Alumni & Friends Travel

1953 Greetings to our class which is still basking in the awesome accomplishment of our $60,000 Endowed Scholarship goal!

Betty Jean Hunsinger, Charlie Chewning,

Mitzi DuPre Matthews and I had to settle for memories of our weeks spent at Pawleys Island every June, since none of us felt safe driving that far. Oh, for the wonderful times we had through the years when

Lexie Margaret Stokes Collie, Anne Merck

McDowell, Susie Gaines Hautala and Betty Wallace Hasty were there with us.

Our good friend, Charlie Chewning, recently suffered a stroke that affected her short-term memory and at present is in Bethea Baptist Health Care. My daughter Nancy and I try to visit weekly and play cards with her. Mitzi and daughter Kay, after relaxing a few days at the beach, visited Charlie on their way home. Joyce Bell will be coming to South Carolina in mid-October and her plans include a visit with Charlie. Please keep our wonderful classmate in your prayers, for we don’t know what her future plans are since she cannot live alone.

CLASS NEWS

Betty Jean keeps in touch with Jean Fore McDaniel whose visits to their home in Pawleys have greatly lessened. She and Mac are doing well.

Betty Carol Mobley Bynum called recently, and we caught up with each other. Bundy had a bad fall but is doing nicely. Ladies and gentlemen, we MUST be careful at our older age!

Our cute Jennie Herlong Boatwright surprises me occasionally with a phone call. She gave me her daily routine of waking, breakfast, washing the dishes, lunch, washing the dishes, a nap, supper, washing the dishes and going to bed!! Doesn’t that sound just like her? Phillips enjoys all these activities with her. All kidding aside, they are very much involved in their church and love that.

Our faithful Sarah Sampson Bell calls often and is still staying busy. I love playing her son Gregg in the Words with Friends game on my IPad. I delight when I can beat the Judge, because he is a judge!!

My daughter Paddy has retired from her Physical Therapy work and now has time for gardening which she loves. Brenda retired after teaching 35 years and along with another retired teacher, is conducting SAT and ACT workshops in South and North Carolina schools. Our youngest, Nancy, is in her 31st year of teaching. First she taught kindergarten and now first grade. She loves it so much that I don’t know when she’ll retire. I have 5 grands and 9 great-grands and some in-laws, numbering 21 when we all get together which is OFTEN!

So much for me, but if you would call, I could have some news of you. Hope you have survived our scorching summer. Now all of us are anticipating the cooler weather of fall.

The Legacy luncheon honoring scholarship donors will be held late October. We hope to have our class represented. The Golden Circle, and we are part of that, will meet during Alumni Day next April 18th. We hope some of our class can be there. Y’all, it will be 67 years since we graduated!!! Unbelievable!! Love to you and your families, Pat Chapman Huff

1954 What a glorious afternoon I have had! Let me give you a little background as to why this afternoon has been so special--- Last week I went to the Scholarship luncheon which Coker gave to the holders of the scholarships with which you are familiar. I loved being there! Great fellowship with the students; an opportunity to see friends whom I have not seen in AGES; a chance to hear and meet some the trustees of Coker UNIVERSITY; and good food (especially the chocolate cobbler) were all part of the package. Mixed in with all that GOOD stuff was a tinge of homesickness. I went back in my mind for more than six decades and found all of us on campus. We were studying CIV and playing field hockey and going to required functions and singing “Round the Table You Must Go” and enjoying Kelly’s homemade yeast rolls and listening for the 7:00 am bell to peal out every morning and on and on! I also went back in my mind to the last few editions of the Commentary and dropped my head because OUR spots in the columns have been totally empty --- I made a decision to change that one last thing. I got on the telephone this afternoon and talked with as many of you as I could. For some of you I left messages; for others there seemed not to be an answering machine. I also found that for some of you the last number I have in my records is no longer in service. If you read this Commentary, please call me and give me your current telephone number and current address.

Sara Ashley Hollowell sounds great and says she’s doing well. She is living in a lovely retirement center and is very happy to have good care there --- and a wonderful doctor who keeps her going. Her address is 3504 Flint Street, Apt C320, Greensboro, NC, 27405-3282. Her phone number is the same one in the Coker directory.

Had a very pleasant conversation with Don Moore, Nancy Altman Moore’s husband. Nancy is not well but has great caregivers. Their four sons are well, but I didn’t ask where they live. Nancy and Don have nine grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

Chris Bates Mink and I could STILL be talking. She sounds wonderful. She lives in a retirement center in Augusta and enjoys lots of the provided activities. She’s still battling arthritis. Al passed away in January of this year. Their children, Martha, Melanie, and Frank are in constant touch. I believe it is Martha who lives fairly close and took Chris to church this past Sunday.

Frank Fowler Williams is still at her home in Bennettsville, and she too has the same landline number. Her daughter Eve has recently married, and she and her groom have been living at Frank’s. They are in the process of moving into their home, which is about five minutes from Frank. They are all pleased with the location. Eve’s husband works for the Walgreen company in Charlotte. He doesn’t have to commute to Charlotte every day, so that too, is a good arrangement. Frank is still active in all the Bennettsville things.

Mary Ellen Williamson Sprawls and I still keep in touch. She was reading when I chatted with her today. She does a good bit of that, and she still walks every morning. Good! Good! Good! for her. She spent a day with me several months ago, and we’re planning to do “something” right away. She told me that she has recently completed the largest quilt she has ever made. She has made DOZENS of quilts of all sizes. This latest one was king sized, and she did it without a hitch. I have all of my James F. Byrnes t-shirts packed to take to her for quilt making. Her sons, Walton and Richard, are still successfully running their business in Florence, and have been honored as business leaders in their city. Both of them and their families are very involved in their community, and Mary Ellen still does some office work for them. She still participates in Florence things, including her church and their choir, and the theater with which her boys and their spouses and children are involved. She’s always making of altering costumes for the theater bunch.

Reading is one of the things that Betty Stokes Cottingham really enjoys. She doesn’t drive because of a mild stroke some time ago, but she loves getting out when she can. Her cats are constant companions. She listens to the Good News network on radio. I’m not familiar with that but would like to pick it up. Her phone number is the same.

I caught Ellen Bramlett Clarke at a good time and loved hearing her update. She and Jim have just returned from a great trip to England and Ireland, where they did lots of sightseeing and visiting lots of Jim’s relatives who live there. Ellen says they are healthy and active --- that their children are doing really well. She and Jim have nine grandchildren. The youngest grandchild has just received a fellowship to Vanderbilt to work on a doctorate in chemistry. One granddaughter lives in Costa Rica; one grandson in an internist, one grandson is becoming a submarine engineer; two granddaughters are nurses; one granddaughter is in real estate; and two others are in temporary positions. Ellen still does the genealogy thing and stated that her garden of this past summer was the poorest that she had ever had. I can certainly relate to the garden thing.

1953 –1961 THE OFFICIAL MAGAZINE OF COKER UNIVERSITY 2625 | COKER.EDU WINTER 2019

Sadly I want to inform you of the passing of Laverne Hancock on May 22, 2019. Electa Anderson Small ‘85 and Joe are going through a time of transition. Joe’s new job with Cognizant (specifically for him Walgreen’s) has him located in Chicago. When he was offered this wonderful opportunity, he was told that it was “on site”. Since their roots are so deeply planted in the Georgetown area, they have chosen to delay Electa’s making the complete move to the Windy City. She will continue to live at DeBordieu with some commuting on her part while Joe occupies an apartment near his work. Joe will be doing lots of commuting too. Youth is in their favor. Charlie, their adorable Chinese Pug, is with Electa. I see them regularly, and Electa and I keep the phone lines at least warm. She is working on a part time basis for her Coker friend, Teressa Thompson Harrington ‘81, as office manager for Teressa’s business of Christian Counseling. Electa absolutely loves her job. I am doing well so far as I know. My heart and all its related stuff are under control. My hair is really SNOW white and thinner, my walking is a whole lot slower, and I’m getting SHORTER. Can’t find enough time to keep shortening all my slacks. I still do the church activities. My Sunday School class is amazing! We do lots of outside-of-the-church things like feeding a bazillion law enforcement folks and first responders, and collecting items for our local food bank. I continue to enjoy participating in local things like my garden, book, music clubs (though nobody hears me sing anymore), and a group called the Columbia Study Group. I have been part of that for decades and love it. Remember Danny Nicholson at Coker? He’s now President of Connie Maxwell Children’s Home in Greenwood, and was recently our featured speaker for our Guest luncheon. What a pleasure! I still have Anderson’s Landing at Inlet Harbour. Wish we could all get together there again. Think we could make that happen? How I would appreciate a contact from each of you! Pick up the phone and call 803-776-0926 or 803-414-5754. Better yet, visit me at 210 Saddlebrook Lane in Hopkins, SC. I get giddy just thinking about the possibility of either of those taking place. REMEMBER COKER!! The campus is gorgeous. The yard at Drengaelen has had a facelift. The Alumni Folks are on their toes and we need to do our part in keeping up. Coker still needs our prayers and our dollars --- send dollars or pennies, or checks or big bucks to our Alma Mater, and PLEASE --- get back in touch. Still with love, Lois Hatfield Anderson 1961 Joyce Coats Leasure, Florence, S.C.: “My last visit to the doctor said that I was in the best health ever! Larry was so happy as was I. Larry and I went to visit our daughter, Danielle, in Wauwatosa,WI for a week in March and July! Makayla was home in March for Spring Break after being in ICU with pneumonia for a week in a hospital near Cedarville University. In July it was fun visiting the girls working! Makayla worked at the cafe In Barnes and Nobles.... they had the best quiche I've ever tasted. I even brought some back to Florence. Sydney worked at Baskin Robbins.... it was fun for her to wait on us. She is an excellent soccer player. Her Milwaukee team travels as far as Las Vegas to play in a tournament! She hopes to get a full scholarship to a college when she finishes high school in a year and half. Larry and Danielle rode the city bus to an air show at Lake Michigan. That was a real experience for Larry especially on the return trip... there were some real characters on the bus. I think Larry was very shocked at the people on the bus. We plan to go to Emory and Henry University, VA in October for Larry's Reunion. They redid The Duck