class notes

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1940s

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1946

Miriam Blechman Grimes
miriam2166@aol.com

Nancy Bailey Allchin flew to Seattle for an 11-week stay to help her doctor daughter recuperate from a broken ankle. In Maryland, Nancy has been representing the Baltimore Irvine Nature Center at community fairs as the center moves to a new location. She and Dick celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary. Nancy’s retirement community has added “Brain Aerobics” to its offerings of activities.

Louise Bossler Cervon, a Florida resident, now has added a Long Island residence for summers.

In Indiana Cora Casey Kilbourn answers phones and waits on people in her son’s camera-repair shop. Four of her children live in the Midwest and one in Spain. Corky and two daughters do craft shows; she makes cross-stitch crib quilts, bibs, and mittens, while her daughters make gift baskets, ceramics, and decorated wooden boxes. Corky has 19 grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. Her son and his wife have six birth children and a daughter adopted from China. Despite what she calls her “triple-A club” (arthritis, asthma, and allergies), Corky keeps going.

Happy Chiquoine Beacham moved to a new apartment in Longview, TX.

Peg Colby Doig reports she is 80 percent recovered from her stroke. She still lives in her house and doesn’t want to think about ever having to move.

Jinnie Copithorne Pollin and Jack took a cruise to the eastern Caribbean. Back in the US, they visited their children and grandchildren in Virginia.

Peg Eaton Koerner became a great-grandmother on her wedding anniversary. She still plays golf, bowls, swims in her heated outdoor pool, and plays in two bridge groups. She has been a volunteer at the same hospital for 34 years. She lives alone but credits activities and friends with keeping her active.

Betty Ewald Opie was delighted that a photo of her and Mary Diffenza taken during our 60th reunion was published in the 2007 reunion program book. Betty visits Audrey VanDahl Cortelyou in Florida every year. Betty’s granddaughter Abigail was married in May; she is an admissions counselor at Brown University where she met her husband, who now coaches football there.
Trish Gibson Beetle is still active with Quaker peace efforts. She took time to visit son Chris, who lives in India.

Ginny Given Gregory’s third great-grandchild was born in September. A granddaughter is a sophomore at UCS. Ginny’s 28-year-old walked from his home state of Washington to Florida, raising over $12,000 for Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in memory of his mother, Carolyn, whose leukemia was discovered at his birth. Because of the care she received at “Hutch” she lived another 20 years.

In Massachusetts Marion Gregg Kimball is still enjoying her home of over 50 years, despite the fact that instead of being filled by a family of eight, it is still full of her stuff. Ronnie says keeping track of her ever-expanding family and making time for friends, volunteer work, bridge, and summer parties in Plymouth is full-time employment.

Faith Hope Barnard spends summer months in Evanston, IL, seeing grandchildren and friends and bemoaning the monumental condos that are “uglifying” the scene. Faith is going through her grandfather’s Civil War papers. She and Dave, whose back is “somewhat better,” enjoy family visits in Florida.

Although they both live in Denver, CO, Ann McWhinney Watson and Liz Drennen managed to “avoid” each other for well over 30 years. Mac says it’s been great fun catching up over the last two years. Our heartfelt condolences to Mac, whose youngest daughter, Candace, succumbed to ovarian cancer in July. Mac says, “Candace was a beautiful, wonderful woman gone too soon.”

Blanche Meehan spends summers at Lake George, NY, and winters in Florida. Hurricane Wilma was the first she’d experienced and became a major factor in her decision to move to a life-care establishment. That move kept her from attending Reunion; she hopes to make the next one.

Cyrena Parker Konecky took her extended family on a Caribbean cruise. She sold her weekend home in Jim Thorpe, PA, as it was a bit too far from her Manhattan home. Cyrena maintains her electrolysis practice on Fifth Avenue, across the street from the New York Public Library.

Jan Peters Gardiner and Dick have been married 59 years. Dick still plays golf, but Jan has given it up due to back surgery three years ago, “bum” knees, and various other aches and pains. Overall, she reports they live “quietly.”

Virgin Islander Ruth Pflanz Frank missed Reunion because she had a major heart attack and was medivac’d to Florida, where she underwent a triple bypass and rehab before returning home. Sis is recovering, going to the gym, doing yoga, and keeping busy with the St. John School of Arts. She comments that everyone has now discovered her lovely island, but she wouldn’t live anywhere else.

In New Hampshire Fran Schermerhorn Sherley had a difficult year tying up loose ends after Warren’s death in December 2006. She keeps busy playing tennis and staying involved with the Hopkins Center, Wood Museum, garden club, and International Women’s Club. Son David and wife live in Wheeling, WV.

Ernie Schultz Newton and John enjoy a yearly stay at Hilton Head, SC.

Connie Seeley Andrews had resolved to clear up the 45-year accumulation of “things” in her home. Then she fell down 26 stone steps at her condo, injuring her head and much of her body. It has been a long recovery, and she still has trouble with stability, but she is grateful to be alive.

Pris Smith Osbourne is doing well with a cane and the help of son John, who lives with her, after her stroke. She can drive still, and she reads a lot. They visited her daughter Carol at Christmastime, when she met some new great-grandchildren. Pris was in Massachusetts last May, visiting with her widowed son and her granddaughters.

Mary Wolfe DiRenza has moved into the same retirement community that her mother lived in many years ago.

Joy Miller Brown is in touch with Mary-Jean Robinson Ridout. Joy and I have seen each other twice in the last few months. She and Ralph took me out to dinner when I was on a Victorian Society study tour to her area. Then, returning from Christmas with their family in Virginia via a stop at their son’s home in a Philadelphia suburb, Ralph and Joy came by to see an exhibit of Jewish ephemera from my collection of Judaica at a local synagogue museum.

My eldest grandchild is a freshman at Penn State, the alma mater of both her parents. (Obviously, I am a decade behind many of you, having married at the age of 33.) On a June trip to Israel with my son and grandson, I visited my sister on her kibbutz near the Syrian border. We also toured the country, which has changed much since my last visit 15 years ago. A local Jewish museum staged a three-month exhibit of “The Miriam Grimes Collection: Jewish Ephemera.” Now I am wondering what to do with the collection! I also made a Jewish Heritage Elderhostel trip to Italy last spring. Besides being involved with the Philadelphia chapter of the Victorian Society and attending theater performances, I enjoy seeing my local young grandsons as often as possible.