University of Mary Washington - Index

University of Mary Washington - summer08 - Index

62
CLASS NOTES
a “wonderful trip” on the American
steamboat round trip from New Orleans
on the Mississippi River, and she spent
two days sightseeing on her return.
Eileen Cella Manze has been
feeling much better, and she was keeping
her fingers crossed. She moved into a
new condo in the same condo group, but
it is closer to her family, which gives her
added support.
Phyllis “Bee” Melillo Shanahan
and John moved back to Connecticut
to a house that she said is too small,
but a huge storage rental helped. Bee
enjoys views of the Long Island Sound,
fishing, and gardening. Last summer
Bee, her daughter, and granddaughter
traveled to Russia, where they toured
the Hermitage, saw Swan Lake and the
circus, and cruised the Volga River. The
Shanahans spent the winter in Deerfield
Beach, Fla.
Dotty Booth Sanders sent a
Christmas card that was a family
picture complete with three family dogs.
Dotty reads for both grandsons’ school
classes. She also continues her task of
love by sending cards of cheer, hope,
sympathy, and faith to persons known
and unknown. Her husband, Dewey,
completed five marathons last year!
Gretchen Hogaboom Fisher is an
avid gardener. However, that previous
Class Notes entry about her going
to Mississippi for
rebuilding of gardens
was wrong. The trip
got canceled.
Betsy Land
Johnson spent
much of January in
Torremolimos, Spain,
on the Costa del Sol,
where she and her husband had been
two years ago. This year they were joined
by Betsy’s sister and her husband, and
Betsy’s oldest daughter and her family.
Betsy and her sister planned a trip to
China to check out the preparations
for the Olympics. In February, she and
husband David celebrated their 50th
anniversary.
Patricia Seitz Hartel of Wayne, Pa.,
left Mary Washington in 1953 to attend
UNC-Chapel Hill and later married a
Duke law graduate. She is an associate
broker still active in real estate and her
husband practices law.
Sally Watson Castle was in Florida
for the winter. She and her sister, Jane
Rawlings ’57, went on a wonderful trip
to Chile and Patagonia at Cape Horn.
Ann Turner Norris, a pre-nursing
classmate, was at Mary Washington for
only two years, but has fond memories
of Willard and Virginia. She graduated
from U.Va.
Nancy Shope Armbruster wrote
of a September trip with Joe to Boulder,
Colo. They attended the wedding of
Jackie Whitehurst Hertz’s daughter,
which was in gorgeous gardens in the
foothills of the Boulder flatirons. Then,
in November, Jackie and her husband
came to Santa Fe for a long weekend.
The gals enjoyed some Santa Fe
attractions, while their husbands hunted
elk. Elk burgers were enjoyed by all.
The Armbruster’s live in the El Castillo
Retirement Apartments in downtown
Santa Fe. Nancy is recovering from a
long and difficult illness with sciatica
and is now able to walk again without
her walker. She hoped to increase her
walking distance enough to be able to
go to an Elderhostel in the Greek Islands
in March.
Roberta “Bert” Linn Miller
has been married for 48 years and
has a daughter and a son. She taught
home economics in Pensylvania, near
Charleston, S.C., and in eastern Ohio,
where she studied tole painting. Bert was
among a group of 16 girls who started
at Mary Washington in the summer of
1952, but who graduated with our class.
Others included Barbara Dean Smith
and Anastasia “Buttons” Petro, Bert’s
roommate at Trench Hill fall of 1952.
Roberta thinks Ann Strickler Doumas
was the youngest to graduate with our
class, and that Roberta, at 19, was the
second youngest.
Sally Hanger Moravitz and Fran
took an Elderhostel trip to Chicago
in July and later that month flew to
Saratoga, N.Y., for Fran to see the
races. Sally played on a hunch and won
$117 on a $4 bet. Sally is a volunteer
Smithsonian docent with the insect and
butterfly exhibits.
On a hunch, Sally Hanger
Moravitz ’55 played the races
in Saratoga, N.Y., and won
$117 on a $4 bet.
Sue Bedell Albee delivered the sad
news that Betty Billingsley Hill passed
away on Nov. 7. She was visiting her
granddaughter in Olympia, Wash., when
she fell down the stairs at the condo, hit
her head, and died. It was a shock for
everyone.
Sue’s Mary Washington roommate,
Judy Garrett Williams, still lives in the
same house in Charlottesville, and she is
in garden club and Bible study groups.
Carol Cooper represented our
class in the Founders Day Convocation
program in March. Mary-Margaret
Papstein Carter planned to accompany
her. She sees Anne “Miss” Hungerford
McKinlay and, while attending a
wedding in Ohio, she visited Barbara-
Sue Smith Holdeman and Bob.
Charlotte Fisher Klapproth and
Chris took a trip to the San Diego
area in February with stops at the San
Diego Zoo, the Scripps Aquarium,
Coronado, Torrey Pines, and Oceanside,
a monastery built in the late 1700s . They
planned a May flight to Prague followed
by a river boat cruise on the Elbe River
to Berlin, from which they would
visit nearby towns to research Chris’
grandfather’s relatives.
A sad note from Charlotte is that
Anne Collins Hawes passed away.
UNIVERSITY OF MARY WASHINGTON MAGAZINE����������������
All’s well in sunny California. It
rumbles a bit, sprinkles a bit, and burns a
lot, but what the heck – it’s in the 70s for
most of the winter. Take care until the
next pleading on my part.
1956
Ann Chilton Power
7301 Lakota Road
Remington, VA 22734
Acpower1@earthlink.net
In January, my youngest son and his
family returned to Washington after a
four-year assignment in Germany with
The Wall Street Journal. At Christmas,
I visited my oldest son and family in
Reno, Nev., where he is now publisher
of the Reno Gazette-Journal, a Gannett
newspaper.
Phyllis Block Brotman received
a doctorate of humane letters and
was commencement speaker at
Towson University. She served on our
endowment fund board for many years.
Lee Blank Richmond teaches
counselor education at Loyola
University’s graduate school and is
directing a grant that benefits firstgeneration
college students. She is also
a consultant and trainer for the U.S.
Postal Service. She had chapters in two
books published this year, one on Babe
Didrikson and another on counseling
European Americans.
Suzie Heap and Nick had a
grand five-week trip to Argentina. Her
daughters were evacuated during the
California fires last year, but their homes
were spared.
Judi Smith Hermanson splits
her time between Point Loma in San
Diego and a cabin in the mountains
of Idyllwild. The fires missed her, but
drought has made everything tinder-dry.
Hermine Gross Fox flew to Fort
Lauderdale, Fla., and visited with Dee
Grove McNelis before boarding a cruise
along the Panama Canal and returning
to San Diego. In late spring, she cruised
in the Mediterranean. In August, she
took a river cruise down the Rhine and
was in the eastern Caribbean on yet
another trip when fires were raging in
Orange County. It seems that all who
reported in from California suffered
smoke and ashes but no losses.
“Red” Rosanelli Metzger sold her
house to her daughter and son-in-law,
but lives in a nearby condo apartment.
She took a cruise in the Baltic area from
Copenhagen and visited Stockholm and
St. Petersburg. She also made two trips
to Florida.
Last spring, Frieda Headley Byrd
attended the 50th reunion of her nursing
class at U.Va. On the way, she spent a
day with Tatum Newbill Saunders in
Nelson County. She participates in water
aerobics and her church choir. She and
her extended family, five children and 11
grandchildren, get together each June at
Hilton Head.
Marilyn Taylor Breckley and
Bob celebrated their 51st anniversary
last June with many fond memories of
their Mary Washington courtship days.
She has kept in touch with Barbara
Mead Heishman and, until a few years
ago, with Jean Thurman Baker in Gig
Harbor, Wash.
June Tingler Buie met her nieces
from Virginia in Las Vegas in October.
She and her husband travel to Chicago to
visit two of their sons and their families;
a third son lives in Newport. They enjoy
trips to the Palm Springs area and hope
to see Julie Smith Cooke and Bob this
year.
Sadly, Dee Grove McNelis, who had
suffered from supraneural palsy, died on
Oct. 15. She was interred at Arlington on
Nov. 13. Margie Schauer and I attended.
Nanalou West Sauder, vice rector
of the UMW Board of Visitors, is also on
the investment committee and enjoys all
the work involved for our alma mater.
She took her family to England and
Scotland for a two-week trip last June.
She ran into Betty Davies Morie and
Paul at a restaurant in Staunton and
reports that Ozzi Mask directed her
Potomac Harmony group in the Sweet
Adelines International competition in
Calgary last year. That certainly evokes
some memories.
“Bee” Melillo Shanahan ’55 wrote
of the Aug. 3, 2007, passing of Edward
Petraiuolo Jr., husband of our classmate
Catherine Pizzuti Petraiuolo.
Suzanne Borke Grasberger and
Tom took a trip to St. Augustine, Fla.,
with stops at the old coastal cities along
the way and visits to the Kennedy
Space Center and Sarasota. They spent
a family beach week in June at Holden
Beach, N.C. They enjoyed the races at
Montpelier in the fall with Bev Almond
Tucker, Louise Hanselman Bowman,
their spouses, and their extended
families – an event they have all enjoyed
for years.
1957
Polly Smith Nelson
4831 Bay Villa Ave.
Tampa, FL 33611
The classmates I contacted said they
didn’t have much newsworthy news –
just the usual good times and visits with
children and grandchildren.
Peg Preston Johnson took a trip
to Alaska. Libby Fordham, Foncie
Lawrence Williamson, Jane Watson
Rawlings, and Jane’s sister, also a Mary
Washington graduate, joined 17 other
classmates for a Mary Washingtonsponsored
trip to Chile and Argentina.
Jane said it was excellent. She and Bruce
Ritchie Spain planned to get together
in Florida.
Vickie Majure Souder and
husband Bill spent Christmas in London
with daughter Betsy, son-in-law Jeff, and
their four children. They then traveled to
South Africa for a magical trip to Cape