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TJ Class of '68
NEWSLETTER
03/29/09 |
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Well, howdy do! Can't
believe it has been 6 months since I wrote a proper NEWSLETTER!!
So much has happened. I guess I will fill you in during the course
of this writing. So, let's begin at the beginning! Just
don't forget to have a note pad to jot down items that are of interest
to you while reading this long NEWSLETTER.
August 1-2, 2008
Our 40th year class reunion. What a hit! Many said it was
the BEST ever. The faculty members that showed up were raving
about the attendance and how much fun it was.
September 13, 2008
Hurricane Ike ravaged the golden triangle area also affecting many of
our classmates along the Crystal Beach,
Galveston,
and Baytown Area
September 14-ongoing
Classmates that were affected by the storm have been supported
monetarily, physically, and emotionally by their fellow classmates.
************************************************************************************
During this time,
Mike Lawson
stepped in and ran the
whole show
with very little help from me. I would from time to time send him
news I received, obituaries I read, and other tidbits. He ran the
show by publishing AND writing the news.
Fred McCarty
and
Debbie Borres
helped him during the first couple of months getting news of those
directly affected by the storm. Once again, classmates helping
classmates!! Kudos to
Mike
for being the super guy that he has proven to be. Please make sure
that he knows that you appreciate
his efforts in keeping your website running so smoothly.
***********************************************************************************
(THANKS TO MANY OF YOU WHO
TOOK THE TIME TO RESPOND SO THAT I WOULD HAVE MAIL TO GIVE TO YOU.
JUST DON'T STOP. I WILL NEED SOME MORE FOR THE NEXT UPDATE IN TWO
WEEKS!)
from
Donnie DeLee
in
Sacramento,
CA
I know how tough it can be losing everything.
I’ve gone through that with floods back in the 80’s at the
Russian river
(near the coast in
N. Cal. ) in
Guerneville.
I’m doing well. I am no
longer working. I was approved for disability by the feds and am
officially retired due to medical reasons (CHF,
COPD, PAD,
Diabetes,
etc) I’ve started getting my garden ready. I’m building up the compost
heap, getting the plot ready and planting my
heirloom seeds
in those mini-greenhouses. It takes a while as I get tired easily, so I
do a little each day, as well as recruit friends to help in exchange for
some of the harvest. I’m also planting loads of English Lavender and
hope to make
scented
candles or/and soap from them and sell to friends, or just
enjoy the beauty and scent all year. I’m getting my old Benz road-ready
and hope to drive to
Texas
to visit family and perhaps old friends this spring.
(Donnie,
Steve Baker,
and I were running buddies back in the old days.
Donnie
was
also a great fellow Maroon and Gold band member AND esteemed
member of Mr Rowland's homeroom mafia!)
from
Sharon Lewis Forrest
in
Baytown
Just a quick update on our status. Jim and I are doing fine -
still living in an RV after the storm, but in January we upgraded to a
34 ft
fifth wheel!!
Woohoo!!! We feel like we are in a mansion - we can actually be in
different rooms and watch different shows on TV. All's been
settled with the insurance - apparently we've gotten all the money we're
going to get!!! The house in
Baytown has been torn down and
the lot sold. We're working with builders to get started on our
retirement home
in Boerne, near
San Antonio and hope to get started
on that soon. Living on the water has lost its allure for us!
Can't remember the last time storm surge wiped out anybody in the Hill
Country.
I'm still working at
Shell in
downtown
Houston,
but looking very closely at retirement later this year or early next
year. Many thanks to all our classmates who called/emailed and
offered to help after the storm!
(Photos of
Sharon's
devastated home were published in the fall on the website. My
home looked like a prize compared
to hers on the outside. Ours were pretty comparable on the
inside, though. So glad she is moving on.)
from
Fred McCarty
in Kingwood
I was excited to hear you are going to start writing the
Newsletter
again.
Mike
has done a very admirable job over these past six months, but
there is no doubt that you will be able to scout out the "news"
better than anyone else could do.
Not much news from
me. Still working and
answering questions
from my sweet wife and family about how much longer I am going
to be working. It is a more difficult decision to reach in the
current economy. I will be glad to see this situation turn
around for the better, hopefully soon.
I had dinner with
David Salter
last month when he was in
Houston for some
business meetings, and
George Collins
and
Joel Levy
joined us.
David
had
some good grandkid pictures, maybe you can get him to share some
of those.
Joel
remembered to bring his camera and he has some good pictures of
the four of us (taken by our waitress at the
restaurant), so I am hopeful he will submit a couple of those.
We had a great time visiting for about three hours until the
restaurant was ready to close, and they had to kick us out.
(Well, hopefully we will hear
David, Joel, and George's
take on this gathering. I love hearing about classmates
getting together and reminiscing.)
from
Randy
Landry
in Crystal Beach
We lost our home and everything in it along with two
Harleys,
custom golf
cart, and my restored vette. The list of personal
items could depress the Pope. Presently we are staying with
friends in Waterways at
Crystal beach. I have kept you and yours in my
prayers and hope these circumstances make us all stronger. Still
have lots of faith and future,
must be the first day of spring and beautiful weather today
making me delirious ;) I know we will all look back one day and
reminisce 2008, 2009 with fondness. Dang girl, I must be
enjoying this perfect beach day.
(I am so sad for our friends and classmates that were devastated
along the coastline.
Cathy Jones
lost her home,
also on Boliver.)
from
Mr. Lionel
Rowland
in Pt. Neches
After a year and a half of not being able to eat solid food, the
doctor put a stint in my esophagus and I have been eating like a
horse--love the buffets at
Golden Corral
and Ryans. Feeling good, doing fine. Just got back
from a trip to
Austin to see my
grandkids.
(Mr.
Rowland
made an appearance at the Saturday night reunion social/dance
last August!)
from
Debbie Borres
Desmond
in
Nederland
We will have an addition to our family in August.
Our daughter is having another son
due on Aug 20th and our anniversary is the 22nd.
Gene Armand
and his wife Karen should be back in their home in BC by
now. I ran into Karen 2 or 3 weeks ago and they
were waiting on the painters. They have a commercial
building on Nall in PN that was
99% totaled. It has taken everyone so much longer
because of the number of homes damaged. As if
the damage wasn't bad enough, the time it takes with all the
delays and waiting on all contractors to do each step of the
repairs make it worse.
Wish all those
in BC and the other areas of damage due to Ike would
keep us all informed on how their lives are going during
this hectic time. I wished we had had more
success in contacting fellow classmates . I know a lot of
us have been praying for all those that have lost so much in
Ike. God bless all of you.
Good news here,
though. We are going on a cruise leaving out of
Galveston
July 25th.
If anyone wishes to join us,
we would love to have you come along. This will
be the same ship we went on for our first cruise.
Maybe we will win another cruise, like we did 2 years ago.
"Mike
Lawson
did a great job
keeping the website going but it will be great having our
NEWSLETTER going again. It seems like
Linda
can get more news out of us then anyone else.
(Thank you Debbie for helping Mike during my "crazy" period
getting back on track.)
from
Terry Watson
in
Richardson,
TX
Congratulations on getting in your new house. I know you'll
like it way up north in
Lumberton.
I've attached a few photos taken at Robert
Sandoval's
house on February 14th. Robert's wife, Carole, is a former
neighbor of
Kermit Falgout (TJ '67). Robert
remembered that Kermit and I were across-the-street
neighbors in Pear Ridge. So, Carole arranged for the two
former neighbors to see each other for the first time since
1971. Kermit and Pam Falgout and Terry and Nancy Watson
joined Robert and Carole Sandoval at their lovely home in
Fulshear,
Texas
for a fantastic evening. Rober also invited my
old Sam
Houston classmate
Janette Light
and her husband, Richard Norton. The classmates spent a lot
of
quality time while the spouses graciously
feigned interest. Everyone had fun trying to answer Kermit's
trivia
questions about music and movies, especially
songs from the "early days". Robert has mastered downloading
music, so his library added to the fun.
(Another trip down memory lane while spending time with
friends of old! Classmates and married couple,
Linda Olivier and Rex Meyer
also live in the small community of Fulshear. Small world.)
from
Mike Lawson
in
West Columbia,
TX
Meredith and I met
Robert
and Carole
Sandoval
in
Pearland at Gringo’s Mexican Restaurant last
Saturday night. We all arrived around 6:30pm. We had a great
time. Robert furnished the entertainment for us much of the
night, he had us all going for a good while. We ate and
visited for more than two hours and then went our separate
ways. I hope to get several of our classmates together,
hopefully you and Murphy also, sometimes centrally and do
something like that again.
(That Robert must be an eating fool! Also, I changed
his name to Robert in the last two entries. Obviously,
Bob is what he goes by since he "grew up" but
ROBERT
is what he was called by me long ago AND to this day.)
from
Lillian
"Jody" Prince Rains
in
Monroe,
LA
Unfortunantly,I do not have my class reuion book. You may
not remember me. I was kinda shy. Went
to Woodrow Wilson Jr. High. I took business classes.
I married in '69 and moved away because of my husband's job
and have been away from Pt. Arthur since then. I do
go home to visit my sister and relative 3 or 4 times a year
and attend the yearly family reunions in May. I lost my dad
when I was 16 and lost my mom 25 years ago. I have three
children and three sweet grandchildren. I work for
Metlife and have been wanting to communicate with some of my
old
classmates. For those of you who may
remember me, please e-mail me. Would love to
hear from you.
(Okay classmates! Here is your invitation to
reconnect. Don't put it off.
rains7950@bellsouth.net
)
from
Janice Jones Kelley
in
Bridge
City
My family has had a busy
year. We went to
Alaska in
June. We took the cruise and went on the inland
passage. The senery was awsome! The mountains,
glaciers, animal life, and culture were breath
taking. We learned so much about the state and
met a lot of wonderful people.
Alaska
seems to of retained some of the pioneer
atmosphere. During the train ride the host and
hostess shared
Alaska's colorful history with us. I
would recommend this trip to anyone.
June 28
my oldest daughter, Jennifer, got married in
Florida.
It was a beautiful wedding on the beach at
sunset. Paul's mother, my mother-in-law, was
able to attend the wedding and got to see the
white
sand beaches
for the first time and put her feet in the
water. She loved it. We have some wonderful
pictures and memories. She passed away about 7
months later. Jennifer's husband became abusive
right after they returned from the honeymoon. We
found out about it the day after we returned
home to clean out our house from Ike's
storm
surge. They
went to counseling. Things got worse. They
divorced in Dec. I clung to the verse, "All
things work together for good for those who love
the Lord." As hard as this was for her and us,
it was also a growing experience and kept the
damage to our house in perspective. Jennifer is
going to fulfill one of her dreams and teach at
an American school in
San Pedro Sula,
Honduras.
She always wanted to teach
internationally. It sounds great. I intend to
visit her and see the rainforest and enjoy a
trip
to the beach.
All three of my children live in the
College Station
area.
Michael is an engineer for Weatherford.
Stephanie is a
medical technologist
at
St.
Joseph's
Hospital. Jennifer is a
school counselor.
I work for
Port Neches- Groves
ISD and my husband, Paul, works
for MOTIVA. We are living in
Port Arthur
until our
home is rebuilt. We hope to be back in our home
in June. God is faithful.
I
enjoyed seeing many of you the first night of
our 40th reunion. I would like to thank the
committee for doing such a good job putting it
together. Mike and Linda the website is great.
(Thanks for the compliments on the reunion and
the website. Yes, God is good and best
wishes in getting your
homefront back in order.)
from
Stephen Simonton
in
Orange
We made it through Ike just fine. Nothing
flooded, broke, or was wounded!
(Good news on Ike since you had enough to
contend with. You sure didn't need
anything else. Check out about Stephen and
his wife in the SUPPORT section later in the
NEWSLETTER.)
from
Danny Landry
in LaBelle (between Pt. Acres and Fannett)
Well, it has been awhile since I last
dropped you a line. Phyllis and I are
spending most of the time in Cedar
Park with our daughter and grandchildren.
We have a contract on our house in
Labelle
and are waiting for the loan papers to be
finalized. Retirement seems to agree with
me. We have been busy getting our house in
order. Our grandkids are keeping us busy, so
we had to join the
YMCA to keep our up our
strength . Phyllis got me hooked on
The Young And
The Restless,
I thought I would never do it, but don't
call between 11:00 and 12:00.
(How did your house make out during IKE?)
from
Lana Oliver Baker in
Tulsa,
OK
(a name from the past!)
You may not remember me, but I went to
Franklin Elementary,
Woodrow Wilson,
and TJ my
sophmore year.
Moved to
Nederland
after that. I have kept up with some
friends from
Port Arthur
thru the years, but I have just been given
your website information and wanted to let
you know what a great job ya'll are doing.
It is so interesting reading about every one
and of course so sad to see those who have
passed.
Your reunions have sounded like such a great
time and really planned out well. I
have only been to my 10 reunion in
Nederland, mainly because I didn't really have
the connection to them as I did to TJ.
When you didn't go to school in Elementary
and Jr. High, you really don't have that
many connections.
It is really great to see reports on
Linda Davis,
Linda Blanton,
and
Sandy Ellis.
I was in Blue Birds with
Linda Davis
and
Sandy Ellis.
Now that was a really
long time ago.
Glad to see they are all doing so well.
(Here is another change to reconnect with an
old friend from our past. Show her how our
classmates are the friendliest!)
lanbak@yahoo.com
*************************************************************************************************
The following is a
letter that my parents sent out this week:
After living on
8th St. in Lakeview since 1943, then moving
to
Bridge
City with LInda and Murphy for 10 months before
getting hit by Hurricane Ike, evacuating for
a month, then into a rent house in
Groves
for 10 months, we decided to move AGAIN!
The GOLDEN YEARS are
not always "golden", but we do what we can
to make them the best. We decided that
we could use a little more attention by
living with other residents in our same
"shape". We chose to move into a
comfortable, safe environment where we can
enjoy ourselves all the more. So,
please come visit or call or even drop us a
note. We would love to hear from you
at the Rose House, an assisted living site.
It is located right behind Central Mall.
Dan and Eula DeCuir
8214 Anchor Dr. #107
Port Arthur,
TX
77642
(409)729-0773
Of course, we are
thrilled and feel so much more comfortable
and less anxious having them there.
Thanks to all you gave donations of
furniture and items that helped them get
back on their feet. They
pretty much lost everything they brought to
our home in
Bridge
City.
They are doing very well.
*****************************************************************************************************
MOVIE
DEPICTING FOOTAGE ABOUT IKE
( a note sent in by one of our ardent
website readers,
Karen Champage Milliff,
Nederland '69)
On April 9th
this year, a movie will be released about
the
Bolivar
Peninsula.
Go to the website and select trailers at the
top. It looks like the movie will be
very interesting.
http://www.robotagency.com/messenger/
******************************************************************************************************************************
RAFFLE for a 2008 MUSTANG
note from classmate
Jenny Rhodes
Hamilton
Hello everyone! It's time to
get serious about supporting
Legacy
High School
in
Beaumont and getting involved in this
fund raiser opportunity!
Would you pay $10.00 for a chance to
own a 2008 convertible mustang??
There's enough "kid" left in me to
say,
I'll take it!!!
Please go to
Legacy
High School
website, look it over and help
support our kids fund raising
project. Tickets are $10 for
one and
$90 for 10. If you don't want
the car you can bless your child or
grandchild OR even donate it back to
the school.
Type in my granddaughter's name,
Rebecca Doyen in the box for
student's name.
***********************************************************************************
WEBSITE $$$$$ CONTRIBUTIONS
Webb Draughon
in Seabrook
(Hey Webbie,
How did you and your family make out during
Hurricane Ike? Let us hear from you.)
Hal Ross
in
Nederland
Hal says that he hopes to have the terminal
up and running by the first of May. He
is the manager of the
Southeast
Texas
Regional
Airport
(formerly known as
Jefferson
County
Airport.) It was heavily damaged
during the hurricane.
**************************************************************************************************
SUPPORT
(Please contact and add the following
friends to your prayer lists. Let them
know we care.)
Stephen Simonton and
wife Betty Hebert, '67
Didn't tell you this before because everyone
was having their own trials and
tribulations. But, I was off work for
a year with an inoperable heart
condition. I went back to work this
last January. My wife, Betty also has
been diagnosed with a very rare cancer.
She has had surgery and is taking chemo.
The outlook is good. I am going to
Houston
for my heart condition. The doctors
here have decided to try something
different.
Gayle Endsley
(A note from Linda McFadden) I received a
phone call recently from Gayle. She told me
that she had had an aneurysm and stroke a
year ago January. She is still
recovering. She didn't want to concern
anyone with her troubles as she felt many
classmates already had enough of their own
to worry about.
Gayle Endsey
4615 Bull Creek Rd
Austin,
TX
78722
(512)459-5935
gashba@io.com
Linda Smith Webber
(an update from classmate
Cherlyn Hebert)
Just wanted to let you know that
Linda Smith
is doing very well after her stroke and
brain surgery. She is back at work and
handling that very well. She still has
a problem with one of her eyes; it won't
close properly. And she can't drive,
and I know
that's driving her crazy. On the phone
you can't tell, but she says her face shows
the effects of the stroke. But, she's
upbeat and very grateful that the tumor was
operable and that she's alive and has a good
prognosis.
This is about
as good as any place
to mention something that has been
bothering me.
I wrote an "open letter" to all of you
several months ago
just to touch base
since Mike and Fred were receiving lots of
inquiries about me and my family's
situation. In doing so, I included a
LIST of really crazy things that had
happened to our family during 2008.
But, I also listed the upside to many of
those and the good outcome. Well, I
got a ton of mail saying how sorry you were
and that we had really been snowed under.
On the contrary, we didn't realize all of
what had happened
until
we listed them. I didn't mean to make
it sound like a
PITY PARTY.
We had no serious health issues through this
all. We sold our home in record time,
found a nice existing home in Lumberton,
remodeled it and moved in the end of
February. Now see, it is fine on our
end. Please know that your concern and
prayers were certainly appreciated, though!!
Oh yeah. Murphy did say that I FORGOT
to put the STOCK MARKET woes on our list!
"-( Please remember and contact
those listed above. They really could
use your kind support. Also, keep me
posted about any health issues for you or
any family member or classmate. Who
doesn't need extra PRAYERS?
*****************************************************************************************************
CONDOLENCES
Frank Mirabella
(death of his lovely wife, Amber after 4 1/2
years of fighting Alzheimers)
(Amber died at a very young age of 55.
She was a frequent attendee with Frank at
our class reunions. She always had a
beautiful smile.)
A
note from
Paul Colletti:
I enjoyed seeing you briefly at the
visitation. I had a nice visit with
Hal Ross,
Pete
Huber,
and
Webb
Draughon.
The pastor said something I thought was very
touching. He said Frank and Amber were
married 37 years, but really they celebrated
61 years of marriage. Here's how that
occurred....Last spring, in an effort to
lift his wife's sinking spirit, Frank came
home from work on a Monday and proclaimed to
Amber that it was their
wedding anniversary and they
were going to go out to a nice restaurant
and celebrate. They did, and she had a
wonderful time and it seemed to really lift
her spirit. On they following Monday,
he came home from work and told her it was
their wedding anniversary and they were
going to go out and celebrate. Again,
she had a wonderful time and it had a great
effect on her. From then on, until she
was too ill to go out, he would take her out
to celebrate their wedding anniversary on
every Monday.
Frank Mirabella
4819 Menlo Park Dr.
Sugarland, TX 477479
(979)265-9158
Bob Mullin's
death was reported in the last update.
Since then, his sister sent in some tributes
written by her and also his niece.
Please check them out in the
MEMORIAL
section of
our website.
These following memories of
Bob
were sent in
by
Suzanne and Dianne Mannino, TJ '69
Bob was such
an uplifting person in high school
and we were just talking about him
last week when Sue and I were going
to Houston.
Two
best
moments come to mind.
One was when we had a fan in our
bath room and he thought the noise
was rain outside. Worrying about his
car, he came running out of the
restroom and the look on his face
was priceless.The second one was
when Sue, Bob,
Dalworth
Badgett and
I were playing
volleyball in our
front yard. Sue cut her foot on a
rock and he was very caring to her
at that time.
He never looked sad, always
happy and from what they all wrote
about him, Bob hadn't changed
much... just age made him better.
(Please check
out our
MEMORIAL
section. We have lost two
additional classmates since our
August '08 reunion....Pam Lopez and
Bob Mullin. I might be off a
little bit, but at last count we
have information on 71 deceased
classmates. So sad.)
***********************************************************************************
Well, I warned
you that it would be LONGGGGG.
Now if you didn't heed my warning to
have a note pad out, it is your
fault. You will just have to
reread this whole shebang again!
You know that my voice doesn't hold
out but I sure can be long-winded on
this computer. Before I
forget, there is a very easy way to
contact your classmates. Just
go to the top of the website where
it says CLASS LISTING. Find
the name and point to it. The
correct e-mail address will be at
the bottom of your page. It
doesn't always look the same if you
just click. There you have
their e-mail information IF they
have provided one. Contact me
if you have a problem. Oh
yeah, and thanks to all that made
sure I got your change of e-mail
address. That is the only way
we can keep you informed.
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