The Latest From Your Class Scribe
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Our class news will still appear in the Quarterly, but you can see the column here in advance.
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Sue Nutter Keller
February 2024
In September, 1951, when we entered Mount Holyoke, the Class of 1955 numbered 331. In 1955 271 of us graduated. Inevitably we have lost classmates and, at the end of 2024, 98 of us remained. Now, so far, 29 of us (that’s almost 30%!) plan to attend our 70th reunion, May 23-25, 2025.
Mary Jean (Mimi) Mallace Freeman is happily living in a cooperative community in Providence, RI. Everyone owns his/her apartment and there is a cooperative center where they have their meals. Mimi grew up in Providence and still has many friends there. She has 4 children from her first marriage and a daughter lives nearby as does Janice Williams. (You may remember that Mimi and Jan played a big part in fund raising for our 50th reunion.) Mimi married a second time and for 30 years she and her husband spent lots of time traveling. She has 11 grandchildren and 10 and ½ grandchildren - perhaps 11 by the time you read this! Mimi has been a docent at the Rhode Island School of Design and has self published a book about Ireland entitled “As For Island”. She has developed a great love of France and become quite proficient in the language.
Ann (Tommy) Tomlinson Edmondson recently traveled back to Woodland, CA where she had lived for 60 years before coming to live in MA 3 years ago. She visited old haunts, spent quality time with 2 old friends and enjoyed a lovely luncheon with 17 friends at a nearby winery. During her last year before moving east Tommy had spent time on the grounds of a small local winery owned by a friend. There she had the opportunity to help with wine tasting at fundraising events and got to know some of the other owners, one of whom hosted a lovely event for her during her visit. Tommy says, “A great time was had by all.”
Mary (Mac) Croft Osborne lives in a condominium in Dedham,MA just around the corner from the home she had lived in for 47 years. She still drives locally (and just bought a new car), plays bridge, does some gardening and occasionally goes into Boston to the theater. She does have difficulty walking and uses a cane but she is very upbeat and has no plans to move to a senior housing facility.
Phebe (Pam) Moody Harkins traveled on a Viking trip last fall. Some of her favorite sights were “amazing” Versailles, a small castle near Paris given to Josephine by Napoleon, and Rouen, where Joan of Arc was burned at the stake. Pam climbed up to the castle where Richard the Lionhearted died about 1200 and was very moved when visiting Normandy and the huge cemetery there. The trip highlight was a 2-hour tour tearing through the streets of Paris in the sidecar of a motorcycle! Pam’s trip also included a stop in London where she visited Bletchley Park where the Enigma Code Breaker was developed.
Polly Lazlo Brody lives with her daughter in Southbury, CT and is an avid bird watcher. Although a nasty arthritis condition keeps her from walking much, she is still driving and can visit one son who lives nearby and another, with a new wife and a son, who live in Boston.
Before the 2025 election Betty Krasne volunteered in a “postcarding” operation, handwriting cards to people in swing states. This work prompted an interesting reminiscence from Betty.
“I was remembering the start of my political life: a trip to Holyoke in 1952 with three other Democratic students to see Adlai Stevenson speak from the train platform. When he ran again in 1956 I was back in NYC and worked for him at the NYC headquarters. In 1959 my husband and I went to Europe on a charter flight with the Village Independent Democrats. In 1965 when President Kennedy sent lawyers to Mississippi to keep Blacks out of jail, my husband went. We worked for Kerry in PA.”.
Peggy Henry Weeks lives in Florida and sees her 3 daughters who frequently vacation nearby. Now retired from her former committee work, she enjoys her 3 great grandchildren, plays bridge regularly and still golfs occasionally.
Sallie Barr Palmer recently rode the Mystery Train, boarding in Ft. Myers, FL. The Train is made up of vintage railway cars and runs along old unused tracks. It is about a 3 hour trip during which a delicious dinner is served and actors perform a comedy-mystery play in the aisle. At the end passengers submit their solutions to the mystery and the winners receive a Mystery Train mug as a prize. Sallie won a few years ago, but not this year.
Alice Czyz is enjoying life as a 90-year-old with her white hair in a ponytail. She buys good quality food and spends lots of time cooking, staying home for much of the time with Netflix, Britbox and You Tube (especially the cute babies), her favorites on TV.
JUNE 2024
JULY 2024
Wink writes that they have made it back to Cape Cod for the summer and are so happy to be in their “happy place”. Our very first visitors this year were Eleanor Townsley, her husband Ron and their two daughters Sophia and Vivian who have been coming down to visit every summer for years now.
As you recall we all met Eleanor at our 50th Reunion after our project with Sociology 224 where the students studied us in real life and also from the archives. It was 20 years ago and believe it or not we are about to revisit for our 70th Reunion next May.
Ellie Graham Claus came over for lunch last week and it was wonderful to see her again. We’re doing it again next week and I really look forward to her visits. We never seem to run out of things to talk about which is just the way it should be.
Beryl Smith Naviasky lives in a CCRC in Townson, MD. She is doing well and is very happy that her children and grandchildren live nearby.
Nancy Nutting Lane is doing well and attending lots of concerts and other cultural events in the Stamford, CT area. She enjoyed a visit to Tanglewood last summer and visited her sister in VT.
Unfortunately Ruth Harberg DuBois has had a couple of falls lately and spent time in the hospital. She hopes that her doctors will be able to figure out what is causing the falls and get her back on her feet soon. She and her husband are glad to be at the Hill at Whitemarsh in Lafayette Hill, PA, where they have all the advantages of a CCRC. Jane Barth lives nearby so they are able to get together from time to time. Ruth's children are widely scattered but she recently enjoyed getting together with one daughter and granddaughter as the latter graduated from MHC.
An update from Arlene Hayes Leone. After graduation from MHC with a major in Zoology, Arlene went to work at the Boston Eye and Ear. Then she married and stayed at home to raise her family. Her husband was an engineer and they moved several times to a variety of cities, the most frequent being Miami. Her husband died about 10 years ago and Arlene moved to an apartment in a high rise on the 53rd floor in Miami where she enjoys great views. Her daughter lives on the first floor so they get together quite often. Her granddaughter is in her 4th year of medical school in Miami and plans to be a neurologist. One son has just retired from the Mayo Clinic where he was an anesthesiologist. Arlene does a lot of reading and likes to do puzzles when she is not socializing with friends and family.
August 2024
September 2024
MC Bachmann Churchill had a good catchup lunch with Joan (Willie) Willenbrok Leonard in Naples, FL. Joan’s husband Larry had Covid but both are now doing well. Later MC had a fun trip from Florida to Newport, RI where she stayed with her daughter, Carey and met Carey’s good friend Lucy Wood Arnold, Sue Danielson's daughter. A sailing trip to Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket rounded out MC’s summer.
While in Newport M.C. took a picture which is on our home page. This is the story that goes along with it.
M.C.'s daughter Carey, and Sue Danielson's daughter, Lucy, have become friends and by chance we happended to discover that Lucy's mother was in the Class of 1955 at MHC. Small world department! M.C. thought she might have made Lucy a little sad that her mom had died suddenly around age 75. I was a reminder of what might have been. Lucy is lovely and lots of fun as is her husband.
Ellis Batchelder Weatherly recently had a tough time health-wise but is feeling much better now and was able to tend her beautiful garden. We just received word that her husband, Michael, recently died so the tough times continue.
Perhaps you remember reading in the Winter Quarterly last year that Judy Schwartz Dunford's grandson, Thomas Dunford, is an accomplished lutenist. Anne Wildman Braun's granddaughter, Corinna, also an lutenist, heard Thomas play at her base of study, Union College. How very unusual that two of our grandchildren play the lute. There is no doubt that 1955 is a special class in so many ways and we can celebrate at our 70th reunion May 23-25, 2025.
Isabelle Scherer Cunningham has moved from Mendham, NJ to Youville House
in Lexington, MA. There she is near her son Will, and her granddaughter, AuroraI. Izzy has settled in and is busy making new friends.
Ada Ball Liggett lives independently in southern NJ. She is still driving and thinking about signing up for a retirement community one day soon. For now she reads a log, participates in 2 book clubs that meet on Zoom and plays bridge regularly. A daughter lives nearby (thank goodness for daughters!) and Ada also has friends living in the area.
Judy Clarke Johanson is still living in her own home in ME but, like all of us, is slowing up a bit. She is happy that her daughter lives nearby.
Despite a few health setbacks, Sally Barr Palmer and her husband will be going on yet another trip to the UK in October. Before leaving Sallie had to tend to a leak in the roof and she comments, "Never a dull moment."
October 2024
Lois Gaeta continues to lead a busy life in New York City. She particularly enjoys the activities available at the Harvard Club, especially the Poets and Writers Club. She is working hard on improving her writing skills and is planning to publish a book. Lois still goes to London twice a year and also visits Amherst where Myra Mullins Baker and her husband David are buried. Lois would love to get together with any classmates visiting NY. Please contact her at wyckoffcom@gmail.com.
Gay DeLong Goodhart lives in Minneapolis in a senior facility which provides good food and many activities. Her daughter lives nearby and Gay enjoys the gatherings of children and grandchildren every year. She is especially pleased that she is still able to speak Russian.
Louise (Weezie) Kugler Bush and her husband live in their home of many years in Painted Post, NY. She is in good health but her husband is home bound and under hospice care. Weezie is grateful for the support of their 3 children: a son who lives nearby and works for Corning Glass, and daughters in Missouri (a professor) and Brooklyn (an architect). During the summer she enjoyed a week at the old family homestead in Westport, MA while a daughter stayed with her husband.
Sue Eckert Smith is still living in her own home and remains active at the Newark Museum. Her 2 pussycats help to keep her happy.
Joan Haskell Vicinus, despite diminishing eyesight, enjoyed a grandson’s soccer game at Bowdoin, accompanied by her daughter. Joan says that one of the things most helpful to her are Recordings for the Blind from the Library of Congress.
Win Pettus Losa has been especially busy recently because her church is without a pastor so she, along with 1 other person, is filling in . She is leading services and giving the occasional sermon as well as working as Clerk of the
Vestry, her regular volunteer job.
NOVEMBER 2024
DECEMBER 2024
Judy Schwartz Dunford wrote it was poignant to see the entry on Anne Wildman’s lutenist granddaughter in the latest Class Notes. I remember her clearly the sweetest, purest, and kindest of young women whom I always called Wild Anne,as she was anything but, and hope that she will find a way to get in touch with me if she reads this. As to my musical descendants, et al, all located in France, it started when my eldest son Jonathan married Sylvia Abramowicz, his viola da gamba classmate at the Old Music Conservatory in Basel, and settled in her home town of Paris and a viol-playing career with her ever after. Thomas is their first child, and I will have the pleasure of attending a concert of his at Princeton this March. He has something of a second career these days as apprentice conductor to Sir John Eliot Gardiner. His domestic partner is Lea DesAndre, a mezzo who, among recent triumphs, knocked’ em dead last season at Salzburg in The Marriage of Figaro. Thomas’s sister Emily is domestic partner to the remarkable harpsichordist Jean Rondeau, and both are the parents of my little four year old great-granddaughter Wilma Rondeau, whom I finally met this Fall when she and her parents visited Manhattan, she wearing her beloved “princess costume” a cheap peach-colored long dress that grew increasingly bedraggled as the week progressed. I will hear Jean at Carnegie, also in March. So that’s a lot of people and a lot of music.All these characters except Wilma and Emily can be found on You Tube.
Juli Shea Towell writes of "lots of fun and joy in 2024." She welcomed 3 great grandchildren, twins for 1 daughter and a single for the other.
FEBRUARY 2025
This great letter from Sallie Barr Palmer.
In October, we flew to the UK. Visited family in Wales and London and came home by ship, accompanied by daughter Janine and a friend. The girls were into every activity offered on the ship and shore excursions. Peter and I relaxed, ate delicious meals and went to the Trivia matches.Took another, short cruise at Christmas.
Since then we've kept busy keeping up with old friends, the usual medical appointments, and now about to start putting together tax info. We're both suffering aches and pains, but manage to keep going. Out for dinner twice or three times a week with friends, Trivia competition with a team every Friday night -- we've come in first twice in January! -- I Zoom with my writers' club every week.
Son Mark is coming from Wales to stay for a month. We're supposed to be traveling to British Columbia for the funeral of a long-time friend, but the weather conditions are worrying -- might not make it.
Peter is still Commander of his Korean War Veterans Chapter. We meet once a month. Numbers are way down, of course, but he’s kept it going.
Hope to make it to South Hadley for our reunion.
I wake up every morning and take my pulse. If I find I've got one, I get up. So far, so good.
Sue Danielson Wood's daughter, Lucy and her husband visited MC Bachmann Churchill’s daughter and have spent a lot of time with MC, swimming and boating. MC remarks, “So much fun. Such a small world.”
Barbara Suchman Kasman lives in Chestnut Hills, MA in the home she has been in since 1962. After graduation she worked in NYC for J. Walter Thompson and Woman’s Day before getting into Social Work, in which she worked for 20 years, while also raising 4 sons. Her husband worked for Polaroid where he invented a product which was sold by mail order.
ps from Wink...Barbara has a 3 1/2 year old grandson that is being brought up bi-lingual, but the bilingual is Spanish and Italian. He's getting his English at Play School. How about that?
Mary (Chirpy) Wesseler Monroe and her husband live in an apartment in Danvers, MA on property owned by one of their sons.
From Sue: I love looking back on family trips. Do you?
March 2025
Barbara “Gatesy” Gates Johnson lives alone in a cottage at an independent living place in New Hartford, CT. Her daughter lives in Annapolis, MD, a son in Syracuse, NY and one in NC. Despite macular degeneration eye disease in both eyes she does some quilting and knits hats for preemies in the hospital (60-70 and counting). She tries to walk a couple of miles 5 or 6 days a week. Loves her iPhone, Apple watch and iPad. Gatesy says she has the normal 90 plus year forgetfulness, but obviously manages very well.
April 2025
MAY 2025
Barbara Mulvehill Gray lives with Rich, her husband of 69 years, in a CCRC in Cleveland, O. She and Rich formerly lived in Shaker Heights, O. Barbara was very involved in the community in Shaker, mostly in education. She served on the University Hospital Institutional Review Board for 12 years and was elected to the Shaker Heights Board of Education for 2 terms. Barbara and Rich have 5 children, 11 grandchildren and 1 great grandchild
Sue Danielson Poor’s daughter, Lucy and her husband visited MC Bachmann Churchill’s daughter and have spent a lot of time with MC, swimming and boating. MC remarks, “So much fun. Such a small world.”
Lois Gaeta is usually at home in Mitchell Place in midtown NYC and would love to have lunch or tea with any classmate. She is also happy to provide shelter from terrible weather or some disaster. “I’m serious!” writes Lois.
Nancy Schuster Hanson lives in her own home in Savannah, GA and keeps busy with her volunteer work in the local library.
Deborah Walsh Kennedy lives in Newtown, Pa near one of her daughters. Over the years she has taken several trips to Paris with her family.
Diantha “Dee” Lamb Barstow really enjoys the Savannah Book Festival.. This year she was in the audience for Anna Quindlen’s opening address. The Festival is a great place to meet authors and to expand your reading list.
Pam Moody Haskins enjoys her job as a bagger at Market Basket but when she discovered that every other employee had received a bonus she hadn't gotten, Pam said, No Way“ Positively pushy Pam" wrote a note to Headquarters about how lucky she was to have this job, but thought it very unfair that she had not received a bonus even though she does not work as many hours as the rest of the employees. Two weeks later Pam received a check for $200! Way to go Pam!
