ALUMNI NEWS
in Houston AND LOVING IT. Ouch Laura... we miss you too ;) Laura was in route to UAB (thru Houston IAH I am sure) to pick up her oldest while the youngest are in fourth and fifth grade. She and husband Peter plus the family will be spending time in Paris and Budapest this summer—Muy bien hecha Chica! However it seems a bevy of Falcons are nesting or migrating for episodic periods to SA. Contagions to the San Antonio fever are Beth Blackbird Bryan and husband Hutch; and even Helen LeMaistre and her husband. As everyone recalls, Helen’s father, former CEO/President of MD Anderson, delivered our commencement address (if we recall Helen graduated a year early but was in our class) Bill and Jackie Cathriner gave us more details that the gathering in SA was due to the “ Queen’s Ball” – an 11 day event that must put Mardi Gras in NOLA to shame but sounds fun. Laura and Helen’s daughters’ were crowned duchesses. Someone please let us all know the appropriate protocol should be if we run into the daughters or the moms— do we bow or merely a quick hip circumflex?? Congrats to all for the coronation and celebration, Your Graces. KS senior dad Clay Cravens writes that son Campbell (18) is heading to UT with Kirby (13) and Farise (11) as Falcon- he is now manager of Waco Filters. Tom Thurlow writes from Napa Valley, California as he and his wife adopted a girl from India - and she has been homeschooled. She is now adapting to the American way of life including proficiency with her Kindle Fire. Tom is working on his house and “some property” (villa or guest house?) in Napa, but must fight the CA regulators at every point. His efforts compounded by the “ red legged frog” endangered species and a regulator who thought he identified wetlands on his property plus the county wanting to create a botanical preserve as well. It sounds like a lot of the fine fermented grape juice produced by Napa is being consumed by those running the place. Nancy
Halverson
Bornman
updates us with her elder child being 1st at Memorial High School of 570 in addition to being bronze medalist in the 5A swim competition. Her other daughters are following the elder at MHS in many capacities while Nancy continues to tutor children of all ages! Jackie Miller Hawkey no longer gets her exercise fully from vertical climbs much like Rene is doing, but rather keeping on top of teenage girl’s lifestyles (x2). Jackie you were always an angel in your teens, I am sure you are shocked that the antics of your daughters, no? In addition to the full time oversight, she is busy working again, developing one of the nation’s largest commercial real estate funds-AGAIN. However, she and family and husband, Hal are traveling to Mallorca for the summer! Great Grandparents Craig and Lisa Wilson are on their 20th anniversary cruise in the Mediterranean Zone Istanbul to Venice - grandchildren of one and three years old not with them. Actually they are only grandparents - just seeing if people are reading. However, Craig is doing much better and continues to recover following a wicked bout with Lyme disease. It is summer and due to his illness, Craig wants to make sure everyone protects themselves from bug bites - use “ OFF” or if eco oriented- a complete body dusting of pulverized sulfur will work too! You know with everyone traveling someone exotic during the summers - we ought to find an overlap spot… like Lise Liddell’s villa in Southern France. Until then, it seems Lise has provided a delightful update that unfortunately would be censored by our sponsors… But to hear more in case the rendezvous in Southern France won’t work - she just completed a yearlong renovation to her home on the sixth floor in a high-rise proximal to River Oaks… it is remodeled to accommodate “PARTIES” as Pink would say in her song Lise: Let’s get that party started... stay tuned. World recognized Polo extraordinaire David Andras in our request to ponder a unique gathering spot for the next reunion has offered his place in Brenham – which he says can be quite exotic
at time so options to consider… it is a start. Lauren Lassiter Martin is making a little bit of Napa in Houston area with her garden, stables area and tasting room open to children — Lauren just turn 49 and in a most profound way says she is “loving all of life’s events”. Congratulations to Diane Lowery Zdunkewicz who turned 50 years youngvv with a celebration among gal pals and much fun was had and that Diane looks amazingly great! Dr. Pablo Roura sends his best to everyone. He is busy a chief of private cardiology group in Buenos Aires, his son Nicolas (21) is in architecture school while his young daughter (four years old) and wife Alejandra are enjoying the home life—it seems, though, in addition to knowing the Tango, he has picked up the Lambda recently. Burke and, my co agent, Bridget O’Toole Purdie report that their oldest daughter, Izzy, who graduated from Pin Oak Middle School and is onward to Lamar, joined the swim team and is wanting to become a veterinarian. Claudia in seventh grade at Pin Oak while youngest, Margot, is in fifth at Poe. Bridget goes to Paris in September to celebrate her 50th!!! Until the next report- carry onward with good thoughts, good feelings and good deeds toward all! Cheers!
1982
Maria Semander Crawford Redondo Beach, California msemander@yahoo.com Well, another reunion is behind us and what a party it was! Except for a few more wrinkles and a few more gray hairs, it felt like no time had past at all. It was great to reunite with old friends and even make some new ones with classmates I never got to know so well in high school. Friday night, the girls of ’82 had their traditional “Girls Night Out” at Elva Weatherford Riley’s house. It was like déjà vu standing in the same living room that we had slumber parties in 30+ years ago! Everything felt the same right
down to Dr. and Mrs. Weatherford checking in on us and having a surprise visit from some boys (aka Mike Curran and son). Thank you to Elva, Ania Battlestein Bender, Susan Schwartz Cornett and Heidi Balser Budaj for hosting such a fun get together. The official reunion party took place on Saturday night at Michelle Roger Roger’s house, and for those of you who couldn’t make it, I thought I would revisit the night so you could feel like you were there. As you pulled up to Michelle’s house, the aroma of Tex Mex food filled the air, as classmates gathered around a “Taco Truck” enjoying an authentic Tex Mex dinner. For those of us who have moved outside of Texas, that was a real treat because no one does Mexican food like the Lone Star State! Margaritas flowed freely on the patio as the party got going. Welcoming you at the door was Melisa Billingsley Herring with a tray of purple and gold jello shots, bringing back memories of field day (no, not because of the jello shots) as the never-ending debate of “who is the better team?” continued on. (GO PURPLE!) Once you chose your purple or gold jello shot, you could step back in time with classmates in the “memories” room where poster sized pictures from past reunions decorated the walls. Yearbooks and photos were scattered about on the dining room table and most conversations went the same way… “Who is that?” “Do you remember when…”, “Omg – look at our hair!” “I can’t believe we did that!” When you were ready to get your groove on, you could head into the DJ room and bust a move under the disco ball. It was like being at the Soc Hop all over again (except a bubble machine instead of dry ice) with great tunes blaring and all the girls dancing together! I think the same girls will be dancing together at our 50th reunion too! Eventually some of the men of ’82 and even some husbands dared the dance floor too with favorites like “SHOUT” and impressively, everyone was still able to get back up after taking it to the ground during “how low can
57