Sweet Briar College Magazine - Spring 2018

CLASS NOTES
sbc.edu
along the East Coast. Carol roomed
in Gray with Carolyn, Sally Boucher
Megeath, and Midge Yearley.
They plan a mini-reunion in Winchester,
VA, in May.
Mary Frere Murchison Gornto
still lives in Wilmington, NC, where
she has retired from her VP of development
job at UNC-Wilmington
but still serves on several boards and
does volunteer work. Her granddaughter,
Charlotte, ended the SBC
line of attendees and chose W&L
instead. Other grandchildren are still
looking for colleges or still in school.
A recent trip to the Caribbean for
her 70th temporarily interrupted her
pickle ball and mahjong.
Keithley Rose Miller continues
to use her artistic talents running her
decorating business, Kemble Interiors,
in Palm Beach. Her daughter
helps in the shop and is expecting
grandchild #2. Keithley also travels
on bridge cruises and lunches with
Cathy Hall Stopher when she can.
As for Cathy Hall Stopher herself,
she lives in Gulf Stream, FL,
with husband Ed and where the
grandchildren visit often. She too is
learning mahjong, plays bridge, and
wants to see more movies soon.
Sue Roessel Gibson retired after
39 years teaching in Philadelphia
and now spends more time with
family — babysitting grandson and
traveling with husband Gene. They
head to the Panama Canal soon. She
and Phyllis Girard and Mary Mahan
Marco get together often.
Mary Mahan Marco and husband
Bob had planned to move to
Lewes, DE, but appear to have renovated
another home in West Chester,
PA, instead. They are near to some
of their children and grandchildren,
but others live in San Jose and Boston.
Bob had a double knee replacement;
so travel is on hold for now.
She not only sees Sue and Phyllis often
but sees Midge Yearley in Lewes
on occasion.
Phyllis Girard reports that she
is also enjoying retirement and has
a new dachshund puppy named Sofia
to join her older dog. She summers
in Nova Scotia but this June
will spend two weeks in Italy with
friends from Oklahoma. She volunteers
at the Morris Arboretum.
Also finding time for a gathering
of the crew in Atlanta is Ann
Arnspigner Canipe, who sees Haden
Ridley Winborne, Carolyn
Mapp Hewes and Missy Sumner
Huggins often. (Or in the case of
Missy, they see her when she isn’t in
Florence — that would be Italy, not
South Carolina.) Husband Kent
retired, and now they are planning
trips to Lexington, KY, for a trip
down the Bourbon Trail and perhaps
a river cruise soon. A road trip
to California to unload unwanted
furniture on unsuspecting offspring
is also in the works.
Carolyn Mapp Hewes adds that
husband Lem has been retired, but
that they are both active in a number
of charities. With 6 children and
10 grandchildren between them,
they stay busy with family but still
find time to visit with Ann Canipe,
Meny Hill Pettit and Anne Rhett
Taylor MerrIL She notes that Anne
Rhett was caught in the horrible fires
and mudslides in Montecito. We all
send our love to her as they recover.
Also recovering from the fires
and mud slides in Santa Barbara and
needing our support is Sally Dahl
Lecomte. She is appreciating life,
and with husband Jean-Francois,
she shuttles between Paris, France,
Mauritius (Riviere Noire), and Santa
Barbara. (Clearly, she must have
majored in French!) They also travel
to Florida and Nevada to visit sons.
JP Powell had hoped retirement
would allow lots of travel, and it
has with trips to five national parks
(Glacier was a favorite) and to Barcelona
to see Gaudi’s work (although
the trip has been on her list since
Miss Barton’s History of Art class,
she could easily have been intrigued
by reading Dan Brown’s “Origins.”
Gaudi’s architecture figures in it often.)
She also went to Marrakesh
and stayed in a charming riad and
then to Chicago for the architectural
tour and a chance to see “Hamilton.”
Plans are being made to get to
Atlanta for a gathering with Ginny
Perdue and Haden. She may win
the award for most and best travel
in a year! She also volunteers at the
non-profit Center for Mindful Living,
where one can learn the “power
of the pause” to help center us when
the world goes crazy. JP also makes
an important point about how we
need to keep in touch, be grateful
for our health and good fortunes,
and share with others. Amen on that
good advice!
Pam Noyes continues to look after
“advanced age horses, dog, cat and
our aging selves.” She continues the
SBC tradition of riding with Melissa
Griffith Manning. She is planning
road trips in the near future.
Another group that meets in
D.C. consists of Maria Estefania,
Liz Medaglia and Lynn Pearson
Russell. Quite a power group —
they meet often at the Cosmos Club!
Maria has retired but is still involved
in overseeing the building of a second
Bright Beginnings center — a
preschool for homeless children.
This new school will double the
number of children they can help. (If
any of you want to help Maria or any
of the other projects you read about
in the letter, get in touch with Ginny
or Claudette, and we will try to get
the info you will need.)
As for Liz Medaglia, she and
Joe are on the vacation of a lifetime!
Beginning in early February in Vienna,
they attended a real ball in a
real palace. The Legal Professionals
ball was held in Hofburg palace in
Vienna or as Liz describes it, “… we
got all dressed up in white tie and
gown with long gloves, got in a taxi
and said, ‘Please take us to the palace.’”
The next day, they were off to
Venice and then on to Turin, where
she answered our call for news. Then
on to Florence, where Joe departed
for home and Liz took two weeks of
Italian language immersion. Wow!
A new house is part of Jane Merriam
Wickens’s retirement plan.
She and Justin sold their house in
Northern Virginia and built a new
house in Charlottesville. Her daughter’s
family also sold their home in
C’ville and built near Jane too. All
of the family — including the four
grandchildren under eight — had
to spend the summer in their Cape
Cod home while the construction
went on under the watchful eyes of
the son-in-law and the family dog.
By Christmas, they were all in their
respective homes and settled in.
After losing her husband in 2015
after a long battle with dementia and
two hip replacements of her own,
Joan Adriance Mickelson has rallied
to travel from home in OH to South
Korea, Australia (both of these to see
her older daughter, whose husband
is in the Air Force), New Zealand,
Alaska, and family of three children
and seven grandchildren in San Antonio,
Flagstaff, and Denver.
Ann Tremain Lee says that she
and Saint are “aging up nicely” in
Newport News, VA, and showed it
by their walking the English Way of
the Camino de Santiago (77 miles)
in June. She has translated that to a
weekly “Camino Day,” where there is
no agenda but setting out on a hike
and letting the path develop. They
have a townhouse in Charlottesville
too and visit there often. Three
daughters, two sons-in-law, and
three granddaughters round out the
Lee crew.
Richmond is home to Michael
Nexsen Robertson. Most of her
time is spent with family, and two of
the children and three grandchildren
were treated to a long weekend at the
Homestead recently. When her third
child moves back to Virginia, there
will be two practicing physicians in
the family; so she will be doing lots
of babysitting. She does spend lowkey
and relaxing summers in Virginia
Beach.
Sally Gipson Tully never expected
to enjoy her 70’s so much. She
lives in Cazenovia, NY, where family
and friends enjoy the lake in the
summer and the snow in the winter.
She volunteers also and hopes the
rest of the class is feeling as free as
she does.
Sally and Jan Hugenin Assmus
got together last summer. More recently,
Jan and husband Gert visited
with Ann Tremain Lee and Saint
in Virginia. Jan and Gert survive
the NE winters by taking frequent
trips to North Carolina to see their
2-year-old granddaughter. Soon they
will be on their way to Poland and
Germany for Gert’s high school reunion!
Gert can show off his lovely
American family.
Betsy West Dripps and husband
Craig are still loving Martha’s Vineyard
despite the busy summers and
the quiet winters. When Betsy is
not playing golf, she volunteers as a
teacher at the Polly Hill Arboretum
for kids from grades K-4. As mother
of four (all teachers) and with seven
grandkids from 9-16, she is a natural.
Maureen Robertson Baggett
lives in Pennsylvania with husband
Wayne, and both are retired from
all but rocking a new grandson. The
50th reunion of her Junior Year in
France did bring flashbacks of teargas
and scary moments, but she
50