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Murphy
and I returned from our New York state vacation to return to nice, crisp, cool
autumn weather right here in good ole' SE Texas. I'm glad to be back to my
bed, my pillow, my 7 year old toy poodle, and my 2 granddaughters!
Now, it is back to "work". I hope that this
NEWSLETTER gives you a little bit of variety. I always try, but
don't always succeed. So, let's get to it.
from
Linda Blakley
Rindlishbacher in Oroville, CA
I just got back from N.Y. I wish we could have met up there. My
sister flew from Dallas and I flew from California. We had 10
days of sister fun. This is short as I have my grandaughters to watch over.
from
Buddy McDowell in Groves
I am married to a TJ '69 graduate, Phyllis Bower. We have 6 children,
1 granddaughter and 1 on the way. Our son Bryan is an engineer
in Oklahoma, Christopher is a mortgage banker in San Antonio, Tim is a medical
student at UTMB, Mary is an engineer in Houston, Lynae is a medical office
supervisor in Austin, and Nathan is a theatrical student at Lamar. My wife
and I are happily retired in Groves.
(Are you sure you are not "happily TIRED" after raising these 6?
Well, all I can say is you and Phyllis must have shot these kiddoes out of a
cannon to spread them all over the place. I guess you two just wanted to
have plenty of vacation spots to visit!)
from
Susan
Hardcastle Beaty in Phoenix, Maryland
Finally got around to reading the last 3 newsletters – my life gets pretty
hectic around October 15th, but no more tax returns to do now until
next year. We were also busy at the end of August; Narlin’s oldest son
got married here in
Baltimore
, and since the bride’s mother lives in
Atlanta,
I helped them with the wedding planning and logistics. I was thrilled to
get the chance to plan a wedding since I never had a daughter and Narlin had 2
boys, so I figured this was probably my only shot at it. We had the
rehearsal dinner on our backyard deck rather than a restaurant (I had the good
sense to hire a caterer!) It was a lot of fun – we don’t get all of
Narlin’s family together all that often.
When
I looked at the list of classmates who married classmates in the last
NEWSLETTER, I didn’t see Lyn
Fraser & Perry Lee. (We
added them!)
I ran into them at the last reunion, and didn’t know until then that
they had married. Perry was in my elementary school class as far back as I
can remember; maybe from kindergarten.
My
mom lost a few more tree limbs during Hurricane Humberto, but had no serious
damage (Thank God!).
As
far as bad news is concerned, my younger sister (TJ class of 73) has had a
recurrence of her breast cancer. She’s on chemo in
Ft.
Lauderdale
,
FL
where she has lived for the past 5 years. If they can shrink the tumors
with medication she can have surgery, but right now surgery is not an option.
Since she didn’t have health insurance where she was working when she first
noticed symptoms, it took a while to find treatment that she could afford.
I
can’t believe the next reunion is less than a year away! I’m looking
forward to it.
from
Shari Louvier
Parker in Houston
After being in the country for several years, I have heard so many old
wives tales, superstitions and folklore. I love them. I am putting
together a book. I just heard one this morning. My plumber told me to put moth
balls in a empty baby food bottle, punch holes in it and put it by the pilot
light. It keeps away bugs that will interfere with your pilot light. He
says it works. Also, scatter moth balls around you trailer, it keeps skunks from
getting under your trailer. I do hope that works. We all know the
"Eating carrots are good for your eyes". Actually they are. Also,
" Don't go swimming for one hour after you eat, you will get
cramps." We had a pool and I can't tell you how many times I heard this.
Really it doesn't matter unless you just had a huge Thanksgiving dinner and
tried to swim 50 laps.
Let's
have some fun. I bet everyone knows tons of these. Please share. Take a moment
to email or mail me your entries. I know we had so many in that area.
E-mail me. sharipar@yahoo.com with
your contributions to add to the book.
from
Sherry Clingan Armentor in
Groves
I enjoyed reading the list in the last NEWSLETTER listing "CLASSMATES
MARRIED TO CLASSMATES". I want to add one couple. Felicia
Hiatt and
David Petit.
(Yep, missed putting them on the list but certainly knew that they
have been happily married for bunches of years. Mike has added them.)
from
Felicia Hiatt
& David Petit in Texas City
When will we know the date of the reunion??? We're trying to
plan a family vacation and want to plan around the reunion.
(Now that is what I call a true classmate! Check out the REUNION news for
the date....hint: AUG. 1-2, 2008)
from
Beth Anne
Sutherlin Coakley in Bedford, TX
All these graduates taking vacations and I am still working TOO MANY hours.
(
I think we could take a poll and I don't think you are alone!)
*******************************************************************************************************************************************************************
Fred
McCarty has been working tirelessly for many nights trying to track down
classmates on our MISSING LIST. He is often having to find names of
siblings for me to try to contact when an address for a classmate hits a
dead-end. I have sent out postcards to those hoping to get a lead.
A few instances have been successful. A huge "thank you" to Fred
for his dogged determination. The following messages are the result
of some time well-spent in this effort.
from
Harvey Whitton in Newberg, Oregon
Hi, this is Harvey Whitton. I go by Joe nowadays. It was good to hear from you.
I visited the TJ '68 website and was very impressed! I wished
that I had received your post
card a month ago. My wife and I were in Texas just two weeks
ago. We were visiting with my mother and siblings.
A
little update on myself: After graduation, I enlisted in the Navy and
served two Westpac tours. I met the love of my life while on leave in
California. We married and settled down in California for a few years. I really
didn't care for California and she did not like Texas, so we settled for Oregon.
We love the state and have been here ever since. We have two boys and two girls
and two grandsons. There is another Whitton on the way. I have been working at
Boeing Aircraft for the last thirty years and just retired.
I
haven't kept in touch with anyone and do not recognize very many in the
yearbook, but it was still good to hear from you.
( It is so nice to be able to take a name off of the MISSING
list. I am glad that you have joined the LIVING and before
long you will be caught up on all the news and gossip! By the way....I'm
afraid you'll ALWAYS be Harvey to your classmates. That is just how it works.
Hey, you might just have company in Oregon. That is one of the states
that my husband and I have never been to but would love to visit! I'll be
nice and call you "Joe" when I show up on your doorstep. "-)
)
from
Frances Cook
Rigby in Henderson, TX
I'm not really MISSING! I received your postcard
and thought that I would send you my updated personal information. I would
love to hear any news about the upcoming class reunion, etc. Thanks so
much for "finding" me. I love the website!
Fred has
also helped in finding Susan Grimes, Robert Veal, Darrell Skillman, and
Sharon Richard!
But, there IS a down side.We
have also found TWO "possible" deceased classmates
(not confirmed yet). I will give you more information at a later date.
***********************************************************************************************************************************************
ROUTE
66
After Mike Lawson spent days scanning and publishing photos from the '66
annual to add to our website, I decided to try to contact as many '66
graduates as possible via e-mail to inform
them of their addition to our site. Seniors
of '66 is now a link on our home page.
The following is an e-mail message I sent out to the classmates that have
e-mail addresses listed on the CLASS OF '66 website www.tjhs-route66.com
This site can also be accessed under WEBSITES OF INTEREST on the menu bar at the
top of our
home page.
Hey
fellow Yellow Jackets,
Fellow classmate, Mike Lawson, and I run the website for our TJ '68 class.
A month ago, we added annual pages from your senior class of '66. I hope
you enjoy them. Please feel free to enjoy our website while looking
up photos of your classmates. We would like to hear from you about what
you think of our site. You might want to check out my NEWSLETTERS from the last
couple of years. There is news of classmates that you might know.
We also hope to add the class of '67 in the near future.
Our
reunion committee has been busy planning our 40th reunion to be held Aug. 1-2,
2008. We would like any suggestions that you might have to help us make it
an event to remember. You might even have suggestions of things we
shouldn't do. Let me hear from you.
Well,
I did hear from a few of '66ers
in just a few hours after I sent out this message.
from
Mike Babin '66 ('68 classmate, Carol
"Canny" Babin's brother)
Your web site looks great. I live in Bellaire (Houston). Still
working (another 10 years if I can). I have one son who is a freshman at
UT-Austin. I was able to see Charlotte
Pace and her mom last summer when I
was in for my class's 40th reunion. I was also able to
visit Larry (Pace) and his wife Nancy (Underwood) for lunch. It
was nice to see them. My sister Carol (Canny)
broke her collar bone a couple of weeks ago and had to have surgery to fix it.
She and Reed are doing well, otherwise. Thanks for adding our class
to your site. Enjoy your reunion.
from
Susan Robinson
Gannon '66
This is a wonderful website. Thanks for sharing it with our class of '66!
from
Jud
Hollingsworth '66
Great job!
The
following is the list of the names I was able to obtain from the 1966
website:
Keith
Abel; Rogers Adams; Billie Jo Self ; Mike Babin; Sam Badger; Yolanda & Paul
Barbosa-Daigle; Lovina McClain; Jim Beck; Reagan Bedford; Barbara Treibel; Joel
Bittensky; Caroline Handy; Carl Boettger; Linda Lockwood; Bobby Bowden; Leslie
Breaux; Susan Pierce ; Judy Buillion; Brenda Hicks; Lois Diamond; John Cotham;
Eloise Daigle; Rosa Bonura; Gina Delahoussaye; Malcom Dimiceli; Denise Loupe;
Roy Drewett; Ada Beth Hill; Donna Weatherly; Linda Cuccio ; Linda Newsome; Pat
Bass; Florence Griffith; Marsha Woodall; ; Cedric Fontenot; Liz Moss;
Donna Foster; Phillip Galloway; Susan Robinson; Kenny Gaston; Pat Andrews; Judy
Castille; Cherel Lene; Alan Hefty; Cherrie Hefty; Mike Hendryx; Phillip Hensley;
Tana Townsend; Jud Hollingsworth; Linda Becker; Mark Honea; Mary English; Virgil
Illa; Larry Dottie; Dee Robertson; Gretchen Jones; Judy Rogers; John Kanesaw;
Debbie Wilcox ; Bob Kirchmer; Janice Lawrence; Phyllis Barbin ; William Nepvew;
Christine Patin; Mariellen Showalter; Mike Thomas; Mike White; Pat Lyles; John
Parent; Skip Allen; Rose Zummo; Kent Koerth; Lionel Menchaca; Marilyn Theriot;
Earl Kitchens; Janice Broussard; Robert Weldon; Paul E. Martin; Mark Spooner
(If
you know of a '66 graduate that is not listed here and didn't receive my e-mail,
please send me their e-mail address and I will add it to my ever-growing list.)
******************************************************************************************************************************************************************
Faculty
contacts:
(please feel free to contact me with any
other faculty information)
(a
note from Mr. LeBaron)
I think the photograph identified as Tillman Richey and Mr. Rothenburger in the
Memorabilia section (Misc. Photos page 2) is incorrect. The
person with Tillman appears to me to be Mr. Louis King not Reoul Rothenburger.
I may be incorrect, but I am very certain that this person is
Mr. King.
(Yes, Mr. LeBaron, you are correct. I had Mike change it. Thanks for
the "eagle eye" and
great memory.)
(a
note from Paula Iles '69)
Mr.
Bottoms' lives in Jewett, Texas, not too far from Houston. He'd love
to hear from his former choir students. He directed South
Pacific in 1967. He Has 6 children, and now lives on his
family's ancestral farm in Jewett. He was only with TJ a few years. He
took a job in Colorado and taught there many years.
Ara
Golmon
(English teacher)
Haven Hall
101 Mill Street, Room 412
Brookhaven, MS 39601
(601)833-5644
I
received these interesting e-mails from Paula Iles '69 regarding
Ms. Golmon:
(1st
e-mail)
I
called the nursing home this morning. I asked the nurse how Miss Golmon's
mind was, and she said "Oh, it comes and goes -- but she still likes to
read." I am going to call her again and see if there is any book I
can get her in large print or on tape that she is fond of.
(2nd
e-mail)
I
decided to call Miss Golmon this morning, and let me tell you, I don't see any
evidence of her mind "coming and going" as the nurses told me earlier.
She is totally with it, and she knows more about current politics and other
areas of interest in the news than probably most of the class of '68 and '69
combined. I asked her if I could send her a large print book, what she
would like, and I expected some answer like classics of literature, Jane Austen,
poetry by Robert Frost.
Helloooooooooo!
In her frail voice she says, "There's a book by David Halverstam who
was recently killed in a car wreck out in California. It's one
of his later books about the current scene of politics in America that I'd be
really interested in reading. He's a journalist, and I find his
thinking very fascinating." She went on to say, "He's a
well-known journalist and has written a lot about history and politics and I
find it very interesting. He
had a lot to say about Jimmy Carter and he more recently stated that Donald
Rumsfield was a very dangerous man."
I,
Paula, do remember reading/hearing about an author who was on his way to speak
at an event out in California last April and was killed in a car wreck.
She
then went on to tell me about one of the most recent books she'd read on the
last Russian czar's family, the Romanovs, who were overthrown and murdered.
We discussed it, in light of my daughter being adopted from Russia, and she gave
me a lot of commentary on her thoughts about the book, that she found it
depressing to read about the unhumanities committed toward the Romanovs, etc.
Miss
Golmon, then said very lively, "Now Paula, tell me about your family, tell
me about that daughter of yours from Russia, what is she like?"
Miss
Golmon is 94. That we could all live that long and with a good mind.
She says she gets around with a walker.
Well,
I just wanted to give you an update. She thanked me several times for
thinking of her and calling. I asked her permission to put her address in
your website and she said that would be fine. I hope some others will
write or call. She is a wee bit hard of hearing, but not too
bad.
******************************************************************************************************************************************************************
WEBSITE
$$$$$ CONTRIBUTION
from
Bert Smith
in Lake Jackson
Thanks for keeping the website going for all of us.
Checks
may be made out and sent to:
Linda DeCuir McFadden
112 Woodsong
Bridge City, TX 77611
*******************************************************************************************************************************************************************
SUPPORT
NEEDED & NOTES of THANKS
Carol
"Canny" Babin Prejean
(surgery for broken collar bone)
1507 Frontier Dr.
Arlington, TX 76012
(817)261-1765
rprejean2@tx.rr.com
(a
thank you from Bart)
We
have truly been touched by the number of classmates that have Laura in
their prayers. Laura is at home now. She was released from St. Luke's
hospital on Tuesday, Oct. 9 after a week's stay. We had an appointment with her
doctor Wednesday and her new medication seems to be working better with
her variant angina coronary artery disease. The last thing the doctor
told us was, "Laura, you need to lead a normal life"; and, that
is what we plan to do. It has been 12 years since she had her last heart
attack and now that we know exactly what her condition is, it gives us some
peace of mind.
(a
thank you from Laura)
(a
thank you from Laura)
Thanks
so much for your kind and concerned emails and prayers!
Things are going slow, but eventually I will get back to my usual self (I
hope!). I checked out of the hospital Tuesday night (Oct. 9th) after being
in the hospital for a week! The doctor left it up to me and I told him
since my mother would be here a few days I felt ready to leave. It was
good to be home...they do NOT
let you rest in the hospital! They are always waking you up (even with all the
morphine!) and taking your vitals. And, walking up and down the halls (for
my exercise) was depressing because of all the sick people! I'm still
recuperating, taking it easy and doing my exercises. I went to the doctor Wednesday
(Oct. 17th) for my follow-up and was told that I did indeed have a heart
attack (my second one, the first was in '95) while on vacation in San Francisco.
They did the heart catherization, I stayed overnight, and, then was released the
next day. Thank goodness we made it home before I had the second cardiac
event, which put me back in the hospital. The doctor also told me and Bart
that I have Cornary Artery Disease (variant angina), which none of my other
doctors had told me. My new (and young! lol) cardiologist
doesn't think anyone ever knew or understood the condition I have. He did
say it was very hard to treat, but with the right medication, exercise and a
good diet I should be able to lead a normal life.
And, Bart has definitely been an awesome caretaker and helper!
Thanks again and looking forward to seeing everyone at the class reunion next
year!
Richard
Mullens
(husband of classmate, Chrissy
Dupuis)
2521 Glenwood
Port Arthur, TX 77642
(409)985-6581
cmullens@gt.rr.com
(a
note from Chrissy)
An
update on my husband, Richard. Today, he had his third chemo. He should be
further along, but we had a few set-backs. They could not put the line in to
administer the chemo due to his scleroderma, so he had to have a central line
put in. The last week his blood count was too low and they would not give the
chemo. He had a some shots to help build him back up and it worked. He will take
2 more of those this week. He has not yet had any really bad side effects except
that his hair is falling out. I told him that was necessary to look like a
"cancer patient".
Not
sure what the plan is for after the chemo, but I know that they want to do
radiation and that could be a real problem with his scleroderma. When he was
diagnosed with Scleroderma, we both said that if they told us he had cancer we
would have know what to expect...so be careful what you wish for guys..ha.
His
spirits are good and so are mine. Keep up the prayers.
Linda
Messer Jones '66
(wife of Walter
Jones '67)
1304 West Meadow
Beaumont, TX 77706
wdjrel@hotmail.com
(a
note from Walter)
The news from Linda's treatments continues to be good. We just got finished with
two days at MD Anderson. Over the two days there were
blood tests, a CAT Scan, Dr exam, and Dr consultation. Blood tests were normal.
The tumor marker went down again showing that the chemo is working. The Cat
scans revealed that these are not new tumors and existing ones got smaller and
less defined. Also, all the internal organs are
clear of indication. This is a very good thing. Physical went well and the
Doctor was very pleased with Linda's condition and all the tests.
Time for surgery! It is scheduled for November 1. She will stay in hospital
about one week. Your continued prayers are appreciated.
Lionel
Rowland
(history teacher)
(receiving treatments at MD Anderson for esophogus cancer)
430 11th Street
Port Neches, TX 77651
llrowland@sbcglobal.net
(a
note from Mr. Rowland)
The last two treatments were harder on me than the first two, but I
am doing fine and in good spirits. I told my youngest daughter that I
am not fighting a battle against cancer. I am enforcing a victory that
Jesus has already won.
*******************************************************************************************************************************************************************
Lana
Weber Guidry
(death of her dad)
PO Box 474
Port Arthur, TX 77641
(409)985-4455
lana@gt.rr.com
Mary
Ann White Bescher
(death of her husband)
1448 Carrol Ave.
Port Arthur, TX 77642
Sandra
Bescher
}
(loss of her dad)
(
a note from Steve
Baker's sister and George
Thomas' wife, Becky
Baker Thomas '69)
Thanks
so much for condolences for Mom. Things have just been a little crazy since Mom
was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in May of 2005. That was the fartherest thing
from our minds for a 78 yr. old. She had a partial hysterectomy about 45 years
ago. When I can, I will scan or copy the memorial items to add to Steve's
obituary. Thanks to everyone. bat-tx@sbcglobal.net
(a
note from Joseph
Vidalier's daughter, Kathy
Vidalier)
I am the daughter of your classmate, Joseph Vidalier (listed in your MEMORIAL
section). We, (his family), just learned of this class site and are very
pleased with it. We are grateful that others share in our memory of him.
Thank you all. kmvidalier@sbcglobal.net
******************************************************************************************************************************************************************
I
have other items that could have been included in this NEWSLETTER such as
a story about my vacation to NY, the hootenanny at Larry's French Market, and
various other and sundry things. I will have to postpone them until the
next update. This one is getting a little too lengthy.
Remember to look in the GUEST BOOK, I REMEMBER WHEN, and photos that are
scattered about. I was very pleased with the response of information this
time and look forward to more new items to add. Don't forget to take the
time to contact faculty members and classmates with needs mentioned in the
CONDOLENCE and SUPPORT sections. Until next time.....
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