916 and was to be on the April Azalea Festival house tour, so we were doing projects to spiffy things up. I love hearing from you and thank those who have contacted me.

Carolyn Barnette Wright visited Mary Washington in January for the first time in more than 30 years and was amazed by the new buildings. She was sorry to miss the reunion and seeing everyone. Ellen Grumbly deGail finished work on one of two family trees. She has traveled to Ireland for information and to meet cousins. Her grandparents immigrated to the U.S. in 1907 from County Longford in Ireland’s central farming area. Ellen was born Helen Lynch, but her name was changed when she was adopted. She never met her birth mother, who died, but she has met two sisters and a half-sister.

Clarence and Clara Sue Durden Ashley plan to stay in their home in Great Falls, Va. Their four sons and 14 grandchildren are scattered from Washington, D.C., to St. Augustine, Fla., to Dayton, Ohio. The Ashleys visited Wilmington on their way home from babysitting for Dennis’ family in St. Augustine.

Last year Dee Doran Cairns and Doug of Montgomery, Ala., celebrated 50 years of marriage, and they marked 50th reunions at UMW and the Air Force Academy with Patty Cairns Hourin and Jim, who was Doug’s classmate. Grandson Christopher graduated from Auburn University in December, and they visited Doug and Patty’s mother, Doris, who is 95 and well. The Cairnses spent Christmas 2010 and the New Year in Naples, Italy, with son Rob and family. Patty and Jim’s three sons are married with careers and children. Michael and Katrina live in Mississippi, Bill flies the 777 for Delta, and Scott and Lisa live on the Oahu North Shore near Haleiwa, Hawaii.

Ellen Gotwalt Willing and Bill, of York, Pa., made it to our 50th reunion. After colon cancer surgery, Bill was doing well enough for their annual Auto Train trip to Naples, Fla., for the winter. They visited Ocean City, Md., in September and attended an October wedding in Lynchburg, Va. Ellen’s only grandchild, Andrew, is in seventh grade. Bill’s grandson, Ryan, visited before being deployed to Iraq.

Eleanor Knight Jensen and Cliff took a relaxing cruise from Florida to New Zealand, spent 10 days in Auckland, and continued to Kauai, Hawaii, to find torrential rains in March.

Jean Ryan Farrell and Frank had a fun-filled year of travel with dive trips to the Cayman Islands and Curacao, ski trips to Park City, Utah, and adventure trips to Turkey and Vietnam, with a side trip to Singapore to visit son Bobby and family. In July, Jean and Frank celebrated 50 years of marriage with all three sons and their families at Lake Lanier, Ga., where they bought a house. It’s all about Kentucky basketball until early April for Lynn McCarthy. She finds the online bald eagle cams educational and fascinating and is still into genealogy. They’d had 65 inches of rain so far in 2011; Lynn said it’s like living in a rain forest.

Last year Sarah Leigh Kinberg celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary, her 50th reunion at UMW, and Tom’s 50th from USNA. Finnish exchange son, Pekka, came to visit with his wife and three daughters. Tom Jr. and Christi live in Oregon, and Sarah Leigh lives in France. The grandchildren are grown.

Barbie Upson Welch was to finish her pilot’s instrument training this spring and give up managing their retirement community’s gift shop. Husband Chuck weathered back surgery, and they took their first cruise in February to the Eastern Caribbean with Barbie’s sister and husband. They planned to visit her son, Bob, and family in Portland, Ore., in January.

Patsy Whitehead Towle passed away Dec. 26, 2011, after six difficult years. Daughter Heather wrote that she had fought hard to stay with them through the holidays, but she had thankfully let go. We extend our deepest sympathy to Heather, Stephanie, and their families.

My roomie, Janie Riles, has had some art showings in Florida. She and hubby Jim Dietz spent the winter there, and they were in France in February to sell Jim’s studio apartment. They planned a May trip to Morocco. Mary Hatcher, who is on the Friends of the Library board in Wilmington, N.C., was doing physical therapy after knee surgery. She planned a trip to the Williamsburg antiques show.

From Renee: Memories of reunion continue to make me smile. I’m busy with classes and animals. With the political season heating up, I’m devouring the news and plan to volunteer with the campaign. I planned a March cruise to the Panama Canal with Syd Collson Chichester ’60, with whom I’ve been friends since I was in kindergarten in Washington, D.C.

Peggy Howard Hodgkins left Maine in early March and planned to return in mid-April, after the muddy season. She traveled to China and took a Caribbean cruise with 13 of her mother’s family members. She visited Pat Scott Peck in Florida and planned to visit a friend in Arizona, then meet up with Pat again in San Antonio to visit Aggie Welsh Eyster, then head to Georgia to see Jean Ryan Farrell and attend a horse show. She also planned to visit Omaha with Lloyd Tilton Backstrom and Art.

Bobbie Brookes Nation lives in London. Her 98-year- old mother passed away at the Richmond home of her other daughter, Pam Brookes Weiseman ’63. This summer Judy LaRoe Hare and MJ Giles Stearns hoped to visit Jan Murphy Riefler at her Cabo San Lucas home. In April, Judy, who plays competitive tennis, planned to attend the Family Circle Cup tennis tournament in Charleston, S.C. Judy is a Lowe’s flooring specialist, handles international sales for My Pool Pal, and still plays competitive tennis.

Donna Henninger Henderson is retired but works in an antiques shop and does volunteer work with drug and alcohol prevention and education, promotion of the arts, conservation, neglected children, and mentally disabled adults. Sylvia McJilton Woodcock wrote that Marcia Minton Keech’s husband, Bill, was treated at Johns Hopkins for cancer but has recovered. Sylvia’s husband, Stuart, was recovering from hip surgery and was to have more knee surgery. They visited Palm Beach, Fla., in February and March.

Becky Paris Spetz has been scanning into her computer slides from their early years through 1987 to make DVDs for their four children. Nancy “Pepper” Jacobs Germer is going back to work part time for a friend who owns Arkansas jewelry stores. She and Hank planned to go to San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, and to Pepper’s June high school reunion. She gave a tea for eight friends, and they wore mink stoles and gloves and hats that Pepper’s mom made in the ’50s. She used her mother’s and her own china and made tea sandwiches, scones, chocolate-dipped strawberries, and more. Pepper participates in Special Ministries at church. My thanks to all who took time to send news.

From Lynne: We had a marvelous, mild winter in New York City. Sandy and I went to Florida in February, and part of the time it was colder there than in New York. We’re looking forward to a June cruise from London to Copenhagen.

In February, Jim and Carolyn Spell Robertson visited with her brothers and their wives at their North Carolina beach house and planned to attend Jim’s 50th dental school reunion at the Medical College of Virginia in April. In the fall, Kay Slaughter is to teach with Semester at Sea for U.Va., traveling to Europe, Africa, and Ghana, then back across the Atlantic and up the east coast of South America, including Uruguay, Argentina, and Brazil. Kay still writes and posts copies of her essays on her blog. She wrote her first novel and takes a fiction writing class at U.Va. She loves retirement and is active in local politics and local and statewide environmental issues.

Marcy Trembath Pitkin and Steve sold their ancient lakeside cottage, which was bittersweet, since they’ll miss their family and friends. Eleanore Saunders Sunderland took a post- Thanksgiving, pre-Christmas trip to Milan, Italy, with all her children. Daughter Jude has lived there for 10 years, and she found places for everyone to stay. Eleanore’s twin, Judy Saunders Slifer, was responding well to the latest medical treatments and was to continue with monthly follow- ups. We admire your strength, Judy!

Sue Wilson Sproul and Dave took a September trip to the Tetons and Yellowstone. He went out before sunrise to a field of boulders overlooking Yellowstone Lake to take pictures. As it grew lighter, the boulders began to groan and rise up on four legs – the bison just ambled off. The Sprouls spent a snowy Christmas in Grand Lake, Colo., with Sue’s older son, Ted Boling, and his family, with an old-time melodrama at the playhouse and New Year’s fireworks over the lake. In January, they drove to Morro Bay, Calif., stopping in Death Valley. Returning, they went from 100 feet below sea level there to 10,000 feet above in Beaver Creek, Colo., in just 10 days. This year they plan to visit with three children and three grandchildren in Virginia.

Judy Youngman Wigton of Omaha expected Peggy Howard Hodgkins and Lloyd Tilton Backstrom and Art to visit for the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting there in May. They planned a mini-reunion with Charlotte Howard Austin and Hank, who live 20 miles away. Judy, Lloyd, and Lynda White ’71 were setting up a scholarship in honor of our beloved art history professor, Pauline Grace King. They feel study abroad is valuable for art history students, and the scholarship is to fund a semester or more for each recipient. They encourage other alumni to donate, as well. Lloyd and Art plan to travel to Diecimo, Italy, just north of Lucca, with a group in September.