Patti DeMary Evans, Class of 1972, will be attending the high school graduation of her oldest granddaughter, Joshlynn Boone at Fairmont West, and NOT appearing at the 99th Monongah High Alumni Banquet on the 50th anniversary of her graduation because they both happen Saturday, May 28.
Patti had to choose. She picked family. So would I.
And echoes of the past are rumbling through her brain when Patti and her father, Frankie DeMary, Class of 1947, did a father-daughter speeches at Monongah High’s 1972 graduation!
Joshlynn was named after both her
parents. Her father is Josh, her mother is Brianna Lynn. Cool, huh?
Patti is married to Brian Evans, also
a Monongah High graduate, who retired after 37 years as a coal miner, including
at Consol’s Loveridge Mine.
I went back to Patti and asked for
her favorite of her years with Josslynn. I’m repeating it here verbatim because
there’s no way I could improve what Patti wrote:
”My
favorite memory with Joshlynn has to be the time Brian and I took her on an RV
trip in 2007 to Assateaque Island Beach. (Assateaque is in both Maryland and
Virginia.) She loved the wild horses
that walked right up to us in the parking lot.
“She
still remembers the trip, which makes it special to me, that it will be a
forever memory of a special time spent with her.
“As
I told Linda Gandy, I find it rather amazing that I will have the honor of
watching my first grandchild graduate from high school on May 28, 7:30, the
same time as my 50th class reunion.
“So
I won’t be attending the Alumni, yet I am blessed by God to be able to share
her very special night, making yet another priceless forever memory.
“Wishing
all the Monongah Alumni a happy celebration of our priceless memories of MHS!
God bless!”
Patti
is doing EXACTLY what I would do, put family above everything else. As for
Assateague I’ve been there several times.
The barrier island is 37 miles long, starting in Maryland and ending in
Virginia. Marguerite Henry’s children’s book, “Misty of Chincoteague,” the name
of the Virginia side of the island, made the wild horses famous.
More
than 300 wild horses roam the 2-state island. It’s an awesome site to view them
almost everyone tourists travel up and down those 37 miles of shoreline, which
once was one solid piece of land till nature’s wrath split a hole to separate
with water that man did shored up to have a canal to get out of both states and
into the Atlantic Ocean.
You’re
allowed to look all you want but you cannot touch the horses. “Let wild horses
be wild” is the dictum. If you haven’t been there, plan a trip to the 2-state
barrier island. You will gawk in awe, as I did. About the only place in America
you can do that, despite modern encroachments everywhere else.
Patti
and Josslynn’s memory stirred up MY memories of those enchanting wild horses.
While Patti will pass on her 50th anniversary reunion with her Class of 1972 (Class of 1962 also is an honor class) I will be there at 6:30 p.m. for 99th annual Monongah High Alumni Banquet, the longest-running high school reunion in West Virginia history.
If you want to attend, too, then print and fill out the form on this blog and mail it in with your check for $30 per person to Donna Davis. The address is on the form. I hope to see you there.
Patti’s
late mother is a bit of a legend, too. That would be Tina Virginia “Peaches” Aldridge DeMary, Class of 1945, who
married Frank DeMary, Jr., Class of 1947, and together they owned and ran a
grocery story at the end of Bridge Street in Monongah before they moved to
Rivesville. Earlier, Peaches and Frank owned a grocery story in Pennsylvania. Peaches’ niece, Jennifer
Aldridge Payton, once described Peaches as “The sweetest lady I’ve ever met.”
Grocery
stores and DeMarys go together like bread and butter. he late John June DeMary, Class of
1937, DeMarys’ Market in Rivesville, just as you cross the railroad tracks off
Rt. 19 and the West Fork River. John June’s cousins include Ann DeMary Eates,
Class of 1945, widow of Joe Eates, also Class of 1945. Ann and Joe are the
godparents of my son, John Larry.
Patti and Brian live in Fairmont and vacationed on
Carrabelle Beach in Florida’s northwest panhandle, on the Gulf of Mexico
coastline southwest of Tallahassee. Patti is a retired nurse (1987-2006) and
graduate of MHS and Fairmont State.
Frank, Jr.’s parents were Frank Joseph DeMary, who
passed away in 1972, and Lena Duva DeMary, who passed away in 1986. His
siblings are Louise DeMary Lusi of Clearwater, Florida and Rose Ann DeMary
Flore, Class of 1943, married to Robert and living in Princeton, Rhode Island.
Frank, Jr.’s brother, Joseph A. DeMary of Rivesville,
passed away in 2007. Joe’s children are Kimberly Jo DeMary Clowers, married to
Earl Clowers and living in Rossville, Georgia; Sgt. 1st Class
Joanne Mary DeMary of Fort Meade, Maryland; another Joseph Allen DeMary, living
in Soddy-Daisy, Tennessee with wife Yvonne; and Julie Ann DeMary, also of
Soddy.
This isn’t the first time that Patti has been involved
in a cross-generation event. I’ll let her tell you, as she did me:
”When
MHS was still alive and well, the alumni committee would ask a member of the 25th
honor class to give a welcome speech to the graduating senior class. So in 1972
they asked my dad, Frankie DeMary, Class of 1947, to give welcome speech, and I
gave the acceptance speech.
“Thankfully my Senior English teacher, Rose
Matthews Ilich, helped both my dad and me to accomplish this, lol. It was still
at the Fairmont Hotel and it was quite an event with way more people in the
audience than either of us had ever experienced. It was daunting, to say the
least, but we did it!
“Now, my daughter’s daughter, my first
grandchild, and my parents’ first great-grandchild, will be graduating from
Fairmont Senior on May 28th, the same time as my 50th class reunion. So we will
be attending her milestone event and I am sure my mom and dad will be smiling
down on all of us and our circle of life.”
What goes around DOES come around, huh? Wouldn’t
it be a great idea for North Marion to do what Patti and Frankie did, have a 25th
anniversary graduate of North Marion give the welcoming speech to the 2022
graduating class and then have a child of the welcoming speaker give the
acceptance speech! What a great tradition that would be!
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