W W W. C O K E R . E D U
happily able to play nine-hole rounds of golf. Harriet King van Norte and Bob are still busy with their feral cats and are taking care of one of the new babies. They enjoyed celebrating her 70th a few days ago and are out and about even in this heat. It has been so hard to find them, but persistence pays. Peggy McCue Freymuth is celebrating the fact that she made it through a really rough year beautifully. Mid-July, 2009, cancer was discovered and she has successfully reacted to surgery and chemotherapy. Her husband, Wayne, has been a wonderful support and chief cook and bottle washer. When I called in late spring Peggy was touring Fort Sumter with her grandchildren and when she called me more recently she sounded strong and well and is pleased to have lost over sixty pounds. Their busy daughter and grandchildren live just a few houses away, so there are a lot of people celebrating. Paula Moran called to report that her son Jonathan is getting married on August 29th at Marineland in Florida. Jonathon loves boating and fishing and they decided this would be an appropriate place to tie the knot. Paula still works in the mornings and enjoys that as well as walking three or four miles every day. Cataract surgery in May has made a big difference. Her nice orange nightgown turns out to really be rose-colored. Paula was telling me about a Coker senior trip to Myrtle Beach. Her roommate was Carol Elting Richardson and those two had some funny tales to tell. Ida Pace Storrs writes that she has been enjoying reading The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. As those of us who are enjoying this exciting series know, we need to skim the beginning pages to get to the real story. Ida reports “It has been hot as Egypt” this summer but the rains help. Once she had her yard sprayed for mosquitoes, Ida and VIP (pup) Archie have enjoyed sitting in the yard or on their porch when it cools down in the evenings. Most exciting is the fact that Ida has been relegated to having Chemotherapy treatments every six weeks. At first, she missed seeing the chemo group of friends who had become really close, especially one also named Ida. But I should think that these friends’ treatments will overlap again, just not as often as before. Frances Segars Kelley is trying to find a good time to borrow Ida, Henri(etta) Ramsey van Arsdale and Gayle Brandt Faust for a picnic at Lake Wateree. Ida is still enjoying wearing a Tee Shirt she bought when visiting Mary Bell Kittle in San Antonio in 1993. Valerie Powell White made it to Washington, DC, for Christmas with her daughter, Vanessa. Vanessa oversees ten programs for a Public Health specialty group, which has been pretty demanding and exhausting. Valerie and her two cats are purring away in Missouri. She teaches Yoga and has enjoyed taking classes at the Himalayan Institute of Yoga in St. Louis, MO and where Val is concentrating on Meditation. Caroline Quick Zweidler and her husband are well. She is a substitute organist and pianist in an international, interdenominational church near Zurich, Switzerland. They have two daughters, one who lives in the French speaking section of Switzerland and has young twin daughters whose native language is French, but who speak some German and a bit of English when they are around Caroline. Their other daughter lives not far away from the Zweidlers in the German section of Switzerland. Caroline and her husband have so enjoyed travelling a lot. They went to Israel last year and love going to Asia. While catching up with Caroline on the telephone, we had a chance to make a three way call to Joanne Tuten Bellamy, which was pure pleasure. Nancy Rogers Watkins wrote in May to say she
was thoroughly enjoying relaxing in a hammock under the weeping cherry tree, reading The Liar’s Club while drinking a few cups of tea. Frances Segars Kelley writes that she has been President of the Swamp Fox Quilters for two years. This has really kept her busy with “fun stuff”. Go to their very impressive web site to see what they do. http:// www.swampfoxquilters.com. There are 60 members and about 13 of them get together each Thursday for something even if it is only for lunch and gabbing. Frances says they have a wonderful time “playing,” but it looks as though they accomplish a lot. She is still kept busy by those grandchildren, yard work and playing ball. Flo(rence) Staklinski Taylor and Bill will not be in New York for the tennis Open this year, but they are still playing and having fun, even at our age. She writes that they went to Puerto Rico in February. and did not miss the snow in Atlanta. On one nice trip they visited Flo’s Mom, now 91, in Florence, SC and continued to Lumberton, NC to celebrate Bill’s mother’s 93rd birthday. Then they drove to Ocean Isle for the rest of the week. “We are blessed to still have their mothers to visit and to see how well both are.” Flo and Bill are hoping to make it to the Chotoa Resort in Blowing Rock, NC in mid-August and then to Hilton Head, SC at the end of the month. Flo continues to work at the Atlanta Mart Apparel and Gift Shows and Bill is doing some consulting. Gwen(dolyn) Thomason Adams and Herbert drove a 15 passenger van more than 5100 miles from Laurens to Glenallen, Alaska the last 2 weeks of April. A young missionary couple from Laurens are living in Glenallen and a friend from their church donated this van for their work. There was a need for two drivers, so the Adams were delighted to find that the dates for this project suited them the best of those offering to deliver the van. What a wonderful trip, seeing so much of the USA as well as Alberta, British Columbia and the Yukon Territory before arriving at their destination. Warning: The Alaskan Highway is no super highway. Soon after flying back home, they and two of their four grandsons drove to Omaha, NE and back to see the finals of the College Baseball World Series. USC played UCLA. USC won two of the required three games, so USC was #1. Somehow they were able to leave Omaha and make it to Nashville, TN the first day and returned to Laurens the afternoon of the second day. Their older grandson plans to begin his freshman year at USC and the younger is to begin his junior year in High School. Nancy Thornhill Bolden’s Harold reports that all is well and that their grandchild and Nancy’s daughter are visiting. They are having such a good time dashing here and there. Joanne Tuten Bellamy’s yard was filled with berries and fruits from her trees and bushes when we last spoke, around the 4th of July. Her son has a wonderful vegetable garden. It must be a beautiful sight and a thrill to be able to pluck one’s own. She was recovering happily from a lovely visit from her Charlotte son’s family. Four year old EE seems to have had a grand time and certainly makes his grandmother laugh. Pawley’s Island seems to have a wonderful parade every July Fourth which is so long it meets itself coming and going. Joanne sees Eleanor Sharpton Pitts from time to time in the grocery store and says Eleanor always “looks great”. We commiserated about the end of Jack Bauer’s 24 and do not know what we will do for excitement now that the series is over. Cathy Ward Parker sounds fine and is healing after a dreadful break of her thigh bones last September. Poor thing stayed in the hospital for six or seven weeks. The
THE OFFICIA L M AG A ZINE OF COKER COLLEGE, H A RT S VILLE, S .C .
C O M M E N TA R Y
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DEVELOPMENT
living with and caring for troubled teens twenty four hours a day, seven days a week. Doris supposes she will eventually retire, but at the moment she loves what she is doing and working at Thornwell. “It really is a great place and I am very proud of the work we do for hurting children.” When she wrote at the end of June, she was impatiently waiting for the birth of her son’s first child - a boy - due any moment. Ten days later Yusuf Thomas was born on July 13th at 10 pounds 5 ½ ounces. Doris was there. Her youngest daughter’s children are 12, 10, 8, and 6. The oldest three are boys and the youngest is her only granddaughter. Julia “Judy” Eadon Gibson was happily married to Tom until he died suddenly in June, 2002. They had four wonderful daughters, the two eldest live in Summerville, SC, with their families and the youngest, in Beaufort, with two children, ages 2 and 5. Sadly, Judy’s third daughter, Julie Amick, died at 30, leaving a wonderful husband and an adorable little boy who is now 16. The whole family, including nine grandchildren, look forward to their annual family vacation on Lake Jocassee, near Clemson. Judy and her sister live close to their mother, who is 90 years old. Carol Elting Richardson went to visit her daughter, Georgia, in Las Vegas, NV on January 27th to help prepare her house for sale. But Carol was not able to return to NC until March 21st. Unfortunately as Carol was helping redecorate, she claims a Poltergeist threw a picture off a wall and it landed on her left hand, smashing fingers and tendons. Her two-week visit became a two-and-a-half month visit. Carol’s eyes have been doctored after a few difficult years and seem to be working very well again. Charlotte Cothran Taylor and Carol are planning to celebrate their “Big–7” birthdays in North Myrtle Beach in August. Charlotte loves taking care of her grandchildren. Edith Ganelle Watts has moved to a dear little house on the other side of Lumberton where she has built a deck and fenced in the yard for her fox terrier, Sophia. There is a horse on the other side of the fence which comes over to talk to Edith. She always has carrots or apples for the horse and the fox terrier is beginning to figure out that that animal is there to stay. She has nearly finished preparing her house in the city of Lumberton for sale. Poor Edith fell down the stairs in March and broke and hurt her arm and wrist from the shoulder to her hand. Healing is slow, but she is delighted to be able to move better. She is visiting her niece, 4 year old “grandson” and family in Leesburg, VA, as I write this. While she is in VA, someone else is selling her no-longerwanted household items. Molly Holbrooke (Thomas) Birchler and Al are headed for Port Clinton, OH in July to visit with Molly’s son, Boyd, and his children, Olivia, 8 and Elliott, 6. They plan to stay in a condo right on Great Lake Erie and listen to the waves splash against the beach with the seagulls screaming. Football season fast approaches and Al and Molly will head to West Lafayette, IN to see his “Boilers” play in several football games. Molly especially loves eating the fine Catfish dinners available there. She reports she has not heard much from any of our dear “Coker Nuts”, but had hoped some Hartsville classmates might try to get those in the area together for lunch at Bizzell’s during the summer. Perhaps there will be time this fall. Molly loves watching “Selling New York” on HGTV and wishes she had a few million dollars! Of course, if she could buy something here, we might have lots of classmates come for visits. I’d love that. We could probably find some decent substitutes for Bizzell’s. Al had cervical disk surgery in late February and has recovered very well. There is no more pain and he is now