IRENE'S AMY and MORE

I'm sure all of you remember Amy Batts. She's the daughter of the late IRENE PIEL and David Batts. She attended our class reunions, the last one with her dad after IRENE passed away. 

She is getting married to Gregg Havlak, of Abilene, on October 28, 2017. Even though this is one of the happiest events in one's life, Amy says it won't be the same without IRENE. She really wishes her mother could be here to lend much desired advice on the wedding plans, fashion, and even etiquette. I'm pretty certain IRENE and David will be with her in spirit. Our best wishes to Amy. 

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JUNE HASH CURRY sent the following, "I will be out of circulation for awhile after June 5th as I am getting my right knee replaced since it now refuses to function just like the left one quit doing last year. I will be in the hospital 3 days and then in a nursing home for awhile, but will go back online as soon as I get over the debilitating nausea that always seems to follow me for weeks because of the necessary pain drugs during and after surgery. I never dread the surgeries, only the nausea afterwards." Oh, June, I can relate to the dreaded nausea! 

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A group of Ballinger classmates got together today to go over some of the plans for the 60th Class Reunion to be held October 7th at the Community Center in Ballinger. PATSY BERRY BOMAR is Vice-President elect, and will be filling in for JAMES HAYS, Class President, as he is due to have back surgery soon. (Good luck, JAMES.) More details will be forthcoming. Probably via snail mail.  (PATSY, I need a new photo, please!)

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NANCY THOMPSON BAKER is still my go-to girl for Ballinger news. If any of you have something you wish to share, please drop me an email, or give her a call. Her number's in the book. (The handbook, that is.)

Until next time.

Peace and Love,

Marilyn

MEA CULPA

I am so sorry I missed this obituary. It was on the Ballinger News site, and I thought she looked familiar. However, since MARGARET PRUETT left BHS in our Freshman year, it's highly likely I never knew her at all. We didn't move to Ballinger until April of the 8th grade. My usual "source" for news happening in the Ballinger area didn't inform me of this until I sent the recent address list to everyone who has email. MARGARET's name and Odessa address were still listed.

I'm counting on you guys to keep me informed of such news as this. After all, we are getting on in life. Memories and health may be confronting some of us! Besides, I like to hear from you.

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(March 26, 1938 - October 10, 2016)

Margaret Irene Cooke, 78, of Ballinger passed away Monday, October 10, 2016 at Shannon Medical Center in San Angelo, Texas with her children and grandchildren at her side.

She was born March 26, 1938 in Rising Star, Texas to Verda and Robert Barton Pruett. She was a devoted mother, sister, grandmother, and an Aunt to many. She loved her family and friends and she loved my “Daddy” until God took him home on February 12, 1992 from cancer. She spent most of her time devoted to her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. It was her passion in life; to be surrounded by her children.

Margaret “Momma” was preceded in death by her husband Earnest Cooke; her parents; her grandparents; a son; a grandson; and aunts, uncles, cousins, sister, and brother.

She is survived by her children, Kenny Cooke, Karen Horton, and Amy Roberts; her sons-in-law, Edward Horton and Dale Roberts; ten grandchildren; ten great-grandchildren; her sister, Patsy Jones; and many nieces, nephews, cousins, and friends.

A memorial service will be held at 10:00 am on Saturday, October 15 at Lange Funeral Home in Ballinger, Texas.

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A recent Harvard study showed that consumption of chocolate greatly

reduces the likelihood of atrial fibrillation (a-fib), and "chocolate consumers had lower levels of other risk factors including hypertension and diabetes". Harvard Chocolate Study Finally!! A good reason for my daily dose of chocolate in one form or another. I think I'll go have another chocolate chip cookie. (I'll put the rest back in the cookie jar!)

Send me the good stuff -- like eating chocolate -- you take pleasure from in your "golden years". It doesn't take much for some of us to enjoy life.

Peace and much love,

Marilyn

WHERE IN THE WORLD IS...

JEARL CUNNINGHAM. Recently, BILL KING informed me he had located a friend from high school who moved away during our Sophomore year,  I contacted JEARL and asked what he had been up to in the intervening years. BILL was kind enough to scan and send me the photo from the 1955 annual. I've asked JEARL to send current photos, and I'll post them when I receive them. The following bio is what JEARL sent in answer to my request.

"My family and I left Ballinger when I was in the 10^th grade. We moved to Arizona for awhile then moved back to Channelview, Texas near Houston. My mother passed away while we were in Arizona. I graduated from Robert E. Lee High School in Baytown, Texas in 1957. We went back to Arizona for a little bit after I graduated. I was with my Dad, my two sisters, and two brothers at the time.

When we came back to Texas, we moved to the Dallas area. We moved to a small town on the south side of Dallas called Lancaster. I immediately started going to church there. I accepted Christ as my Savior when I was 14 years old and have always wanted to follow His direction all of these years. While going to church in Lancaster, I met a 16 year old young lady named Mary Kathryn McCalla. She was a junior in high school. We were married within 6 months. She was 17 and I was 21 years old.

I was a framing carpenter at the time and had my own business of contracting framing houses. I ran my own crew for about 4 years then started a home building business. After a few years and a couple hundred houses built and sold, I started a custom cabinet company along with my building company. I later dropped the home building company and went to custom cabinets full time. We developed that company over 22 years into a multimillion dollar company with about 200 employees. Don’t get too excited about that. There was an extreme financial crunch in the late 1990’s and we had to close the company.

We then started another cabinet distributing company in Dallas from 1993 until 1997. We sold that company and sold our home in Lancaster and moved to Canton, TX where we live now. I built a few houses when we came here then started another cabinet company. We have been operating this company for 18 years. We have 30 employees and have done quite well here. God has truly blessed our lives and I will tell you more about that.

We were blessed with 4 daughters. Our first born Kathy Deanne Cunningham was diagnosed with a brain tumor at the age of 20 months and died at the age of 3 years. Our oldest living daughter, Debbie, now is 51 years old with two boys and a girl. She has two granddaughters and one grandson. She and her husband, Mike Murdock, live here in Canton. Dana Gwen Cliburn is just younger than Debbie. She and her husband, Eric, live in Frisco, TX. They have 2 daughters and one grandson. Amy Miller is our youngest daughter and she is married to Michael. They live here in Canton. Amy works with us in our company. She is part owner and actually runs the company. The name of our company here in Canton is Millwood Cabinets, LLP

I am now 77 years old and do not plan on working past 80, but I do work full time now. This is just a brief description of what has happened as you can imagine. Mary and I live in a modest home and we have a framed quote on our kitchen wall. It reads, 'We are truly blessed,' and we are."

It sounds as though you certainly are blessed, JEARL.

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I wish more of you lived close to Austin so we could have small reunions from time to time. MARTHA and TRUMAN and I did just that this past week. We had a great time reminiscing about our Ballinger years, talking, laughing, and eating. Both of them brought delicious dishes for our lunch, and I furnished chocolate chip cookies for dessert. They are both very healthy and active, belying their ages as you can see in the photo. Martha stays busy with volunteer work and attending local entertainment, such as the opera.. and loves keeping her darling little granddaughters. Truman loves to travel and play golf! Staying active is how they both stay so fit and young at heart.

MARTHA's son, William Coats, his wife K.C., and her granddaughters, Elsa and Lucy. William is an attorney, however he has a business in the field of wind energy.

MARTHA's daughter, Anne Northington Coats. Anne is an RN.

They all live in Austin, so MARTHA gets to see them frequently.

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JUNE HASH CURRY has reason to be a proud grandmother (again). She recently sent me the following.. "You might be interested to know that my granddaughter Morgan, who is a student at OU, is going to be studying in London this summer, and her parents, Scott, Staci, and brother Braden are

going over her last week, and then on to Paris for vacation.

To the best of my understanding, she is completing Gaylord College of Journalism's elective for her major of Public Relations. These classes are broadcast communication and multimedia classes. She just called them British media studies. She's taken all the classes on Sundays this semester, and London is like a 3-week field trip. She'll be going to CNN London, Daily Mail, and most of the London publishers and networks."

I told JUNE that it sounds like Morgan is preparing for a career in broadcasting -- or in journalism of some  kind. She's beautiful enough to be on television, isn't she?

Guess that's it for this time. I'm sure more of you have interesting things happening you'd like to share with us. Especially the "good stuff". It's nice that most of us are alive and kicking this time around. Let me hear from you so I will know this is so!

Peace and love to you all,

Marilyn