Text of e-mails related to my 50th St. Francisville class reunion. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ My response to and the first e-mail: from Paul Pinkstaff to Virginia date Wed, Apr 21, 2010 at 1:41 PM subject Re: St. F. Class Reunion mailed-by gmail.com hide details Apr 21 Larry and Virginia, I got your e-mail. pinkstaffp@acm.org is my general e-mail address. More later, Paul/P.J. - Hide quoted text - On Wed, Apr 21, 2010 at 11:28 AM, Virginia wrote: P.J. I wasn't for sure if P.J. was to be used or not, it's difficult not to say that. If Paul is preferred just say so and I will make the effort to do that. It is hard to believe that 50 years have gone by, I don't think I have talked to you since graduation time or at least shortly after. Didn't you leave for basic training shortly after graduation? Virginia and I go back to St. F. every year for the Chestnut Festival and have seen some that we graduated with or some that we were in school with. Last year was virginia's 50th reunion and there were some there that we had not seen since their graduation. Most of the years we have seen Bill Pierson and Myrna Lewis (Hunt). Last year in a conversation with Myrna she told me that Bill had said he would be doing something for our 50th but then later I was told he said he wasn't going to do anything. I didn't know this but a few weeks ago I got out the school annual and started looking for names on the internet. I was surprised by what I found, seeing the person's name, age and maybe having an idea where they were located helped getting a phone number. Found out that nothing was being done so I decided to go ahead to see what I could do. I have talked to Joe Litherland, Joe Beard, Eddie Schroyer (Eddie is not his name - goes by Wesley, his given name), Bill Pierson, John Ensor, Judy Harper (Parson) and Myrna Lewis. I have tried to call Bob Brookheart and Toni Lewis (Caldwell) but have not made contact. Bob lives in Lawrenceville, Il, and I have talked to his brother that lives across the street or next door. I will be back in Illinois at the end of May so maybe I can go see him if I cannot reach him by phone. Toni lives in Florida but from what I have heard she is not interested in coming back. I got her phone number form her brother, Bob, that lives in Lawrenceville, I will try calling again. I just found out Monday that Judy Robb (Sloan) lives in Princeton, In, so I still have to contact her. Steve Gunn lives outside of Lawrenceville but I have not found a phone number for him. We have had some that have died: Barbara Wease (Lynn), Bonnie Jones (Pool), Jim Byrns and John Shouse. Jim Wise joined the Army during our senior year and did not graduate with us. After his tour of duty was over, he stayed in Germany, married a German woman at some time and has died there. I have seen Tom Hart the last few years at the festival so Bill, Myrna and I have decided that he be ask to be a part of us. He did spend all but his last two years with us. Everyone I have talked to so far have said they will be back for a reunion. This is at the beginning of the planning stages but this would take place at the festival time which is the first Saturday in October. We thought maybe we could get together some place for a meal on the Friday evening before the festival so it would just be "us" (and spouses/friends) so we can just talk. On Saturday there is a parade and we would be on a float. Also, on Saturday evening there is a catered meal in the school gym that we could go to, there we would be to gather at a table. Also, Virginia's class put together a book and each classmate wrote a history of what had happened with them since their graduation. I thought this was a good idea, so I thought it would be nice if we did the same thing. I would get the information from each person and put it in a book so each classmate would have a copy. I am trying to get a copy of the obituaries of the ones that have died along with a fairly recent picture of them, these would be put in the book also. When I looked for you on the internet I found your resume. Looking at that, I saw you had been in the National Guard, attended SIU and lived in Michigan. I felt sure I had the right Pinkstaff. This has been kind of exciting looking for everyone and trying to make contact, not quite what I was expecting. Virginia and I moved to Wichita, Ks, in 1986 with a job transfer. I retired in 2008 and we have decided to stay here, have purchased our final real estate here. This has been a long email but I sincerely hope that you and your wife can come to the reunion/festival. I hope you are receptive to things being thought of so far. Do you have anything that you would like to see done? Would like to hear more from you! Larry Vanwey 15730 Moscelyn Ln Goddard, Ks 67052 Home phone: 316-794-8787 Cell: 316-258-9887 Email: vanweylv@yahoo.com ------------------------------------------------- Second set of 3 e-mails: to "Paul J. Pinkstaff" date Sun, May 2, 2010 at 11:19 PM subject Classmate information mailed-by srs.acm.org signed-by yahoo.com hide details May 2 (2 days ago) P.J., Would you write your life history since graduation and e-mail it to me. Try to keep this to one page but if more is needed that is OK. I think I said something about this in an e-mail to you. I will put the information together in a book and each classmate will receive a copy. I haven't heard any more from you but would like to know if you would be able to come back to the reunion. Everyone I have talked to have seemed enthused about seeing each other again. Bill Pierson will be going back to St. F. at the end of May or the first part of June. I think he is going to get with Myrna Hunt to see if they can find a place where we could all get together on the Friday night before the festival. We would have a meal in a room to ourselves and be able to get reaquainted. I retired in March 2008 and we are staying in Kansas. I came here in Oct '86 on a job transfer and then Virginia and our daughter move here the first of Dec. Our son was a Senior in high school so we left him with friends to finish H.S. We like it here as the humidity is not as high like Illinois/Indiana. I need to shut this down for now. Any questions please get back with me. Thanks, Larry V. Reply Forward Reply Paul Pinkstaff to Virginia show details 2:13 AM (21 hours ago) Hi Larry and Virginia, WOW! What an assignment. I am not sure I want to even think about it? One might do a life history in one word or it could take hundreds of days and pages. I must think about this. As for coming back to St Francisville this Fall, I have no idea right now. Jane has had a lot of back problems over the last year, and she had another operation April 26. We certainly hope she will be 100% one of these days. We have not been to Florida for more than a year, maybe almost two, because Jane has not been able to ride in a car for any length of time. For the past month or so I have been retired. The funny thing is it seems like I have less free time than when I was working. Eventually I will figure that out, and get on some kind of schedule. I was surprised at how many people from our class have died. (Is this party going to be for both our class and Virginia's class? I am asking about any of the special stuff. ) I have not tried to look up any statistics on expected life span for people our age. I guess that is about it for now. P.J. - Show quoted text - Reply Forward Reply Virginia to Paul show details 11:40 PM (30 minutes ago) It is good to hear from you, with more words than "later". I hope your history can hit the high points, If you would maybe consider writing an autobiography at some point in time maybe what you would write for this could be an outline. I wouldn't want you to write a book for this so if you have a lot of high points maybe you could hit the highest of the high points! (ha) This get together would be for our class only but since I married Virginia she would be a part of our get togethers. I thought the number of deaths was a little high myself. I did not know what the cause of death was with each one, other than Bonnie, when I started looking into making contacts for a reunion. Bonnie died from cancer, we had seen her at the festivals maybe over 2-3 years while she was fighting it, Virginia thinks maybe it srarted with breast cancer but not for sure. I knew Jim Byrns had died and last year Myrna Lewis (Hunt) told me that Jim had a serious drinking problem. Jim lived in Dyer, In, and I think worked in the steel mills. Myrna's younger brother, Mike, married a Stone girl and Jim married a sister to her. From what Myrna said drinking may have been a contributing factor. Dorothy LeGrand, Barbara's oldest sister, told me she had colon cancer. Died shortly after the diagnosis. John Shouse lived in Florida and drove a semi. My neice married a nephew of John and he got me a copy of the obituary. The obituary said his semi ran off the road and hit a tree but I was told he had a heart attack and died instantly. Myrna told me about Jim Wise but I don't think she knew what the cause of death was. I would like to see you again and I'm sure others would too. I guess as time goes on it can be decided if that can happen. Larry V. --- On Tue, 5/4/10, Paul Pinkstaff wrote: From: Paul Pinkstaff Subject: Re: Classmate information To: "Virginia" Date: Tuesday, May 4, 2010, 1:13 AM - Show quoted text - ------------------------------------------------------ For now, this is the end. Who knows what will be next. ------------------------------------------------------