class news ’62 | class news
>> C lass o f 19 6 2 G a b rielle ( G a b y ) M orandiere 300 East 54th St #7-K New York, NY 10022 212-832-7462 gaby.morandiere@verizon.net Dear Classmates, What a busy year this has been for our class. A few actually made it to join some of the Centennial celebrations and Coker has two wonderful new books for us to read. Lots have retired and our lives are taking off in different but exciting directions. Mary Ann Wycliff Johnson’s husband for 48 years, Joseph Johnson, M.D., died last fall. Dentists are doing a booming business with all of us and there have been so many interesting trips taken. The Canadian Rockies was THE destination spot for many. Please remember to let me/ Coker hear about any new or changed contact information and to support Coker. Here we go with news in alphabetical order by college names: June Ammons is thoroughly enjoying her Springer Spaniel puppy, Spirit. But June claims this little rascal needs obedience training. Spirit is living up to her name, it seems. June is really active with the music program at her Laurens SC, Methodist church. She also helps on senior trips, by driving one of the mini-vans. Mary Bell Kittle and Joe left their Virginia home to return to their San Antonio home just in time for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Gaby is landing on their doorstep in February, for the first time in Texas. Last summer they took a wonderful and interesting trip to Canada and another to their NC beach. Sherrie Berry Wolski has unfortunately been having some bad headaches and finally has heard that they are probably “cluster headaches” which should not last forever. She has decided that in her next life she wants to live on a houseboat. Gaby would like to do that too. Gayle Brandt Faust is reading a lot of good books. Unfortunately she had a setback just before Christmas and is taking things more slowly again, but after a long challenge lasting more than a year and a half, she has been able to eat real food and walk and get around again. She mentioned that Ida Pace Storrs had dropped by to bring the biggest, most beautiful apple Gayle had ever seen. Peggy Brown Buchanan and John have finally moved back home to live in Mount Pleasant in their lovely house and to be so near their two daughters and grand-twins, and where John is serving with at least two Charleston churches. Their last two and a half years were spent with the Episcopal Diocese of Southern Virginia where they loved serving. There were two wonderful receptions were given by the Diocese to honor their time there. Brenda Cromer Miller received her copy of In Quest of Excellence: A History of Coker College on its Centennial and has had a wonderful time reading and remembering. Doris Duke Straight has changed jobs at Thornwell in Clinton. After 13 ½ years of working in a cottage with teenagers/young adults, she now works with the Sponsorship office and assists the president. Doris spent Thanksgiving and attended her elder daughter’s wedding in Delaware. Christmas was spent near Columbia where her son and younger daughter, who has three boys and one girl, live. Carol Elting Richardson’s daughter came home for a week for an early Christmas but had return to NV for a show on December 25th. Carol had rotator cuff surgery in October to repair a massive tear and she is now in rehab, which will hopefully by February. Judith Ann Griggs is thrilled to say that her house repairs have finally been finished and she is delighted. As Clerk of the Session of the Ruby Presbyterian Church, Judy has been really busy with collecting and presenting informa-
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SP RING 20 0 9 ALUMNI ISSUE
tion to hand over to the Presbytery. There is no time to relax between the end of one year and beginning of another. Dorothy Herlong Hay and Charles managed to have great visits with all of their children and four grandsons between Thanksgiving and Christmas. A new tradition is to have all four grandchildren visit for a couple of weeks in the summer (without parents). Dot and Charles worked hard to help Obama carry Florida and are happy with the results. Dot is very involved with a community and church-sponsored program for underprivileged and “at risk” children, spending several days a week with 15 children from kindergarten and 6th grade. Molly Holbrook Thomas Birchler and Al were so pleased to have 10 month old “Baby Bill” visit during the Christmas holidays. Molly says it was such a treat to have a baby in the house again. Al loves his golf and keeps a close eye on his Boilermakers (football and basketball). Molly has been active with local College and Garden Clubs. She is also trying to establish a Newspapers in Education (NIE) program in Moore County. Harriet King van Norte and her husband, Bob, sound well and are busy taking care of their feral cats. Bob had emergency bypass surgery in October but is recovering beautifully. He attended a telecast of an opera conducted by Pier Giorgio Morandi recently and was so pleased he bought two tickets for Harriet and a friend to go for the next telecast. Harriet’s ankle was sprained but she and a friend were able to take a wonderful trip to Sicily last fall. Sara Lawton Anderson Kummer recently joined her two daughters, son-in-law and granddaughters in the mountains of NC near Valle Crucis. She is delighted with the election results. Sara, her sister, Charlotte, brother Jim and his wife Margaret are arriving in NYC on February 5th for a brief visit and to see In the Heights. One cousin, a Met docent, will take them on a special, private tour on a day the Met is closed. Sara’s hoping for snow! She and Charlotte have plans to go to Australia and New Zealand in April for 28 days. Jean Ledbetter Redding has been happily married to Talmage “Tom” for 26 years. He was a project engineer in the Navy before retiring. They live in Charleston and Jean retired from working at Middleton Gardens last summer where she had been involved with the tour guides and historical projects. Peggy McCue Freymuth sounds really well and thrilled to have her daughter and grandchildren live just four houses away. That makes after-school hours and extracurricular activities so much easier to manage and I suspect there is not much that Peggy and Wayne miss. Betty McDaniel Hedgpeth loves to visit her grandchildren in Greenville and Colorado Springs when she can break away from working with the Hedgpeth’s Faithatworkministries.com. She and her husband go to Romania every November with this ministry and are looking forward to a ten day trip to Israel on March 10th. Elizabeth Moore Wier’s husband, Tom, has had a difficult time with a shunt and was in the hospital for four months. Liz has, to say the least, had her hands full. Christmas this year was a wonderful one, with their whole family joining them in celebration of having everyone there. Things have improved so much that Liz has recently been able to feel comfortable leaving Tom alone for awhile. She has been re-reading Pillars of the Earth by Follett and plans to follow up with World Without End and sends New Year greetings to everyone. Bonnie Murray Bull writes that she is very busy in spite of having recently retired from teaching English in Holly Hill. She has begun to volunteer at Hebron Grace Home, opened in 1953 in Santee, where 16 women from all over the country are allowed to stay free of charge for a 10 week program intended to help them overcome alcohol and/or drug dependency. Five of the Bull’s children and their families have birthdays in January and this year there will be a gathering at Bonnie and Witte’s to celebrate on the 25th.
Valerie Powell White is heading for a Women’s Health Conference in San Francisco at the end of February. She has been very interested in that field for a long time. She and her daughter, Val, are planning to head for Berlin and then to visit cousins in England next Fall. Ida Pace Storrs reports that this was the first Christmas in so long she has been able to celebrate without the effects of chemotherapy. Her last tests showed no signs of cancer and she is having the chemo treatments only every three weeks. Ida, Gayle Brandt Faust and Henri Ramsey van Arsdale went out for dinner last October, with a lot to celebrate. Another friend and Ida spent a weekend at South Port NC and had a wonderful time walking in the rain, shopping and eating an elegant dinner at The Pharmacy. Ida’s family came to visit for Christmas and Ida and her darling pup had fun hiding presents all over the house. She and neighbors and friends had a Christmas feast later that week with a turkey and ham and food made from everyone’s mothers’ favorite recipes. Poor Ida had a tooth extracted just before her December 30th birthday, but is fine. Henrietta Ramsey van Arsdale sounds very well. She has unfortunately been enriching her dentists, but seems to be surviving. When Ida Pace Storrs brought her a beautiful and huge apple they decided that it would become applesauce and it did. Her 50th high school reunion was wonderful and she had a grand time. Henri loves being close to her children and grandchildren in Columbia. Betty Saunders Brooking and three good traveling friends for 40 years took a three week trip, driving through the NW US and Canada. They enjoyed the gardens in Victoria, BC and riding bikes around Stanley Park in Vancouver, visited Whistler where the Winter Olympics are scheduled to be held and worshipped at Lake Louise in Alberta, seeing its beautiful jade green water. A man on the beach was playing an Alp horn to the tune of “Amazing Grace”. They also made it to North Dakota, completing her goal of visiting all of the 48 continental states. Alaska and Hawaii will be next. Frances Segars Kelley has been busy with her quilting. She attended the Asheville Quilt Show, having stayed in a “cabin” which was built in the early 1900s, attended a Quilting Retreat for three days in Winnsboro at White Oaks as well as Houston TX at the end of October for the International Quilt show. Frances also spends a lot of time with her granddaughters. The girls are busy with competitive dancing, baseball, tennis and softball. Every year they head to the beach house in Holden. Frances feels lucky to have them nearby and can be with them each week. Flo Staklinski Taylor and her husband are still working, playing tennis, reading and watching their grandchildren. (two girls 3 and 5 along with a 12 year old grandson). They are also very active helping the St. Vincent de Paul Society through their church. They are still in Roswell GA and have loved watching UNC and the Falcons this year. Gwendolyn Thomason Adams celebrated the 12 days of Christmas with children arriving at different times. Herbert concluded his stint as Chairman of the USC Board of Trustees last August and was honored with a wonderful formal reception in September. With life calming down a bit, Gwen and Herbert are heading to the beach for a few weeks of sleeping late, reading, having just finished The Shack, and seeing some movies. She has been knitting and cross-stitching lately. Nancy Thornhill Bolden and Harold have such wonderful times with their daughter Deb, who teaches first grade, her husband and wonderful Luke Hayes Peterson, who will be three in May. Moonpie says she really enjoyed Coker’s Centennial Alumni Day, seeing the new library and so much more, but in a deluge. She says she feels as though she’s only 20 – 32. Think we all do? She told me about wonderful changes in Hartsville and an emphasis on art at downtown spots. She is thrilled to have copies of the book by Dr. Doubles and Growing up in the Brown House. Joanne Tuten Bellamy sounds wonderfully well. She continues to visit her brother and sick sister-in-law every
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