class notes

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1950s

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1954

Ann Ballinger Wilcox
fuzzyduck@mindspring.com

Joan Gragnani Kaufman reports on her small retail business and invites us to visit her Web site, bibs4kids.com. Joan often sees Dolores Morris Hayward, a fellow Atlanta resident.

Congratulations to Roslyn Newman Wolin, who won first place in the senior division in the Pro-Am American Rhythm Championship in September. Ros, president of the San Fernando Valley Arts Council, reports that their fourth annual studio tour was a huge success.

A titanium hip keeps Barbara Churchill Thompson off the tennis court and at the bridge table when not traveling and “visiting the grands.”

A fractured wrist kept Lilli Brunner Kalmenson off the ski slopes in early 2005. However, spring brought healing and a return to the many activities she and husband Sid enjoy—including bridge, dates with children and grandchildren, mixed-doubles tennis, lectures, and theater. She still works on design projects with clients.

A surprise 75th-birthday fiesta was held in San Diego, CA, for Pearl McKenney Silvernale. Family, friends, and former writing students attended. Pearl is getting settled into a new home in Colorado Springs, CO.

Besides her full-time job as tax collector and CFO of Manasquan, NJ, Joanne Schmidt Madden is part-time treasurer for Interlaken and treasurer of school monies for Brielle and Manasquan. She still finds time to visit Aruba several times a year and enjoy her 10 grandchildren, ages
1 to 22.

Evelyn Smith celebrated her 55th Chaffee School reunion; took a trip to Grand Canyon, Bryce, and Zion National Parks; and enjoyed a week with friends in Henderson, NV. Evie dressed in a Pilgrim’s costume to celebrate her church’s founding 375 years ago.

Dorothy O’Keefe Dube travels from home in Roanoke, VA, to visit offspring scattered nationwide: Connecticut, Honolulu, San Francisco, and Salt Lake City. When you add in Poke’s personal tours to India, Machu Picchu, and Egypt, plus her travels with an ARC disaster team, you can see why she’s hard to pin down.

Joan Stevenson Brennan had a great visit with Olga Resta. They shopped in Half Moon Bay, enjoyed the San Francisco Symphony, and toured an exhibit at Mills College Art Museum, personally guided by the artist. After Christmas in Alaska with grandchildren, Joan is now following son Clay’s campaign for superior court judge in Mendocino County. Last year Joan visited Greece and Italy to see her daughter, who is stationed in Naples with the US Navy. Her son is serving at the Pentagon after a year and a half in Iraq.

In November Phyllis Rosenberg Kudan and Harold Kudan cruised to Tahiti while Harold served as ship’s rabbi for the Princess line. They spent a week on the island of Moorea at the Bali Hai.
In Albuquerque, NM, Mary Lou Ellis Sorenson works in real estate. A holiday stay with her children and 2-year-old granddaughter was a highlight of the season. As both Mary Lou’s son and daughter live in NYC with their families, such cross-county visits are truly special.

April 2006 promises golf and get-togethers in Florida for Marcia Weeks Clayton, Caryl Bruns Hutchens, and Barbara Cox Schanz. Closer to home, Marcia regularly sees Mary Grindley Shepard.

Pat Kennedy Snyderman maintains her hectic lifestyle in Manhattan, where she is one of the moving spirits in the Skidmore club. Pat corresponds regularly with Jill Shelling Remy, who teaches English in Hainan, China, “a tropical sunny island surrounded by palm trees and the South China Sea.”

For Christmas 2004 Sue Kellogg Cook cruised the Caribbean with one of her four children’s families. She spent winter 2005 in Florida, recuperating from hurricane damage. While there, she regularly sees Diane Webb Mackey. Sadly, Sue reports that Diane lost her husband last year. We send her our condolences.

Last spring Marion Clausen Gray attended her 55th reunion at Northfield-Mt. Hermon School in Quogue. Additional destinations included Minneapolis, MN; Haverford, PA; and Hilton Head, SC. And in NYC, Marcie visited old post-graduation haunts, museums, theaters, and restaurants. Back home in Atlanta, she and Woody keep fit by following the activities of their two granddaughters.

Great-grandmother Lydia Pardo McMinn stays on her toes by keeping up with extended family, traveling, and volunteering. Twenty-six family members gathered at her Thanksgiving table.

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