May 15, 2007
Dear Lamar 1960 Classmates,
I am writing this cover letter to Ann
Comstock Hornbeak’s Gathering Report with the anticipated hope of
responses from you. The 50th Reunion Planning
Committee has been meeting faithfully for the past nine months. During this time, we have
outlined our goals for our 50th reunion as well as
established the purpose of our fund raising activities. These are
outlined in the Gathering Report dated January 20, 2007 which you
received (if you would like this report sent to you again, please let
me know and I will respond). We are well on our way and are
always mindful of these goals during our Gatherings.
Toward the end of Ann’s current report you will read about suggested
committees we will need for our 50th reunion to be
successful. I am asking for your response regarding a committee
or committees on which you would be willing to participate. My
email address is: jedstubbs@att.net. Or, if you
would like to telephone me and discuss your thoughts and ideas, my
telephone number is: 713.723.9300. Perhaps you will have
suggestions for additional committees we will need.
I am
especially requesting responses from each of you regarding the
possibility of our producing a 50th Reunion Memory Book or
as Barbara McNeir suggested “ORENDA REVISITED”. I am in the
process of finding out costs to produce such a book and perhaps some of
you can help us out with compiling the book as well as printing.
I am open to all suggestions and am willing to work hand in hand with
this committee so that we will have a really fine memory book.
Because our class is rather large, time is of the essence – we need to
get started as soon as possible. I look forward to hearing from
you classmates of Lamar 1960 for your support.
Thank you for your continued interest in our 50th
Reunion. Thank you for all
your uplifting and encouraging emails and telephone calls. Since
postage is now $.41, we would greatly appreciate your sharing your
email address with us. This will help defray postage
expenses. Our next Gathering is on October 6, 2007 in the
Conference Room at 2 Riverway, Houston,
Texas. Our
Gatherings are open to all our classmates. We would very much
like for each of you to participate in our 50th Reunion, after all, we were all there in 1960
when we graduated – so let’s all participate again in 2010!!
Sincerely and with Best Wishes
to Each of You,
<>
Deanna Marie Schiro Stubbs
Chair – 50th Reunion
Planning Committee – Class of 1960
>
Lamar 1960 Alumni Gathering Report
May
5, 2007
Attendees to Meeting: Deanna Marie Schiro Stubbs, Joan Hall
Parker,
Allan Parker, Ann Comstock Hornbeak, Richard Hall, Penny Thornall
Remick, Carolyn Benjamin Baker, Barbara McNeir, Georgia Reynolds
White, Marilyn Ralls Johnson, Nelson Smith, Sally Henderson Yates, Sue
Stockard Bellamay.
At 9:38 a.m., Deanna passed out the agenda for our Gathering. She also
gave each of us a choice of a red or blue pen engraved with “LAMAR,
Class of 1960.” She then thanked Richard Hall for securing the
conference room and the snack room for our food and drinks for our
Gathering; Penny Thornall Remick for the delicious pastries; and Joan
Hall Parker for the decaf coffee and donuts.
Richard Hall advised we had 69 classmates attending the 65th Birthday
Party; however, we had an income of $913 indicating we had 76
attending. The 76 birthday partiers included spouses as
well. There
were 16 classmates and spouses who enjoyed dinner with John Greacen at
Josephine’s Restaurant in downtown Houston.
Treasurer’s Report: Nelson Smith passed out a copy of the
Treasurer’s
Report. We lost $7 on the birthday party and $10 on the Greacen
dinner. However, $3,400 has been received from the letters he
sent out
asking for donations. We received $52 from the silent auction at
our
last Chat & Chew at James Coney Island. Neil Calnan won the
bid on
the three opera tickets that Margaret Deats Bott donated. Nelson plans
to send out more request letters for donations to our alumni. He
may
wait a year or so to follow up on those who haven’t responded to his
first letter.
Membership Report: Sally Yates brought one hard copy of our
current
class membership, lost membership and deceased membership. She
also
brought and generously passed out CD’s for everyone at the
Gathering.
Each CD contains all three membership lists. Thank you Sally for
these
CD’s.
Website Update / Deceased Classmates and Teachers: Marilyn Ralls
Johnson advised she has the website updated through the June 5th Chat
& Chew change at Georgia Reynolds White’s house. She hasn’t
added
Janet Hopper’s death yet, but will. Kay Dunlap Henderson advised
Marilyn that Frank Martino died while we were attending
Lamar.
Marilyn also advised that Ruth Denney and Mae Gates had died.
Sally
advised that she got an email from Michael Adams requesting that his
name be taken off the distribution lists for all future events.
Sally
also advised that David McClure, a teacher, had died. Deanna
received
an email from John LaMontagne’s wife, Elaine, advising of his
death.
Elaine also advised that his colleagues and she are working on an
endowed Chair in John’s name at the University of Texas in
August. If
anyone is interested in donating to this cause, please contact Deanna
for the information.
Marilyn also said that her computer broke down as well as her hard
drive so she hasn’t been able to work on the website. She hopes
to
have this situation rectified soon. She will be putting up
pictures
from the 65th birthday soon.
Chat & Chew Update: Joan Hall Parker advised that Pei Wei was
noisy and that we would not be going back there. There were no
silent
auction items sold. Bob Wynne asked that we not go there again
because
of the noise and really would like to go to Molina’s every time.
The
Chat & Chew held at James Coney Island was nice and not so noisy.
The silent auction went well with a profit of $52. Georgia
Reynolds
White volunteered her home for our next Chat & Chew June 5TH for
hamburgers. Her husband loves to flip hamburgers in the back yard
and
they have plenty of room, so she hopes lots of alumni will come.
Joan
and Ann will be emailing our classmates more than once prior to the
event. Deanna asked Joan and Ann to also encourage alumni to
bring
items for the Silent Auction. Georgia advised that anyone who
would
like to arrive earlier than 6:30pm would be welcome. Georgia’s
husband, Connie White, will be home at noon and classmates are welcome
anytime thereafter.
Teachers: Penny Thornall Remick advised that she will be meeting
Fran
Callahan, Lamar Alumni Coordinator, regarding our teachers who are
still alive. We want to invite all living teachers to be a part
of our
50th Reunion Weekend.
FUND RAISING ACTIVITIES
- Larry Stewart is in Africa. He will update
us on mugs, pencils and pens at our next Gathering.
- Rob Burchfield’s daughter has been diagnosed with
cancer and his
father-in-law has been moved to Victoria TX. Deanna asked Nelson
to
discuss the live auction with Rob to ascertain Rob’s continued
involvement. At our last Gathering, Rob generously donated a flat
screen TV as the main donation for our live auction. We wish Rob
and
his family all the best and will keep them in our prayers.
- Kathy Janeba Lasater has donated accommodations for
a week on
Cozumel Island, Mexico, during October-December 2007 or May 1-December
2007. Its value is $900. Marilyn Ralls Johnson had
presented two
copies of flyers to show us about the accommodations. A copy of
the
flyer is attached with this report. Richard Hall (Georgia
Reynolds
White seconded) moved that we start the bid at $500. Marilyn
Ralls
Johnson and Richard Hall suggested that a separate item be on the Lamar
website advising the amount/date of the last bid. Barbara McNeir
(Carolyn Benjamin Baker seconded) moved to amend that there be no names
by the bid on the web page tracking the bids. After much
discussion,
the amendment passed. Then the main motion was voted upon and
passed.
More details and pictures can be found on the website at
www.gocozumel.com/tomas. Marilyn accepted responsibility to
accept all
the bids and post them on the Lamar website. Our thanks to
Marilyn.
Barbara suggested that after the completion of the email auction bid,
our classmates contact Kathy Janeba Lasater regarding using these
accommodations for other dates. Richard suggested we have a
2-week
turnaround. Marilyn suggested 6 weeks and emails out first week,
in
two weeks, then again in 3 weeks. A final email would go out announcing
the winner. All agreed that the bid would start May 15 and end June 30.
Joan and Ann will announce winner within a week after June 30.
- Ann advised that she ordered 25 more polo shirts of
various men
and women sizes. The live email auction for the opera tickets
went
well and Neil Calnan won the bid at $220. Deanna talked about how
interesting it was that the live email auction occurred and the endless
possibilities and opportunities the live email auction offers our
classmates.
Deanna said that Wilbur McKinney (East Texas), Paul Boon (Austin), Tom
Hewitt (San Antonio) and Larry Stewart (Dallas Texas Wine Country
Adventure—he has been working on it, but doesn’t have any details yet)
asked her if people would be willing to come to an events in these
areas. All agreed. Tom Bullocks has a B&B.
Georgia thought we
could have a “Long Distance Chat & Chew.” Deanna will talk
with
these people to ascertain their continued interest in pursuing a Lamar
1960 Travel OP.
Deanna then talked about Betty Milner Blake. Betty spent a lot of
time
and put in a tremendous effort making sure that her membership lists
and Sally’s membership lists agreed with Joan and Ann’s email and
postal mailing lists. Betty did all of this during a time of
extreme
pressure because of her husband’s illness. All of us greatly
appreciate her hard work because clearly she did it for us. We
offer
her our deepest appreciation.
Betty Milner Blake had also suggested to Deanna that we might want to
consider having someone from Medicare or Medicaid talk to us about our
options. Marilyn felt it’s unnecessary to have someone speak to
us
about Medicare and Medicaid because we can find the information on the
internet. However, Carolyn Benjamin Baker did feel we need
someone to
speak to us about the Prescription Drug Plans that are available. The
webpage for Medicare is www.medicare.com. Nelson suggested that
Marilyn put some links on our webpage with this information instead of
having someone come talk to us.
Lost Classmates update – Betty Milner Blake has sent the list of lost
classmates to one of our alumni who is a detective in Alabama. We
will
hear from Betty at our next Gathering regarding updates on our lost
classmates.
50th Reunion Memory Book: Deanna showed an example of a memory
book
compiled by Bellaire High School for their 40th and 45th
reunions.
This is a huge task requiring a tremendous amount of work and
time.
Each memory book has current information about their classmates but the
40th reunion memory book includes high school pictures and current
pictures with updates of each classmate. Also included are 50’s
trivia
and other fun information. Meta Strauss Dillashaw did both memory
books for Bellaire. We need to decide if this is something we
wish to
pursue as it would probably require 1-3 people to work on this
project. She asked for our thoughts. Discussion ensued.
Deanna will
contact Jack Wetmore regarding pricing and perhaps donation of printing
of our 50th reunion memory book and will report at our next Gathering.
Marilyn Ralls Johnson advised that we have our Orenda, Lamar Directory
(which we can get a copy of the CD from her), etc. She feels that
if
we have a book like this it would be very extensive (which Deanna had
stated). It’s a nice idea and it’s expensive. She’s not
sure we need
anything like that since we already have good sources with the
information. Barbara McNeir suggested we have one called “Orenda
Revisited.” Deanna would like someone to do the legwork to find
out
how much it would cost to do one like either of the Bellaire
books.
Penny Thornall Remick thought that people who worked on the Orenda
during high school should work on this project. Barbara suggested
we
put out a note to the alumni to see if any of them are willing to help
with the memory book. She also suggested that it be pointed out
in our
email attaching the minutes.
REUNION WEEKEND:
Deanna advised there have been a number of tasks that been suggested
and she asked for more ideas from today’s attendees. Marilyn had
four
copies of a 3-page listing of various locations to have functions such
as ours. This listing can be found at www.weddingsinhouston.com.
Deanna also advised that the Hilton Hotel in the Galleria advised Dene
Hofheinz Anton that her guests could stay at their hotel at half
price. Dene will make a special effort to get with the manager
since
he’s not returning her calls. Marilyn advised the Hilton is also
on
the list she has. Joan advised that the person to contact at
these
locations is the “Event Coordinator” or the “Sales Manager.”
Deanna
advised that it’s not imperative that we decide on a hotel this year.
Following are the suggested committees to execute our 50th Reunion:
- Reunion Weekend Activities (includes locations and
catering)
- Reunion Weekend Hotel accommodations – Marilyn
Ralls Johnson said that she wants to be included on this committee.
- Decorations – Georgia Reynolds White, Alice Bell
Smith, Dene Hofheinz Anton
- Military Service – Larry Stewart
- Lamar Proud – Classmates who have distinguished
themselves in various professional and/or personal arenas of life
- Music
- Greeters
- Sports
- Name Tags – Barbara McNeir
- Social Clubs
- Choralettes
- Mixed Chorus
- January 1960 Mid-Term
- Professional Photographer/Video
- Slides and Pictures
- Lamar/Bellaire Competition
- Lanier Classmates Get Together
- Pershing Classmates Get Together
- Location Committee – Marilyn Ralls Johnson
Deanna thanked Ann Comstock Hornbeak for taking notes during our
Gathering and for compiling them for email and postal mailings to our
classmates.
The date for our next Gathering will be October 6 – Carolyn offered to
bring donuts or other breakfast foods to our next Gathering providing
she is not out of town. Richard will inquire as to availability
of
these facilities at 2 Riverway for our next Gathering in October.
Marilyn advised that she will be attending the 70th anniversary for
Lamar alumni which will be held Nov. 3. It will include tours of
Lamar, lunch, Choralettes, Lamar/Bellaire football game, plus an
evening ball. Nov. 2, they plan to have something but haven’t
made a
decision yet. Deanna asked Marilyn to share with us all
information
she gets at our next Gathering.
Meeting adjourned at 11:21 a.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Ann Comstock Hornbeak
Secretary
bhornbeak@earthlink.net
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