from Jonnye Dee Doering
Williamson in Port Arthur
There
seems to be some confusion on our website. I mentioned earlier
that I had lost my Mother, Brother and Stepmom in '06. It now seems that
when people are reading it, they think my brother, Johnny (John Doering, class
of '67), passed away. He is alive and well. I have 3 other brothers
on my father's side. It was one of those brothers that I lost last year.
Johnny is doing fine and well.
from David Aucoin in El Cajon, CA
Hi! I kind of dropped off the side of the
earth in California where I went to the Navy for 21 years. Not enough money to
get out and go home to Port Arthur. Visited several times not enough to stay.
Second marriage. Two grown children. 1 blood grandchild. 3 step grandchildren.
Working at Fry's Electronics in San Diego,California. Working there 10 years.
Live in El Cajon, Ca. About reunion, I did come by once when I was there. Didn't
recognize too many people. Thank you for asking about me.
David M. Aucoin Class of 68'!! (What ever happened to the Yellow Jackets?)
from Janette Light Norton in
Amarillo
(This is a response to my question of
how she ended up in Amarillo)
We ended up here in 1990 and have had a love/hate
relationship with it ever since. We left Bridge City in 1983 for my
husband to go into air conditioning in Denton. More than that reason
though, was I had gotten critically ill because of a toxic poisoning. So,
at the very least, we wanted our babies to be close to their granny who had
moved to the Denton area some years before. Then, my husband's job as
Director of Operations at West Texas A&M kept us here. In fact, everything
is nice except for some occasional long winter nights. The sun shines 340
days a year, roaches and mosquitoes drop in about every 3 or 4 years, and yes,
it is a dry cold.
Along
the way, I have taught Spanish and English, gotten my MS in educational
mid-management, certified as educational superintendent, become a reading and
writing consultant, and several other things. Besides living in PA, this
is the longest we’ve lived anywhere. I love it all but nothing compares to the
joy I have each time I get a ‘68 Update because, as long as we’ve been gone,
with as many places as we’ve lived and with my family spread around the state,
I feel ex-patriated. Everyone in my “new” homes knows me as an adult;
I prefer light-er times.
Neither
of my kids are married, but I’m trying to change that. My son, cuter even than
his father, is an electrical apprentice. My daughter is graduate of UT,
still in
Austin
, and a flight attendant for Southwest Airlines. If anyone has an eligible
bachelor or bachelorette in the family, get those pictures coming my way!
And
that’s more than you wanted to know…
from Mike Faulk in Bridge
City
My youngest daughter, Christy, gave birth to Seth
Allen Stephenson. , 8 lbs. 1oz., 20.5 inches. Mommy and baby
and daddy doing fine. I have checked out the website. It is
amazing. You two must spend lots of hours working on it. You are to be
commended. And I saw that picture of me and Fred Hollier you
snuck in there. I am really enjoying retirement. Only problem
is that the older you get the more you realize what little time you have in this
world. Better make the best of it. Oh well, gotta head to PN-G to
substitute this morning.
from John Wilson in Houston
Well, alright....Since you asked, I am cycling in
this year's MS(muscular sclerosis) 150 from Houston to Austin April 21-22, (I
have attached a link for contributions...), but traveling has been put on hold
for a bit. Janie and I took our daughter to Denton, where she'll be
studying Interior Design (that was traveling, right?). Janie has quit
teaching and staying busy, we both mentor and that is very rewarding. I
work for a seismic acquisition/processing company where I supervise the
processing portion of the work. Our product is sold to oil and gas
companies to use in drilling wells. I usually have from 2 to 10 people
working with me, depending on the size of the project. This work has taken
me to many places around the world in the 30+ years I've been in the industry.
All in all, it's been a very good career, with only a few down turns.
How's that, Linda?
Below is the above mentioned link for online
contributions and below that is my adddress for mail-in contributions.
John F. Wilson
11802 Glenway Drive
Houston, TX 77070
Thank you for your support in this very worthy
cause.
John
PS See you in Austin.
from Debbie Borres Desmond
in Nederland
My husband, Raymond, quit work the end of Dec (he
says he retired, as he is only 21/2 years older then me, he's not old
enough to retire). He bought me a new sewing and embroidery machine.
It will do patterns up to 5/7. It has the computer software to make
patterns and I will even be able to do portraits on the embroidery machine
(thats when I learn how to use it). We have been playing two games with
friends, Wahoo and Farckle. We will bring these games with us on the
Reunion Cruise as this is the couple we are going with Raymond is
looking forward to the trip. I am getting more and more nervous
The last I heard there were still some tickets left Looking forward
to working on the reunion again. Thanks for all the updates you and Mike are
doing Hope everything is fine for all of you.
(Check out the BULLETIN BOARD for
information about the cruise that Debbie is speaking of).
from Joel Levy in Houston
I am so glad that you sent me the postcard to tell
me about the Class Website . I stayed up half the night before New
Year's Eve catching up on all the back updates. Jane Lippincott's
statement is so true -- to paraphrase, we need each other more now than ever.
Billy Jordan's set of updates was very interesting for me. I got back in
touch with him right off the bat. It seems Billy, your husband, and
I are
all now members of the same club. In June '06, I was diagnosed with
prostate cancer, and in late August, I went through the same robotic surgery
that Billy was to have in November. That surgery turned out to be a snap,
and I would suggest it to all that find themselves in that predicament. I
am also on a bandwagon, urging all guys our age to get their PSAs measured every
year, or more often if this runs in their families. That's what caught it
early with me.
Anyway, to catch up, I have been married for 27 years, and because of graduate
school and no money, we got married late and we started our family late. Our son
Daniel, who is 20, is a junior computer science major at Hendrix College in
Conway, Arkansas, a sort of suburb of Little Rock. He is now beginning to
think about what he is going to do when he graduates. Anybody need a good
computer programmer? We also have a 16-year old daughter, Maureen, who is
a sophomore at Bellaire High School. She enjoys being on their dance drill
team, the Belles, which is sort of like our Swingsters, except independent from
the school band. My wife, Judi, is a special education teacher,
specializing in remedial Reading and Math for learning-disabled elementary
school kids. She is also the special ed chairperson at her campus which means
lots of paperwork. I think that some of the folks in our class have met
her at the reunions.
I still work at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, and am a
neuropsychologist doing research in Alzheimer's disease. For the past
three
years, I have been affiliated with a laboratory that is looking for an early
detection biological marker specific to Alzheimer's, and we believe we are on
the trail of one. Currently, Alzheimer's is diagnosed after excluding all other
reasons for memory loss. With a definite marker, diagnosis can be made
earlier so that people can receive treatment earlier. Additionally, this marker
has provided us clues about how and why the disease progresses. This also
gives us a hint about how to intervene in the process. We are looking into
medications that may stabilize the disease before people decline. Then, people
will just take the medication, like some do for high blood pressure, and remain
at the same cognitive level. My part is to give the cognitive examinations
to our participants that are then correlated with the lab values.
My mother passed away ten years ago, but my father is still very well, thank the
Lord, and active at 87, and still living at his same place in Port
Arthur. My brother Jay (TJ grad - I forget when - sometime around '71) and his
wife live in League City, and he is an engineer with a NASA contractor. My
sister Jan (TJ grad - sometime around '76) and her husband live in North
Houston, and she works for a bookstore there.
Linda, thank you and Mike so much for keeping the website and all of us
together.
from Loretta LaLonde Myers
in Houston
Glynn and I went recently went on a cruise. We
went on Carnival Conquest out of Galveston. It went to Jamaica, Grand
Cayman, and Cozumel. It was great to get away and we love cruising, but
now I'm trying to play catch-up with my AVON business. Our two daughters,
our sons-in-law and the 3 grandchildren are all doing great.
from Mindy Marburger Lawrence in
Houston
Like
many, I am thoroughly enjoying the UPDATES and the website enhancements that
seem to evolve with each posting. This
has been a year of changes for me that many of you know all too well. My
mom was diagnosed with colon cancer in the spring of 2006, at the age of 81.
She will not got to doctors, so she had to feel pretty ill to have made
this discovery, and we are hopeful that the significant resection will be the
only treatment required. My dad, on the other hand, effectively used
medical management
of a number of health challenges for years, not the least of which was
asbestosis. While his decline was inevitable, we were certainly not ready
when he died September 20th 2006, at the age of 82, on their farm west of
Brenham, in the house where my mom was born. Fortunately, we are not
too far away in Houston, because my independent mom will never leave her
homestead, her cattle, or her garden. Tim, my dear husband of 33 years, is
semi-retired, and has become my mom's right hand in many ways. I continue
to work in the field of nursing, as VP of Patient and Family Services for
Houston Hospice. After 15 years at MD Anderson, my last 25 years of
nursing (including some overlapping volunteer years) have been associated with
the beginnings and growth of this wonderful non-profit hospice. Tim and I
have one awesome daughter, Sarah (thoughtfully named, you must know, with the
special qualities and talents of classmates Sarah Flynn, Sara Little, and Sara
Hefty in mind). As a 2004 graduate engineer of the US Naval Academy, Sarah
moved to Pensacola for flight training and purchased a home there. Health
issues derailed that plan, so she shifted gears, went inactive reserves, began a
FT job in a local hospital, and is nearing completion of her 2nd degree, a BS in
Nursing, from the University of South Alabama. She plans to return to
Houston to focus on pediatrics in the fall. Having survived two hurricanes
in Florida, we look forward to her return to Texas a a less tragic 2007.
My check is in the mail to support your continued efforts on this remarkable
website. It really shines as a labor of love.
from
Billy Fowler in East Mountain, TX
In
response to your story in a previous UPDATE about that fateful day when we were
dragged kicking and screaming into this world, I would like to add my story.
Since the passing of my Mom in June of 2001, the person in this
world that I've known the longest is Robert Sandoval!!
We were born at St. Mary Hospital on January 25, 1950 and our mothers were
in the same room. We will just ignore that part about who saw who naked.
OK? Thank you!!
Living
large in East Mountain, TX (let's see you find that on a map)!
(Well,
I wrote back to Billy asking him about East Mountain, TX).
Well,
as you can tell from the address, I live in a rural area. We don't have a
post office so we must receive mail through the nearest one, which is in
Gladewater, Tx. where Smith, Gregg, and Upshur counties merge. (You can
tell you are a city girl.) East Mountain is located north of
Longview, Tx. just inside of Upshur county (about 20miles north of I-20) and
northeast of Gladewater. This is why I offered the challenge to find it on
the map. There are woods and hills and lakes everywhere. It is a
beautiful place to live and I guess this is where I will stay. We are
about 50 miles west of Shreveport, La. and 125 miles east of Dallas. I've
turned down offers to move, and I can't imagine what it would take to get
me to move to Houston. Certainly a lot more than the last offer and I
can't phathom anyone ever offering ME that kind of money.
from Bart
Darby on the road between Houston and Round Rock :-)
I
now have a Blackberry. It is great to get your UPDATE before I see it on
my e-mail.
*AND
NOW FOR THE SURPRISE VISITOR TO MAIL CALL*:
from
Mr. Lionel Rowland in Port Neches
(history
teacher at TJ) (He was also my homeroom teacher and we called ourselves
"The Mafia").
Rowland's
Mafia, now that brings back a lot of memories. We had a lot of fun with
that. I taught 9 years at TJ and 4 years at Lincoln for a
total of 13 years in the PAISD. I then taught in the Port Neches-Groves
ISD for 27 years. Forty years was all the fun I could stand. I was
the student council sponsor at Port Neches-Groves for 25 years. I retired in
2001 after 40 years of teaching and am having a ball. I decided that it
was time to retire when I realized that I was teaching grandchildren of former
students. I wanted to travel when I retired and that it what we have done.
We have taken three vacations on the east coast and two in the West. Of
course, I took Shaaron over the Civil War battlefields in the east and the
Indian wars battlefields in the West. However, this past June, we visited
most of the national parks in the West and didn't go to a single battlefield.
Shaaron and I are Sunday School teachers at the First Baptist Church, Port
Neches, where I also play the organ. We have seven grandsons and one
granddaughter. They all live in the Dallas and Lubbock area, so we don't get to
see them as much as we would like.
Thank you for taking time to write me. That was special. I remember
you well. Now that you have my e-mail address, keep me posted on
how things are going.
Thanks
again for writing.
The God Father of Rowland's Mafia
(Check out the new I REMEMBER WHEN link for a story about Mr.
Rowland's Mafia).
*****************************************************************************************************************************************************************
WEBSITE CONTRIBUTIONS
Mindy Marburger Lawrence
"You never mentioned a suggested amount for donations other than the
monthly maintenance fees of $6-$7 per month for the site. So, I'm just
stabbing in the dark here. I'm sure there are other expenses, but we will
rely on your plea before you risk losing an opportunity to continue or improve.
Thank you and Mike for all of your hard work."
Jenny Rhodes Hamilton
"Thanks."
Robert Sandoval
"Hope this helps."
Other classmate contributors previously mentioned:
Janette Light, Arlene Lang, Lizbeth Branick, Richard Daniels, Linda
Blakley, Janis Hamilton, Glenda Patin, Terry Watson, Tommy Thompson, Fred
McCarty, Charles Cramer, Gary Barbin, Jody Hopkins, & Carmen Babin.
Contributions may be sent to:
Linda DeCuir McFadden
112 Woodsong
Bridge City, TX 77611
*******************************************************************************************************************************************************************
CONDOLENCES
Mindy Marburger Lawrence
(loss of her dad, Sept. 20, 2006)
1511 Imperial Crown Drive
Houston, TX 77043
(713)467-9156
Karen Giles Hopper
(loss of her dad, Jan. 21, 2007)
1802 Glen Oak Court
Sugar Land, TX 77479
(281)343-7600
"PROJECT OBITUARY"
Thanks to all who are helping me obtain copies of the obituaries
of our 53 deceased classmates. It will take awhile to do this project, but
Mike and I want to add this section to the MEMORIAL when he finishes
revamping the site. Don't forget to finish looking and obtaining these
copies for me if I have contacted you for help. Thanks again.
*******************************************************************************************************************************************************************
I am very happy at the MAIL CALL response for this UPDATE. I know you are,
too. Please write to me no matter if you have told me, "my life is so
boring". Well, I think that you have just read some e-mails from some
of those same classmates that felt that way but wasn't boring afterall.
Just a reminder, unless you have updated your home address and info, then the
last listing I have on you is 5 years ago!!! Drop me a note like
Billy Fowler did to tell me about a change of address. Thanks to all
of you for whatever you have contributed so far to make this website a
TREMENDOUS SUCCESS! You would really be surprised at the positive
response we have heard from others from various classes and their webmasters.
Oh, last but not the bit in the LEAST, I am celebrating my 27 years as a cancer
survivor this week!!!
Stay safe and keep in touch,
Linda
DeCuir McFadden