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1960s

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1963

Deborah Frankel Reese
bybynj@aol.com

Anne Schwiebert sent a New York Times article (Suffolk-area edition) featuring CC Crosby Bookout’s pottery. The reporter visited the studio where CC has plied her trade for 35 years. Moving from NYC, CC became a founding member of an artists’ cooperative, New Forms, which is still functioning. Well-known in the area for her “interesting, beautiful, and functional pottery,” CC has recently gone off in a major new direction, studying Eastern coil throwing. She has been studying at Hood College in Frederick, MD, toward an MA in ceramics. A course-required show will be held next fall at Cecily’s Gallery in Mattituck, at which time she will be presented with her master certificate. CC notes, “I’m finding myself drawn to exploring, through this technique, the connection between the productivity of women and the productivity of the earth.”

In a holiday letter Jack Morse, husband of Ginny Payne Morse, reports that she is still at Clark House Skilled Nursing Facility at Fox Hill Village in Westwood, MA. She moved there in April 2004. She would love to hear from classmates. There is a phone at her bedside, and if she is able, she will answer it. If not, you can leave a message, and when she is up to it, she’ll return your call. Mail may be sent the Morses’ home address in Concord, MA. The family enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving in Concord, with Ginny spending several hours at home that day. Jack adds, “By the way, Ginny Nyvall Durfee has achieved sainthood for visiting Ginny very frequently. She fixes her former roommate’s hair and does other such helpful things. During Thanksgiving week, she brought over a local women’s singing group to perform for Ginny and her friends in her nursing-home room.”

In Sonoita, AZ, Deborah Acton Tollefson feels “betrayed” by her body, after ending up in the hospital last March with a herniated disc, followed by a knee injury in September. She is back to limited weekly hiking, aided by husband Bill and several good friends. Treatment required weekly visits to Phoenix, where she stayed with daughter Susan and visited with grandchildren Austin, 10, and Audrey, 7. Her latest grandchild was born in June; Deborah met the new addition last summer while accompanying granddaughter Amanda, 15, back to Deborah’s son Daniel in Boston to meet her half sister. Her injuries caused Deborah to fall behind on her tax-preparation work; she also still does the monthly financial reports for her church in Nogales. Deb’s mother, 90, lives quite independently in New Hampshire, and her Dad, at 91, even got in a ski day around Thanksgiving. Church, physical therapy, and hiking continue to fill Deborah’s days at the ranch.

In January Lucretia Robbins (aka Chrissie Fueller) held an exhibition of her most recent abstract paintings at JMS Gallery in the Chestnut Hill section of Philadelphia. Lucretia has retired from teaching art but still holds summer classes for girls in her sumptuous gardens. She and husband Bill, who works with National Public Radio and frequently travels to third-world nations, hosted a Mongolian family this winter. Lucretia says the 11-year-old was a delight. She also finds her three grandchildren a delight and spends as much time as possible with them.

After throwing a big Hanukkah party for friends, Jane Finneman Hochman and husband Jack flew to London and stayed for a couple of weeks. They go several times a year (they keep a small flat there, right at Nottinghill Gate in Kensington) but especially like going in December: “We see our many British friends, go to the theater nearly nightly, and see all the museum exhibits. Then there are the January sales!” The Hochmans also stay busy with grandchildren, which seems to have become “a veritable part-time business!” They have decided that there is “nothing more important or fun” and are “enjoying every minute.” A book Jane co-authored, Mental Health in Early Intervention: Achieving Unity in Principles and Practice, was published in March. The authors are promoting their book by giving lectures at professional conferences.

After more than 30 years J. Hunsinger was contacted by Wendy Rouder. “Wendifred (she’ll croak if she remembers this is how some of us remember her) was probably my best friend, my fellow drama major,” says J. “We kept in touch until our lives just got wildly different. How exciting to get back in touch with that time in my life.” An English-as-a-second-language instructor, J. has opted for another year in China. She spent the previous year in Jishou, Hunan, in interior central China; her current location in the southeast, coastal, prosperous region three hours south of Shanghai is “incredibly different, as are my students.” She describes her current students as extremely well off and a bit spoiled, but enjoyable. The young women she taught in Jishou were “hard workers, poor, often from peasant families; their education really meant more of a pass out into the real world.” A sizeable group of her students will go abroad, and “preparing them for this seems meaningful,”
says J.