Date: 7 January 2004
From: Bonnie

Boy, have I fallen behind with the
--start of 2004, my Neighborhood Watch Program, duties to my newspaper, houseguests from Minnesota and the United Kingdom, not the mention the normal everyday routines of household and grandchild care and pet care, etc., I've gotten simply overwhelmed. Not to worry, for I'm back now! (Not that anyone was worried, but I actually have a couple of you who have asked why I haven't sent anything for quite a few days. How flattering!)

From WILLIAM O. WALKER, Class of 1960, came a series of " sound bites for the New Year," which I was unable to open, I'm sorry to say. I also suspect that came from you, Karen, rather than Bill. The Walkers remain busy working the San Bernardino County fires, I'm sure.

SANDRA L. BARSALOU, Class of 1958, also sent along greetings and best wishes for a great New Year for everyone. Not everyone had such a Happy New Year, though, according to flood photos sent by WILLIAM R. HOWARD, also Class of 1958. One sign which showed in those photos, alluded to Bellbrook, where another of my 1960 classmates resides, SHARON BORGER.

There is still no success with sending e-mail to 1959's RICHARD C. HENSLEY. But perhaps he will soon be back up and running. GARY BARNES, will you keep me posted on that? I also want to thank you, Gary, for making the effort to help with my ongoing search for my classmate, NINA KNISLEY. Gary jumped in with both feet on that one and agreed to make all the effort he can. I appreciate that.

My efforts continue, to acquire any and all copies of our yearbooks, regardless of the year. If any of you would like to donate, trade, sell or whatever, please let me know about that before going to other sources. We've got a lot of people on our list who are in the market for several different editions. These include 3 1960s, 2 1959s, 1 1958, 1 1955, 1 1951, 1 1949, 1 1948, and I still seriously covet an original 1941, an original 1936, and will swap one of my children for anything original between 1926 through 1933. Got it? Among the more serious collectors on my list, aside from myself, are WILLIAM L. MCNABB, Class of 1954, DELORES K. FAHRNEY, Class of 1960, and 1958's BRUCE E. CHENOWETH. I have a list of the books for which these alumni are searching, so if you've got anything, let me know, please.

Class of 1961's EDNA L. GRAY, reports that she has finally completed her collection, which she's been trying to do for years. Edna wanted to have in her library, one book for each year that she and her sisters, FLOSSIE & BRENDA, attended WCHS. She finalized the set just during the past week, with the acquisition of the 1960, which had belonged to JUDY L. SAMUELS. But Judy had buyers lined up, 3 deep, so she could have sold them over and over. I need 1960 editions for EDGAR L. KELLY, MADELEINE D. CAMPBELL, and BRUCE E. CHENOWETH. Get everything you can find, please!

Everyone is now aware of the great newspaper story on our former teacher, MURL E. HUFFMAN. I thought it was a great story, didn't you? I'm sure Mr. Huffman will be with us once again, at the 2004 alumni gathering. I especially liked that the writer quoted DONNA J. TUDOR, Class of 1955, in the story. By the way, SALLY L. GILLETTE, Class of 1961, kindly put a copy of it in the mail to me, on Monday morning. I'll add that to my stack of WC memorabilia. Many thanks, Sally. LARRY D. GILBERT, Class of 1961, checked in to say that he views Mr. Huffman as an inspiration for us all. Few would disagree with that. JIM LINDSEY wrote that, after 45 years, Mr. Huffman was still able to tell him not only his name, but his grad year, and where he sat in his Civics class Amazing!

Sally and I and BARBARA KOKOT (STEVE's Mrs.) did a little exchange on our love of the old curmudgeon, Andy Rooney, who is my favorite journalist and comment -ator, ever! It seems we share an equal love of Andy. It was almost like discovering all over again, all those WC girls who also loved my Sociology teacher, JAMES C. JOHNSON, just as much as I did.

BERTHA J. HOERNER, Class of 1957, shared a bit of her life with us, reporting to me that she has been a widow for the past 24 years, having lost her husband to cancer. Bertha says she just never found anyone who could measure up to her late spouse, so she never remarried. She continues to recruit people for the alumni effort and reports that her sister, BARBARA HOERNER, Class of 1955, will also soon be online and on our list. Bertha resides in North Carolina. One of our most popular WC girls, MARGIE L. MILTON, Class of 1957, also shared a bit about her own life. Margie wrote to say that she's been divorced for the past 18 years (although I can't begin to imagine WHY, unless it's a decision SHE made. Have you SEEN this woman? She looks just terrific, precisely like her senior photo, and I'll swear, I'm not exaggerating.) Anyway, Margie opted to return to her maiden name, following the divorce. She writes that she has one son and one daughter, five grandsons, and works from her home as a medical transcriptionist for Middletown Hospital. Margie says she loves keeping in touch with friends and there may be hope for you guys who live around there. The gorgeous Ms. Milton likes line-dancing. So get out those boots and polish them up! We all just love it that you have joined our list, Margie, and we hope to see you at all the WC functions!

DANNY L. WALTERS, Class of 1960, has checked in once again, in his search for old friend, ROBERT TANKERSLEY, Class of 1958 (?-1959?). Anyway, we need to give Dan a hand in finding Bob. So let's all pull together and see if we can do any good. We tracked him down to Miami, Florida, but that proved to be a dead end. I've now written to his first wife, NANCY BOWMAN HAYSLIP, who was once my step-sister for 9 years, on Dan's behalf. Her son's father is Bob and I'm hoping she'll have some answers for us. Bob was also once very close pals for years with one of MY old pals, LARRY G. RING. So Larry, do you happen to know where he is? If so, let us know, will you? I suspect the phone book in Dayton lists Bob's son, but I don't have one. Can any- body check? Dan, have you looked in there yet for those who are named Tankersley?

We have an answer to the query made by JAMES L. LINDSEY, Class of 1959. You may recall that he had questioned the outcome of the late-1950s tragedy which resulted in the death of JAMES ROSE's wife, LINDA MATHES. Well, Jim is alive and well and living with his elderly mother in Dayton. Her name is Mary and Jim takes care of her. I was wrong about the gender of the infant, though. The child was a boy and apparently he is a "junior," as his name is Jimmy and he lives there with his dad and his grandmother, too. It does not appear that DALLAS K. MATHIS, Class of 1961, would have been a relative, as Linda's name ended in "es," as I had thought. So there you are, Jim. I was happy to get this information, too. I've often wondered. By the way, I will not be printing the name of the informant. That person has requested journalistic anonymity, a request which I shall be honoring. But at least we have our answer.

L. EUGENE ZINK, Class of 1960, checked in to say he really enjoyed the Huffman story and to wish everyone a very Happy New Year. JUDY SAMUELS and I both have new-condition, second Florida homes for sale. Is anyone interested? Come on down! JUDITH FRANTZ, Class of 1961, checked in to say she loves the bulletins and reads them all and encouraged me to continue them. That most genteel and wonderful of southern ladies, EULA FAYE BAILEY, Class of 1960, wrote with similar comments and also shared that she has some company from Arizona. Eula Faye has promised a long "catch-up letter" sometime this week. LINDA JANE SNELL & LONNIE M. THACKER are reporting some problems in receiving on their e-mail. Let's hope that's all resolved now. My machine is telling me you are receiving, Linda. So if you do, please let me know. I got a full report on the birthday of SHIRLEY J. TUDOR, from her older sister, DONNA J. TUDOR. They spent the day together and Shirley made her famous cabbage rolls. As most of you are well aware, Donna and Shirley are the last surviving members of their original family, which also included the late DEANA TUDOR and the late DORIS TUDOR, so they are very close. My dear old pal, JOHN W. OBERLIES, JR., Class of 1961, also checked in to let me know that he's reading and enjoying all the bulletins and we had several, amusing exchanges about "the good, ol' days." It's always wonderful to hear from you, John!

Recently, I sent two packs of photos to NANCY J. ERTEL, Class of 1961, and she will post them to the internet for all "WC junkies" to view. It was during this exchange that I was informed that it's MICHAEL S. WEST, Class of 1960, who is maintaining the website which posts all WC news, even including all of my bulletins! So write this down, folks! Even if you miss a bulletin, you can pull it up and read it. This is great news for those who go on vacations or who shut down the e- mail for various reasons. This will save me a lot of extra mailings through the post office, too. So thanks, Mike, for another great job! Here it is, folks;
http://www.blogspot.com Visit often and read it all!

Bill McNabb and I completed our old WeCaTons and what fun it is to look through them. I suspect he's still transmitting the earlier ones to DeDe Fahrney, though. We'll all have them soon. I know one or all of us will remember to bring them to the functions, so that we can all view and enjoy them. Once again, many thanks to you, Bill. JOHN E. MCCLELLAN, Class of 1966, tried to share scenic photos of the Colorado River. I wasn't able to download them, but hopefully, some of the rest of you got them. CAROLYN SUE MCCLOUD's spouse, I suspect, John Mack, Jr., was unable to resist sending a Harley-Davidson joke, so if that was you, thanks, John. It made a lot good points, eh?

We still haven't gotten back a response from THERESA LYNN MOSES, Class of 1958, who was a recruit of ERCELL P. PHILLIPS, but hopefully, we will. In the meantime, I've tentatively added her to our list. Class of 1960's THOMAS L. WOLF, wrote to say that another 1960 person, DOROTHY J. WILLMAN, ran into yet another 1960 person ( I believe), SHIRLEY S. MILLER, and that she wishes to be added to the list. So I've also tentatively added Shirley and hope to soon get some clarification on her grad year, although I feel sure it's 1960. We had Shirley Sue Miller, while 1961 had no one by that name. But thanks, Tom and Dottie. I'm also trying to get an update on the progress of our classmate, DAVID MAYS, Class of 1960, who had knee surgery on December 22, I think it was. As soon as I know, you will also know.

My sister, JUDY ANN RISNER, Class of 1956, has now returned to Florida, for the remainder of the winter. Her son (and only child) will soon be deployed to Kosovo. She is not happy. I must get a check in the mail to JACQUELYN CRITZER, Class of 1948, so that I can get my photo album of all the grad classes. At $10 per book, that's quite a bargain.

We still have LOTS of folks on the list from whom I have not heard one SYLLABLE in weeks, and even months, in some cases. How about checking in with us, gang? It would sure be nice to know that you're getting these and that you're reading them. Also, a few lines about what's going on in your life, would be equally nice. So with that, I leave all of you with my usual wish for glowing health, great happiness, peaceful serenity, and boundless prosperity. Ciao!

---And there you have it! More at 11--- B

- posted by Mikey @ 5:57 PM