Helen Lewis Rhoades, who started at Monongah High with the Class of 1950, walked into a surprise 83^rd birthday party orchestrated by her daughter, Sue Rhoades Chess of Port Saint Lucie, Florida, at the Swisher Hill Union Mission Church on Koons Run Road between Monongah and Worthington.

Helen thought she was attending a wedding anniversary party for a family member or friend. Check out the surprised look on her face.

Sue is executive director of Care Net Pregnancy Services of the Treasure Coast in Port Saint Lucie, which is about midway between Melbourne and Fort Lauderdale and between I-95 and the Atlantic Ocean.

There also was a birthday dinner a few days ago at the Olive Garden in Morgantown (on the University Town Centre hill just off I-79 Star City Bridge exit) with Helen and Sue (the birthday girl in this one), Joy Rhoades Trussell, Heidi Trussell Pagan and Kim Trussell.

Helen lives in Worthington. She left Monongah High before graduation to go to work, but she got her GED later. The Lewis and Rhoades families both grew up on Mill Fall Road just north of Monongah.

Members of the Rhoades family who graduated from Monongah High include:

 

Bradley Rhoades 1992 North Marion grad in military intelligence in Pensacola, Florida.

 

Chad Rhoades 1990 North Marion grad, still living in Barrackville?

 

Steven Rhoades 1986 North Marion grad, still living in Fairview?

 

Judy Rhoades McCoy, Class of 1968.

 

Larry Rhoades, Class of 1973.

 

Ronald Rhoades, Class of 1970.

 

And Michael Rhoades, 1988 North Marion grad.

 

The photo montage includes Helen in the 1950 class’ group photo as juniors (in the 1949 yearbook) alongside Patricia Urban Utz, who lives in Springfield, Virginia with husband John Utz, a West Point graduate who retired as a Lt. Colonel; Mary Ann Puffenbarger Moore, who lives in Fairmont; and the late Ann Manuel Richardson, who passed away in Colorado.

 

Kudos, Helen on joining me in the Eighty Three Year Old Lions Club!!!  We’re a hardy pride of Lions!