Class Notes

We’re proud of Patti Boise Kemp, who took office last summer as president of the UMW Alumni Association, after two years as president-elect. She was the reunion vice president for our 40th in 2009. Patti was invited to be keynote speaker at the March Junior Ring Ceremony. She asked us on Facebook to send memories or pictures from the 1968 Ring Dance, and it was truly a “blast from the past.”

Iris Harrell, Karen Kilgore Ralston, Suzanne McCarthy Van Ness, and Phyllis Newby Thompson got together in California while Karen was there visiting her sister. Suzanne and Phyllis live two towns over from Iris. Karen lives in Memphis, Tenn., where she curates vintage clothing displays at the Woodruff-Fontaine House. She also is milliner to the stars at Playhouse on the Square, provided costumes for Willy Bearden educational videos at the Elvis Presley Birthplace and Museum in Tupelo, and was interviewed by BBC Radio when she wore a hat she embellished to England’s Ascot Racecourse. Karen also makes jewelry from vintage brooches, knits, and crochets.

Phyllis, who lives in California, and Donna Cannon Julian of Naples, Fla., each hosted UMW President Richard V. Hurley and wife Rose in their homes for alumni gatherings. Donna hosted a small group in January, and Iris and Suzanne helped Phyllis host a March gathering, including alumni from all decades and a tour of Phyllis’ home, for which Iris did renovations.

Donna, with Lyn Howell Gray, CeCe Smith Riffer, and Ann Simpson Brackett, was planning a mini-reunion in June, when Lyn would be home from Liberia, where she and husband Jim still live. Ann’s daughter married in California in January. Two weeks later her husband’s son married in Sarasota, Fla. Donna and husband Gene had dinner in February with Jean Polk Hanky and husband Jack, who were visiting the Naples area. Iris heard from Bev Holt, who’s retired in North Carolina, and Pam Hogan Baynard, who’s retired in Suffolk, Va.

Jeanine Zavrel Fearns has worked for Commonwealth Orthopedics for 19 years. She spent a fall week in Vermont and upstate New York with daughter Erin and planned to visit relatives in Chicago in May. She drove from Fairfax, Va., to meet in Abingdon with UMW roomie Ann Witham Kilpatrick, who drove from South Carolina. Jeannine also visited suitemate Suzy Bender Winterble at her Chesapeake Bay home near Yorktown, and they planned to visit Suzy’s roomie, Toni Turner Bruseth, in Austin, Texas, for the opening of her husband’s exhibit of the recovered 18th-century sailing ship La Belle.

Bonnie Page Hoopengardner and husband Roger took a January trip to Indochina. Bonnie still works as a CPA but is thinking of retiring. After two knee surgeries in three years and little skiing, biking, and hiking, Lou Myers Daly of Vail, Colo., challenged herself. She went to real estate school and now works in that field.

Connie Cline Bukzin and dentist husband Mitch traveled in February to San Juan, Puerto Rico. Their two grandsons live nearby in Northern Virginia. Connie’s suitemate, Connie Hinson, a part-time spa coordinator at the Tides Inn, vacationed in Hilton Head, S.C., last year.

I’d like to hear from more of you. I hope everyone is having a lovely, relaxing summer.