Christine Harper Hovis
1481 Balboa St.
San Luis Obispo, CA 93405
chrishovis@aol.com
Greetings from California! Because our class has so many grandchildren, I decided to share my philosophy concerning grandchildren: Have fun with them and teach them all sorts of embarrassing quotations. It’s wonderful payback for your children and keeps them on their toes. Last August, Neil and I celebrated our 50th anniversary with our children and grands by going to the Historic Car Races at Laguna Seca. Well, the guys went to the races and the rest of us kept busy with the Monterey Bay Aquarium, Cannery Row and shopping for obnoxious touristy items. Now, on to more news from our class.
Eleanor Pollack and a friend took a 10-day tour in Belgium last July. She wrote that she really enjoyed the study tour as well as the lectures. Ann Strickler Doumas, who lives just below the Alumni office in Fredericksburg, generously offered her home as a quiet retreat or gathering place for a get-together during our next reunion. Thank you, Ann. She and her husband celebrated their 50th anniversary last June, spent most of July in Scotland, and welcomed a fourth grandchild in August. Her children live in California, Arizona and Connecticut. I presume you have accumulated a lot of airline frequent flier miles, Ann.
Sue Bedell Albee says she’s sorry to have missed our 50th reunion, but she was traveling in Europe at the time. Sue lost her husband to cancer in 1992 and moved to Wellfleet on Cape Cod, where she has settled down to playing bridge and volunteering. A few years later, she lost her daughter to cancer and spent some time in Vermont with her son-in-law and grandchildren. In 2003, she bought a home in Port St. Lucie, Fla. so she could winter in Florida and summer in Cape Cod. While she was at the Cape, she got a phone call from Jackie Davis Woolfolk. Jackie lives in Ipswich, Mass., so they met halfway to share lunch and memories.
News of Polly Stoddard Heim came from Sally Hanger Moravitz (thank you, Sally). Polly and Ken have had a home in Idaho for many years, but recently purchased a home in Tucson, Ariz. They are moving there and embarking on a new phase of their lives. Sounds intriguing!
Kathleen Clarkson Barlow says “hi” to all her classmates and friends in other classes. She and her husband celebrated their 50th anniversary with a surprise party given by their children and their gift of a vacation in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. She reminds everyone that the welcome mat is always out in Peterborough, N.H., at any time of the year.
Jo Jane Williams Van Hook of Mobile, Ala., was bursting with pride because her oldest granddaughter, Jenny Phillips, was to make her social debut at the Nutcracker Ball in Mobile in December. Jo Jane’s suitemate, Betsy Blackwell Fowler, and her husband, Jim, planned to be there. Jo Jane and family weathered those devastating storms with only a loss of electricity. However, it pushed them into purchasing a home generator for future use.
Bee Melillo Shanahan wrote of a mini-reunion in New York City in early October. Besides Bee, others attending were Carol Cooper, Mary Margaret Papstein Carter and Joan Kleinknecht. I would have liked to have been a fly on the wall – laughing, talking and dishing, oh my! I talked to Bee in November about the class gift. At our class meeting we decided that we wanted to see if the amphitheater could be refurbished. Bee needs volunteers for the committee to give or raise money for the project. We also would like to create interest at UMW to go forward with these plans. We are starting from scratch once again as the funds raised for our reunion are now in the general fund. I know we can do this, can’t we?
Maryann Whittemore Harman-Walke wrote that she continues to paint and exhibit but has retired from teaching at Virginia Tech. In November, she visited a good friend in Larkspur, Calif.
Irene Hughes retired from her real estate business a few years ago and has been writing mystery novels ever since. She has published two novels and the third will come out this spring.
Lastly and sadly, news that some of you already know: Last August, Sally Watson Castle lost her husband. We send our heartfelt sympathy and prayers to Sally and her family.