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UMW Today - Winter 2005
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class notes 1942



A. Isabel Gordon Swift
1212 Thornton St.
Fredericksburg, VA 22401-4634

Submit class notes by e-mail to Denise Andrews.

Dorothy Graf Hecker is alive and as well as can be expected at age 84. She lives on an 89-acre farm-turned-bird-sanctuary in rural Pennsylvania. Her three children are scattered from Ohio to Washington state; she has two grandchildren and two great grandchildren. While her traveling days are over, she harbors wonderful memories of trips to South America, China, Mexico, Great Britain, Ireland, Scotland and Switzerland.

Rebecca Buckingham Straw retired in 1987 after teaching second grade for 27 years. The physical education major and mother of four has maintained her interest in sports. In 1996, she traveled with her daughter’s family to Atlanta to attend the Olympics. One son and two granddaughters are soccer players.

Thanks to her son’s involvement in the sport, she was afforded one of the thrills of her lifetime: After an exciting game in New Mexico, she got a hug and an autograph from soccer star Mia Hamm. Now 84, Rebecca has traveled extensively; the best trip, she says, was an eight-week coast-to-coast trek with two other teachers. She encourages others to write in. As Rebecca put it, “Life is good!”