prostate cancer has returned and he has had to start hormone therapy. So far, no side effects but we’ve been warned of hot flashes, everything that we girls experienced when we went through menopause. We returned from a wonderful trip to France, a river cruise through Provence then up to Normandy just in time for this diagnosis. We’re muddling along with our 3 old dogs, the oldest 14 and the ‘puppy’ 8 (old for a standard poodle), as well as 4 chickens. We thought we were bored and needed more responsibility, hence the chickens! We’re looking forward to a Safari in Kenya in Nov.; Bill has threatened murder and mayhem on me if I insist on bringing any wild animals home! I’ll repeat Judy’s request to start thinking about our 50th in 2017. When we were students at SBC, did you ever think we’d actually be that old and be in the alumnae magazine as the ‘mature ladies, the blue-haired set (Excuse me, please. Most of us, at least I, get our color from a bottle—no blue hair.)’? We arrived on campus only 50 yrs. ago in Sept.—flying time, a repeating theme! Please consider a gift to the College—gifts add to our lifetime giving amount and what else are you going to do with your money? As my financial advisor instructed me, you’d better start spending and giving away your money or your children will! Any amount will be appreciated and adds to our giving percentage. Put your thinking cap on for fun things to do to get everyone excited as well as incentives for giving; we want to/will blow this one out of the water!
1968
Lynne Gardner Detmer
125 Wareham’s Point Williamsburg, VA 23185 lgdetmer@aol.com or lgdetmer@cox.net Hello to all, especially to the 12 or so of us who returned to SBC for our 45th reunion. Our cast of characters included Diane Hunt, Sara Granath, Emmy Savage, Connie Williams de Bordenave, Amanda de Coligny, Courtney Cash Mustin, Francie de Saussure Meade, Martha Bennett Conner, Amy Thompson McCandless, Blair Walker Lawrence, Kathy Obenchain Glass, Lynne Gardner Detmer and a few husbands and significant others. We certainly had a marvelous time together sharing experiences, joys, concerns, reminiscences…reconnecting in wonderful ways. We elected Martha Bennett Conner and Francie deSaussure Meade as copresidents and I am continuing as your class secretary. Yay and thank you! For our Reunion giving we had a stellar participation rate of 60% of eligible classmates. THANK YOU to our generous donors, and… get a new envelope started for our 50th reunion! Ahem…don’t forget where you put it! We wished that every last one of us could have been there for a magical weekend. Please PLAN on coming to our 50th! Make it a priority. Don’t worry that you will not be recognized…we all had to adjust to our different appearances! Besides, you’ll have nametags to help. Here are some post-Reunion comments: Courtney Cash Mustin: “It was really fun seeing all of you again in the environs of our alma mater. Hard to believe how fast the time has gone. Hope to see everyone again in 5 yrs. at the longest!” Francie deSaussure Meade: “It was wonderful seeing everyone at Reunion. Loved being together
again!” Blair Walker Lawrence: “I wonder if it is typical; our little group seemed to be closer, despite our differences in life experiences…It was wonderful to be with all of you.” A class note to share that got missed (my fault completely) in the spring issue: Addie Russo writes, “All good wishes for 2013. I doubt if I will attend Reunion because I am on sabbatical in France this term, finishing a book on the contemporary poet Michel Deguy. I am convinced that Sweet Briar is not interested in news from alumnae who have chosen academic careers. In 2008 I won 2 important prizes for my 2007 book “Le Peintre comme modèle: Du Surréalisme à l’Extrême Contemporain” (Presses Universitaires du Septentrion, 2007): the Modern Language Association Scaglioni Prize for the outstanding book in French and Francophone Studies published in 2007, and a Prize from the French Académie des Beaux Arts. It was a wonderful experience to find myself under the Coupole of the Institute de France to receive that award…I was also inducted as a Chevalier in the French Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2009, named director of the program in comparative literature at LSU that same yr. and awarded the Phyllis Taylor Endowed Chair in French Studies.” Addie continues, “2011 was a sad yr. marked by the death of my beloved father. I am in touch with Jane Weihman Block, Stephanie Bredin Speakman and Kristin Kuhns Alexander. Although I was not able to attend Alicia Glass’s memorial service, I shared my good memories of her with Melissa Allen Kalinowsky and Christina Bacchiani. I have lost touch with some of my Sweet Briar friends and would have liked to see them at Reunion.” Remember to send me Christmas letters, etc. for inclusion in the next issue. Deadline will be early in 2014! Thanks to you all, and have happy and healthy fall and winter seasons!
1969
Nancy Crawford Bent 14 Dopping Brook Rd. Sherborn, MA 01770 ascb614@comcast.net
Mary Lee Bell Coffey and Shelby, married 44 yrs. and parents to a 42- and a 39-yr.-old, apply the QTR test (Quality Time Remaining) to each new project, passing on the ones that don’t measure up. Mary Lee has retired from the trenches of the E.R. and is doing a lot of volunteer medical and advocacy work, finding it satisfying to get back to the reasons for going into medicine in the 1st place. Shelby is still involved with news and politics and has given a few guest lectures on the media, Washington, history, security and intelligence issues. He loves TED and All Things Digital and seems to have jumped to the next platforms easily. They recently spent a month in Scandinavia and Russia. Mary Lee is learning to speak Russian. Martha Brewer “retired” from LA St. U. in March and took some time off, traveling to Mexico and France. Happy in a new relationship and hoping to go back to work, she’s also working on Marriage Equality for all Americans. Increasingly dismayed by the use of Christianity to justify hatred and bigotry, and as the recipient of same, she worries about the future of our divided country and quoted MLK: “In the end, we
will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.” Hattie Coons Babbitt and Bruce, married 44 yrs. and still in the D.C. home they moved into in ’93, have 2 sons: Chris and wife Claire (both lawyers) also live in D.C. and have “2 perfect children”; son TJ & long-time partner David are planning to marry and Hattie and Bruce are thrilled. Bruce travels to the Amazon basin countries (mostly Peru), working to manage non-destructive development of the mineral resources of the Amazon. Hattie chairs the U.S. Water Partnership (USWP) and Population Action International (PAI) and hikes regularly with other women “of a certain age.” Hattie and Bruce traveled to Patagonia in 2012 and to Slovenia in 2013. After 37 yrs. working for someone else, Giana DePaul and another woman photographer now own their own business and are having a great time with it. Giana also serves on the boards of the Dallas Theater Center Guild, the Women’s Council of the Dallas Arboretum and Nexus (a rehab facility for young mothers and mothersto-be), and she is a member of the Dallas Museum of Art Women’s League. When not marketing her business (mostly by computer/phone) she spends the hot TX summer gardening & swimming with her 3 crazy rescue pups: a 10-lb. Dachshund, a 25-lb. Schnauzer and a 65-lb. Pit Bull. She had up to 6 dogs but luckily found homes for 3. Mary Follows Keith wrote, “If you want to see what this alum is into, go here: TheEscapeProject.org,” the website for Mary and husband Carlton’s foreign and domestic aid programs. Melissa Griffith Manning wrote, “I am fine, enjoying 4 grandchildren, still riding, helping Pam Noyes keep her horses fit, and pretty much not using my education for anything but enjoyment. Not a bad use for it, either.” Lesslie Guthrie Keller runs the nonprofit Episcopal Community Services, providing programs in education, housing and mental health services to San Diego Co.’s residents. Her son in Phoenix is involved in TV and film production; her daughter in Chicago works in publishing and is the mother of Gracie (3 1/2) and Sam (7 mos.), who are the delight of Less’s life. She sees Lin Rick Rosenthal in both Chicago and San Diego and last yr. had a fun reunion with Ginny Stanford Perdue, Mary Nelson Wade and Haden Ridley Winborne. I swap book titles with Cathy Hall Stopher, who appears to read even more than I do. She also plays “really bad golf” and is “a little better at bridge,” which she wishes she had played in the Smoker at SBC. Daughter Marshall’s Walter (1) and son Charles’s Lucy (2 1/2) are “both adorable, of course.” Claudette Harloe Dalton is occupied with her consulting job, spending time with her grandson and trying to clean out 40 yrs. of accumulated “stuff” so she can sell the house and downsize. Frequent travel for her “real job” (helping hospitals prepare for their accreditation surveys) has meant that flying has lost whatever romance it once held and sleeping in her own bed has become a treat. Aside from that, her only problems are the deer that eat her plants and an occasional power outage when the overloaded lines feel a breath of a breeze:
More class notes online sbc.edu/magazine “Life is pleasant but not exciting—which suits me.” Kim Johnson-Smith reports that she has gotten more conservative and is somewhat active in that department, “still never quite content, still always trying to ‘fix’ whatever I think needs changing. I still have my Political Philosophy text—which I actually use in some of my writings.” Living in rural Madison Co., where sludge, Clothianidin and GMOs are among her top issues, Kim is enjoying her 33rd yr. of maternity leave. She does scientific research for fun, took the Master Naturalist class, does anthrax drills and animal readiness programs for the Medical Reserve Corps, works on Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy and Healing Waters and general service to veterans through the American Legion Auxiliary, coordinates a food pick-up group for her local food bank, and is trying to learn “country skills” (sewing, knitting, art and shooting). Elizabeth Lewis and David are working a couple of days/wk., allowing them time to enjoy each other’s company and take advantage of local pleasures, e.g. biking in Golden Gate Park, seeing a museum show or a movie matinee. Stopping in Seoul for a few days en route, they traveled the Silk Road through Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan in 2013, which enabled them to add to their collection of textiles and rugs, and they plan to visit Myanmar (Burma) in 2014. Son Matt (28) is co-founder of an online clothing business, betabrand.com, a fusion of social networking and retail. He lives close enough to drop by for an occasional meal, do laundry or borrow the car. In Maui with Bob on their 35th anniversary trip, Mary Mahan Marco was driven inside by tropical storm Flossie and decided to send news. She recently contacted her SBC math prof. Phillip Kannan, “a terrific instructor who had a gift for developing math intellects in ways that didn’t seem possible. Without his courses, I’m certain I would never have completed graduate school. He taught the 1st computer programming class, Fortran, at SBC and provided many of us with our 1st computer experience, which included punching those 80 column cards in the basement of Boxwood.” Fellow math majors can contact him at pkannan@ColoradoCollege. com. Mary had a surprise encounter with Midge Yearly in Lewes, DE, where Mary and Bob just built their (future) retirement house and where Midge is active with the historical society. Mary also reports that Sue Roessel Gibson, retired from teaching, and husband Gene plan to cruise with the Marcos in 1/14, and Phyllis Girard plans to teach for 1 more yr. and spent this past summer at her house in Nova Scotia. Mary plans to retire in 8/14 from teaching math at Bucks Co. C.C. after 27 yrs. She has 2 grandchildren, David (2) and Monica, the new baby, and she wants more time to visit them in Wilmington, DE, as well as son Todd and wife Megan (Chicago) and John (Boston). Liz Medaglia and husband Joe Sinnott spent a lovely weekend last July with Erik & Peggy Davis Molander at Jimmy and Jan Sheets Jones’s beautiful vacation home in Narragansett, RI, eating, drinking and talking about the past and the future. In early
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