Sweet Briar College Magazine - Spring 2017

Class Notes
1939
Patricia Balz Vincent died peacefully
November 14. She studied art history
at Sweet Briar and later danced with
Doris Humphrey and Charles Weidman.
Serving in the Red Cross in India in
WWII, she met her husband, Patrick,
a British officer in the Indian Army.
Settling in Durham, Patrick joined the
faculty at Duke, and Patricia became a
docent at the Duke Museum of Art and
volunteered for the American Dance
Festival.
1947
Linda McCoy Stewart
18 Osprey Lane
Rumson, NJ 07760-1821
Happy 70th Anniversary, Class of
1947!
It’s pre-dawn in mid-April with the
whole world steeped in a cold, steady
drizzle. In the Monroe Freight yard we
huddle by the tracks … a gaggle of
tearful, shivering sophomores. Many
of us only in pajamas or nightshirts
under buttoned up raincoats that
afford zero protection against chill,
rain and a kind of grief none of us had
ever known before. We’re a hastily
convened group—students, a few
faculty, local farmhands, country folk
of all dimensions—joined in a single
purpose. We’ve come, quite spontaneously,
to pay respect to our late president,
Franklin Delano Roosevelt. In the
gloom, the funeral train slowly passes,
bearing his body from Warm Springs,
Ga., to Washington, D.C. So solemn the
moment … no speeches, no bugles,
no tossing of flowers … just the rain
and our silent farewell to the man who
for many of us, was the only president
we had ever known.
Our class of 1947 arrived as
freshmen just weeks after the D-Day
landings of World War II. Here and
there, occasional word of a father,
brother, boyfriend (nary a husband for
no one is our class was married) came
by much-delayed mail. For the most
part little war news seeped in through
the boxwood hedges to darken our
bucolic lives. President Roosevelt’s
too-soon death—he was only 63—
dropped so abruptly into our youthful
consciousness, was a rude awakening.
Only days later came V-E Day and the
horrifying reports of the death camps
that had festered all unbeknownst
to us, as we bemoaned our wartime
deprivations: oleo instead of butter;
rationed gas impeding weekend jaunts
to UVa for weekend frolics.
Today the college-bound can
38 SBC.EDU | SWEET BRIAR MAGAZINE
scarcely imagine that long-ago world
without television, credit cards, fitted
sheets, cell phones, commercial air
travel, disposable diapers, antibiotics,
home air-conditioning, birth control
pills, microwave ovens or the Internet.
We danced to the music of Guy
Lombardo and Tommy Dorsey. We paid
a nickel to ride NYC buses, mailed a
first class letter for $0.03, a postcard
for a penny and doled out $0.17 for a
gallon of gas. The average middle class
house cost $6,600, the average annual
wage was $2,285 and a new Buick
cost $1,300.
This year marks the 70th anniversary
of the Class of 1947 graduation.
We number 44, most of us with
middle-aged “children,” grandchildren
and great-grandchildren.
Mary Ames Booker ’82 submitted
on behalf of her aunt, Suzanne
Fitzgerald VanHorne, who graduated
with twin sister Catharine (Mary Ames’
mother).) Sue is living at home and
doing well. She had a fall late last year
but recovered and returned home. She
continues to enjoy playing the piano!
I’ve got a class roster if anyone
wants an address or phone numbers
for classmates as we approach the
70th anniversary of our graduation.
1949
Preston H. Hill
3910 South Hillcrest Dr
Denver, CO 80237-1110
303 7582428
Preston Hodges Hill welcomed her
first great-grandchild Enzo Dylan Hill in
January 2017 in Brooklyn, NY. Enzo’s
father David Hill is med student due to
graduate in June. Another grandson is
at University of Colorado Boulder. His
twin sister is studying music in Boston.
She’s glad SBC is thriving.
1950
Jo Gulick Grant
20 Hews Lane
Lyme NH, 01768
(603)795-2708
Unaccustomed as I am to anything
“secretarial, I think its high time, after
17 years, there should be some news
of us in the Alumnae Magazine. Just
as the college is being so wonderfully
revived, why not a similar revival of
the 1950 class. Notes? I, with little
knowledge of our life-happenings over
so many years, now venture to cobble
together and submit what has been
sent in so far:
“Bill” Bailey Fritzinger in
Weston. Vt.: Not much excitement, but
much contentment. All’s well down on
the farm. Had to give up the sheep,
geese, cow and horse after my husband
Fritz passed away, but I still have
the dog, cat, chickens, 11 grandchildren
and four greats to chase after.
Waller Berkeley Fergusson
writes that she is now widowed and living
in a retirement home in Richmond,
Va., with quite a few other alumnae.
She applauds all current efforts to keep
saving Sweet Briar!
Sally Bianchi Foster and husband
Bob, now in an assisted living facility
in New Jersey, both claim that “getting
old is tough stuff” but are “hanging in
there.” Sal would love to hear from any
and all who remember her VOX POP
Show (!) or any of the other events she
so beautifully stage-managed.
Edie Brooke Robertson reports
that she was widowed in 2014 and
moved to a retirement community in
Norfolk. Before that, much travel, family
reunions, more grandchildren, etc. “I
still keep in touch with Lola Steele
Shepherd, Frances Martin Lindsey
and Dolly Clark Rasmussen.
Cheers!”
Ackie Easter Henderson writes:
“Been living happily in Charlottesville
for 45 years. Three grandsons in
Florida, Shanghai and Edinburgh. Still
getting around, but not quite as spry.”
B.G. Elmore Gilleland, now widowed,
lives in her own home in Winter
Park, Fla., still travels and keeps active
in the community with volunteer jobs.
Over the phone, sounds just as strong
and vigorous as if the year were 1947.
(She has been a great help to me in
connecting with classmates).
Lucy Kreusler Carey writes
from Catonsville, Md., where she has
lives in a retirement community called
Charlestown for 11 years. Retired from
social work, she finds herself always
busy and never bored, takes classes,
and has recently taught one herself on
Russian history.
Elsie Laudram Layton reports
that she has stayed in touch with SBC
folks in Houston but looks forward to
further-away news of classmates. The
College experience meant so much to
her and she sends best wishes to all
who read this.
Bonnie Loyd Crane lives in a
house overlooking the sea in Magnolia,
Mass., (near Gloucester) loves it, welcomes
guests and others interested in
her collection of 19th century paintings
brought along when she moved her
gallery up north from Wellesley. Bonnie
has three grandchildren!
Anne McNeez Blanken writes
from Lexington, Va., that she is quite
well, keeps busy with tennis(!), bridge
with Louise Moore, and a couple of
volunteer jobs. She is off to Italy in
April. (Always been hard to keep up
with my old roomie!)
Cara Jane Morningstar Spiller,
in Oakland, Ky., says she’s doing pretty
well trying to cope with various hip
problems and also to keep track of her
four children, spread from New Jersey
to South Africa. She sends love to all.
Rita Murray Gould in Del Ray
Beach, Fla., reports she is living in a
“life-long care”, lovely apartment, had
to give up tennis, but found something
else called Pickle Ball. She has
one granddaughter and three great
grandchildren nearby who keep life
interesting.
Ginny Page Love reports that she
and her second husband have been in
Los Angeles, Calif., for 30 years, both
in good health, share 16 grandchildren
and 10 great grandchildren, all scattered
from Hawaii to Belgium. She says
she thinks of SBC with fond nostalgia.
Anne Peyton Cooper says
keeping in touch with old roommates,
classmates and faculty means so
much for SBC’s solid foundation. Anne
enjoys her life at the Harbury Club in
Pelham, NY, where she has a condo,
can and does make many short, easy
trips into the big city for art shows and
all sorts of cultural happenings. She
gets together occasionally with Dottie
Montague Cholnoky who lives nearby
in Connecticut.
Betsy Sawyer Hodges and
husband Allen are in their own home
in Orlando, married 67 years, with five
children, 11 grandchildren, and 16
great grandchildren (with two more on
the way!). Betsy says she still enjoys
quilting when she isn’t trying to keep in
touch with her huge family.
Lola Steele Shepherd says, yes
she is present and accounted for in her
retirement community in Richmond.
She wanted to be near her daughters,
and also Waller Fergusson who was
already there. She reports the recent
death of, and mid-February military
services for, Dolly Clark Rasmussen’s
husband, John. Our sincere
condolences to Dolly and her family.
Mary-Dame Stubbs Broad in
Hampton, Va., lost her husband Doug in
2003 and has since been living alone
in her own home, still without cane or
walker. She is pleased to report great
happiness, in spite of bladder cancer,
Hurricane Isabel and weeks without
power. She rejoices in her life with her
three grandchildren, one great-grandchild
and another on the way. “Good to
have class notes once again”.
Carolyn Williams Feussner: is
living in a great retirement community
in Linwood, on the Jersey Shore,
after 42 years as a real estate broker.
She does a lot of travelling, spending
time in Naples, Fla., in the winter, and
summers on Lake Winnipesaukee, NH.
(Carol, please be sure to phone me
next time you’re coming up here!)
Jo Gulick Grant writes “As for me,