CL ASS NOTES
1963
Canon Thomas Hall
J
ackie Whiteleather (CO) is looking forward to hiking and camping this summer and grateful for the vaccinations. Sara Sorsby Dennis (CA) is thankful to have survived Covid and celebrated early April with going out to dinner! Sara is enjoying Spring, her family and walks with her dogs. Carolyn Collier Johnson (MS) happily reports that she has survived this year sitting on her porch, working in her yard, loving her two cats and playing addictive computer games. Jenny Emison Ewing (TN) reports she and her husband were vaccinated early in the year and went to Hilton Head for a great time with family. Jenny is an avid gardener. Donna Lansing Copp (TN) has used her time producing wonderful artwork, especially great paintings of her grandchildren and doing some travel. As for me (Canon Thomas Hall), my husband and I have had our vaccination weeks ago, which enabled us to expand our “bubble” to include our children and grandchildren for which we are so grateful. I assume the classmates that I didn’t hear from are vaccinated and busy getting on with normal life.
1965
W
Patti Person Ray
e had a small but enthusiastic group join our virtual 55th reunion party. It was wonderful to see Kathy Sweany Bertram, Ellen Rumsey Bellenot, and Cathy Hoover Allen. Kathy Sweany Bertram is still practicing medicine, but she has reduced her time at the office to three days a week. Even with that, this has been an unusually tough year for her professionally. She plans to return this summer to WY for her vacation as she has done for many years, but was not able to last summer. Ellen Rumsey Bellenot’s creative juices are still flowing as strongly as ever. She is making fantastic jewelry and continues to take classes in her artforms. Also, if you are friends with Ellen on Facebook, you have seen her resident
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possum who now trusts Ellen so much that she will eat out of Ellen’s hand! Cathy Hoover Allen has retired, but retirement has not started off as she planned. She has been dealing with some health issues, with the latest being emergency surgery. She is home now and recovering well. Please send positive thoughts her way for a full and speedy recovery. Joyce Burkett Scruggs wrote to me that she hated missing our virtual gathering, but she was in the Destin area with all the females in her family for a baby shower at the beach to celebrate the upcoming birth of her great-grandchild—a girl! I am still teaching and loving every minute. I still have my graduate school classes, but I am also back at St. Mary’s teaching three AP classes. What a joy to work with these amazing girls in the classroom! I continue to lead the St. Mary’s Alumnae and Friends trips every other year. This year, Cathy Allen will join me (Cathy has not missed one of our trips yet!) as we go with Tauck Tours to Cape Cod and Newport, R.I. in October. It would be so great to have more members of our class go on these trips, so mark your calendars for October of 2023 when we will tour Ireland! I hope everyone is doing well and managing during these difficult times. My best to all of you!
1967
S
Bette West Bush
ince our class valedictorian’s passing in February from non-smoker’s lung cancer, we are all still in shock. Debbie Boehme Salter was such a huge part of our class, having matriculated at St. Mary’s from kindergarten through the 12th grade. Another 13-year St. Mary’s girl, Jeannie Whitman Esdaile, lost her husband Christopher in February. Signe Magnuson Spenser enjoys suburban living with places to walk, family, and a “sweetheart” nearby. She had two of her three daughters and families over for Easter and is still employed at Korn Ferry doing personal and organizational research. Shelley Smith proudly announces not only the birth of her first grandchild, Cora Maeve Gatziolis, to son William and his wife Annie in Briarcliff Manor, NY, but
also the opportunity to visit them and see their granddaughter. Shelley is also brave enough to tackle a total kitchen remodel and whole first floor renovation. As she says, “There’s no fool like an old fool.” Janie Allen Till was able to spend the pandemic in her “family pod” of two sons, their wives, and six of her grandchildren, starting her own little school, teaching 3rd, 5th, 7th, and 9th grades. She and husband Bob plan to visit their youngest son and family in Minnesota over the summer. Lynn Bledsoe Buhler and husband Jon have a new address, moving to the Woodlands in Memphis after many years in their “old Midtown home.” They now have a “tiny but perfectly beautiful walled garden” and an elevator. Margaret Barton is helping to get the old home ready for sale. Dottie Parish Peterson reports that her only exciting news is having her cataracts removed. Thanks, Dottie, for reminding us of how old we are. Anne Hyde Dale still loves walking the hills and mountains around her home and says that they take a weekly trip to town to the Aldi in Asheville. I have two pieces of news to report: one good and one not so good. My youngest brother Roy and his wife, Cheryl Cape West ’74 had a family wedding in their yard, when their youngest, Cullen, married Daria on April 24. My sister, Marion West Hammer ’65, learned that her oldest grandchild, Caleb (11) has osteosarcoma, which fortunately has not spread (Hallelujah!). He started his first round of chemotherapy at St. Jude on April 23. May God continue to bless us all and be merciful to us.
1971
T
Carolyn Cockroft
he Class of ’71 became proficient Zoomers prior to their quasi-50th class reunion, thanks to Jean Schelhorn and her technical expertise! We completed six virtual meetings, and within five weeks we located ALL but three classmates for whom we continue the quest to find. As one of us observed, “We probably wouldn’t be getting together like this if it was just coming to Memphis for the reunion.” How true! Deborah Abernathy is the executive
