In memoriam

Remember MHS alumni during the holidays

We are approaching the happy seasons of Thanksgiving and Christmas and New Year’s Day.

But we must not forget the Lions who are no longer with us. I counted at least 46 obituaries/tributes in the Monongah High Alumni blog, which you can check by going to jo4wvu.blogspot.com , since March.  Remember them in your prayers and help their families deal with their grief.

Nick Domico, Jr. – Junior Domico when he was growing up in the green house in Monongah next to Our Lady of Pompeii Church – passed away Wednesday, Sept. 10 in Fairmont. He was the founder of the Domico Funeral Home in Fairmont.

Jim Commodore, Class of 1950, passed away Thursday, Oct. 23 in Morgantown.

Rozzie Moore Walden, 96 -- grandmother-in-law of T.J. Savereno, Class of 1948, who lives in Florence, South Carolina with wife Lynette Saverino – passed away in Hodges, South Carolina on Friday, Oct. 24.

Robert Lee Ice, 71, of Monongah, husband of Judy Bevlin Ice, Class of 1964, passed away Oct. 21 in Fairmont.

Harold S. “Deacon” Duvall, who coached Fairmont State to the national NAIA football title in 1967, passed away Oct. 16 in Fairmont. 

Monongah native Roger Fay Yanero Sr. of Fairmont passed away Oct. 13.

Agnes Urich Garcia of Four States, sister of Allena Urich Cunningham of Monongah, passed away Oct. 4.

Mary Ann Bienkoski Domico, widow of Louie “Scoogum” Domico, passed away Sept. 30.

David Swisher, son of Monongah grad Barbara Hostutler Swisher, passed away Sept. 22.

Denver Browning, Class of 1962, passed away Sept. 17 in Arlington, Virginia.

Lionel Nichols, Class of 1942, passed away.

Shelley Riley Moore, first lady of West Virginia longer (12 years) than any other first lady in the history of the state as the wife of Gov. Arch Moore, passed away September 13.

Beverly Ann Pyles of Monongah, mother of Dorene Wright of Monongah, passed away Sept. 2.

Ellen Shaw de Paredes, a medical giant in breast imaging and the daughter of Monongah High teacher Julia Shaw, passed away Aug. 30.

Eddie Luszcynski, perhaps the greatest multi-sport athlete in Monongah High history, passed away Aug. 22.

Eva M. DeGarmo of Sabillasville, Maryland, who grew up on Worthington’s Harter Hill, passed away Aug. 15.

Helen I. Massett, sister of Albert Pellillo of Monongah, passed away Aug. 20.

Jaimie Jo Feltz Riley, daughter of 1952 and 1955 state championship football coach Jim Feltz and brother of the 1973 MHS state champ quarterback Jay Feltz, passed away Aug. 14.

Long-ago Monongah Post Office worker Rose Mary Wilkins passed away Aug. 12.

Tom Paknik, Class of 1951 valedictorian, passed away Aug. 11.

Donna Marie Straight Ware of Bentons Ferry passed away Aug. 6.

Monongah native Delores Shaver Eddy passed away Aug. 7.

Monongah native Jack Prahl passed away Aug. 9.

Monongah’s Tim Bowers passed away Aug. 8.

Alma Gay Boyce of Fairmont passed away Aug. 7.

Four States native Corporal Alva Clifford Groves’ body is returned to America 63 years after his death in Korea.

Former Monongah High bus driver Dave Shaver passed away July 17.

Ruben Dale Roger Long of Worthington passed away Aug. 2.

Charles “Bob” Bombard of Everson, passed away Aug. 4.

Multiple Green Hills Country Club champ Betty Ann Barnes Middlemas passed away Aug. 4.

Lois Florence Koon Lee of the Swisher Hill Koon dynasty passed away July 8.

Lois Carol Smith passed away June 27.

Helen Retton Marchiny passed away June 16.

Long-time Poky Dot waitress Glenoka “Dokie” Arnett passed away June 15.

Frances Savereno Pulice passed away May 26.

Dollie Mae Engle Butcher passed away May 28.

Marie Phillips Kisner passed away May 18.

Lillieray May “Pickle” Hall passed away May 16.

Ernest James Richards passed away May 6.

Chiefton native Julia Ann Skormsley Gotses passed away April 13.

Albert Adamson (aka Adamovich) passed away April 6. 

Arnold “J.B.” Loss passed away Jan. 7.

Stanley Brzuzy passed away April 26.

Virginia Lee Kisner passed away April 21.

Lois Karen Colvin Harbert passed away March 31.

Letta Louise Cochran passed away April 18.

John Moore of Worthington passed away April 1.

And to all my Class of 1950 classmates who are not on this earth to attend the 2015 Monongah High Alumni Reunion at Knights of Columbus on Mary Lou Retton Drive in Fairmont on Saturday, May 23 and at the combined Class of 1950/Class of 1955 dinner at 7 p.m. Friday, May 22 in the Three Ways Inn Restaurant in Fairmont:

Barbara Jean Baczuk Franklin

Mary Bienkoski Domico

William Birdsell

Kathleen Blagg Goldstein

Walter Brzuzy

Deloris Butcher Beals

Martha Jean Carpenter

Jim Commodore

Anthony DeMary, Jr.

Theresa Demus

Richard Garrett

Lawrence Godby, Jr.

Joe Manzo

Iris Martin Carpenter

Ann Manuel Richardson

Virginia Manuel Eddy

Tom Orsini

Bill Pringle

Paul Rankin

Nancy Robinson Saunders

Jim Starcher

Lyman Wadsworth

Jim Wimer

RIP and God bless you, everyone.

You can read the obituaries for everyone who passed away since March 2014 by going to the Monongah High Alumni blog at 

jo4wvu.blogspot.com 

Once you get on the blog, go to the white rectangle at the top left of the page, between the white B on orange and the image of a magnifying class, and type in the person’s name, then click on the magnifying glass. That will take you to every Monongah High Alumni blog article with that person’s name in it.

For that matter, you can type in the name of anyone you are wondering about, dead or alive, and if they are mentioned in ANY Monongah High Alumni blog article, a directory of articles about them will show up.

I feel that God put me on this earth, with my 43 years of newspaper experience till my 1996 retirement from the Akron Beacon Journal, to help Monongah High alumni keep track of each other.

I’m 82, as of Nov. 5, 2014, and I’ll continue to do that till they bury me in Northlawn Memorial Gardens in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio next to Monnie Turkette Olesky -- my wife for 48 years that I discovered, like a pot of gold under life's rainbow, in Cinderella, West Virginia --  under the double grave marker with “WV” under each of our names.