There are fascinating stories behind the Monongah Christmas street lights.

Including a heartwarming tale behind the new Monongah Christmas street light where the Dairy Kone used to be.

Mari Lisa Johnson purchased light in memory of her mother, Lavinia Rose Prezioso Edmond, Class of 1960.

It is where Lavinia worked at Dairy Mart till her retirement. Every time Mari Lisa sees her mom’s light lit up, it will be like seeing her mother’s star in Heaven.

Lavinia graduated in the top 10 of her 1960 class.  She was in the National Honor Society, a cheerleader, on the Black Diamond yearbook staff, in the junior play cast, in the Homecoming court, on the prom committee and attended the State Journalism Convention. Busy person at Monongah High, huh?

Lavinia’s parents were Ruth Kanavy Prezioso Huskelhus and Arthur Prezioso.

Mari Lisa’s siblings are Dr. Michael Edmond, a legendary doctor living in Richmond, Virginia with wife Dr. Laurie Lyckholm, and Steve and Amy Edmond of Fairmont. Another sibling, Mark Patrick Edmond, is deceased.

Steve Edmond is the West Virginia Health & Human Resources Bureau for Public Health’s Office of Emergency Medical Services’ trauma designation coordinator under OEMS medical director Michael Mill.  Steve also is a Registered Nurse.

WVU School of Medicine graduate Dr. Edmond is an internal medicine doctor who has been practicing for 31 years. He is affiliated with University of Iowa Hospital and Clinics. He went from chief resident at WVU to a fellowship in infectious diseases as the University of Pittsburgh and a fellowship in hospital epidemiology at the University of Iowa. That was followed by a stint as chief of quality at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics before moving to his Richmond position.

Dr. Edmond has been published 350 times and been named in U.S. News & World Report’s top doctors in America and the top 20 people in Health Leaders Magazine. He is a leader in setting guidelines to avoid patient infections in hospitals, including disposing of doctors’ white coats because the sleeves collect harmful pathogens to pass on to patients. Physicians wore black coats till the 1800s when German doctors changed the garb to the now-familiar white coats.

Dr. Edmond also was a pioneer in fecal transplants, putting fecies from healthy patients into those suffering from C.diff (Clostridium Difficle), a common infection for hospital patients, until Food and Drug Administration policies made the time-consumering paperwork and redtape overwhelming.

Dr. Edmond would take a healthy stool sample from a donor, usually a family member, mix it in a blender, pass it through coffee filters and put it into a syringe. The result was inserted through a tube in the patient’s nose, down their throat and into their stomach. It sounds gross, but Dr. Edmond’s procedure was five times more efficient than antibiotics in eliminating C.diff.

Now those who can afford it go to Australia, Europe, Argentina, Brazil, the United Kingdom and India where the procedure is being done regularly. The United States and Canada are more restrictive about allowing the procedure.

Dr. Niti Armistead, a native of India who had her residency in Richmond and came under the wing of Dr. Edmond, is vice president of quality and patient safety at WVU Hospitals in Morgantown, West Virginia.

Dr. Edmond’s wife, Dr. Laurie Lyckholm, is a Creighton University (Omaha, Nebraska) Medical School graduate who was on the Virginia Commonwealth University faculty staff for 18 years, focusing on care for indigents and prisoners.

Lavinia’s sister is Barbara Jean Prezioso Vozniak, living in Monongah with Mitch Vozniak. Both are Class of 1953. I went to school and caddied at Fairmont Field Club with Mitch, who was on the 1952 Monongah High state football championship team and an auto racing mechanic.

Barbara’s aunt, the late Amelia Ann Yerace Prezioso (The Canned Peppers Lady), ran Prezioso Grocery at the top of Jackson Street with her husband, Roman Prezioso, Sr.

Amelia and Roman, Sr. are the parents of State Sen. Roman Prezioso, Jr., Class of 1967, who lives in Fairmont with wife Deborah.

Nearly every Christmas street light in Monongah has a worthwhile story behind its purchase and/or installation.

The deer light near Main Street was bought by Sheila Womack for Warren Sloan, the late Monongah councilman and police chief, who originated the Christmas in Monongah Toy Giveaway in the 1970s. Warren would leave packages on doorsteps with a note that said "Robin Hood was here."

It began with 25 families and in four years grew to 150 families and morphed into the public Robin Hood Project and eventually the Christmas in Monongah Toy Giveaway sponsored by Monongah Family Fish Day organizers and brothers Dave and Warren Sloan, both living in Monongah.

 

Warren Sloan was the owner of E&M Auto on Lyndon Avenue. He started the company in 1996.

The Angel was purchased by Betty Walls Vandetta in memory of her late husband, former Monongah mayor James Leon Vandetta, who served the town for 10 years (1990-2001) before passing away in 2002. Jim’s son, Greg Vandetta, is the current Monongah mayor.

1950 Fairview High graduate Betty also is a graduate of Fairmont General Hospital School of Nursing.

The seashell with gold pearl light on Church Street was purchased by me because I grew up in the house across the street from the light. It was my payback to Monongah for everyone in town making sure that I didn’t kill myself when I was out of sight of my parents, John W. Olesky, Sr. and Lena Futten Olesky.

Adam Michna, who graduated from North Marion in 1980 after attending Monongah High for 3 years, also purchased a light this year in memory of the Michna family which included his parents, also Adam Michna and Ethel Stevens Michna, and Sister Rose and Sister Dolores at Sts. Peter and Paul School. Adam’s light is on Maple Avenue between the former Monongah High building and the old West Virginia State Police barracks, once the home of T.J. Pearse.

That means you might be able to see Adam’s light and my light while standing where Coach Jim Feltz and wife Betty Lynn Feltz once lived, before the late funeral director Junior Domico’s family occupied that green house next to Our Lady of Pompeii Church, which was razed years ago.

The Angel of Light on Shenasky Lane was placed there by Susan Staron Sanders’ Charge of the Lights Brigade because Amelia has donated so much to their fundraising that all but paid for that light.

The Candle was purchased last year by the Town of Monongah. The Shooting Star was bought by the Fire Department.

Those 21 Christmas street lights don’t just twinkle and light up the town. They have stories to tell.

And, behind the lights is another group, the Angel of Thomas Street Susan Staron Sanders’ Charge of the Lights Brigade, as I call them.

Susan, Class of 1971, an administrative assistant at Personnel, has these angels on her committee: Vice president Shelly Yankie, secretary Mary “Kitty” Ahouse Morrison, Class of 1968, alternates Josh Scritchfield, Brianna Stewart and Bill McCombs, Class of 1969.

Their work shines even brighter than the Christmas street lights that have such brilliant stories behind them.