LIONS WHO HAVE BEEN MARRIED 50 OR MORE YEARS AND STILL ALIVE TOGETHER

 

The dark clouds about marriage:

Almost 50% of marriages in America end in divorce, including 41% of first marriages. Our country has the 6^th-highest divorce rate IN THE WORLD.

 

The silver lining:

 

This article I am happy to write about Monongah High graduates who still are married after 50 to 61 years! I call it the Pride of Golden Lions after the MHS mascot.

 

Let’s start with Dietta Harden Goush and Paul Goush, queen and king of long marriages involving at least one Lion.

 

Dietta is Class of 1959 and Paul is Class of 1954.

 

Paul’s father also was named Paul Goush. His mother was Katherine Goush. The Goush family is made of stern stuff. Paul’s sister, Bernice Ann Goush Rogers, was 97 when she passed away. Another sibling, Walter Goush, was 87 when he passed away, despite being a coal miner which means black lung is the killer waiting for you. Another sibling is Chester Goush.

 

Dietta is legendary for creating the Brogan Raddish Scholarship Fund and getting a Brogan Raddish Playground in Monongah, which I visited with Dietta when I came to Monongah last July for the party I threw for 40 family and friends in the Monongah Town Hall, which is adjacent to the Brogan Playground. Brogan passed away of Ewing’s Sarcoma cancer at the age of 14, a devastating tragedy that impelled Dietta into a permanent memory of her granddaughter.

 

When Dietta and Paul pronounced their vows December 3, 1960 it was the best Christmas present both of them ever got in their lives.

 

Next in line by number of years of marriage (59) is Donna Colbert Davis and Bill Davis. Donna, as Monongah High Alumni Association treasurer, is owed a HUGE debt of gratitude from EVERY MHS graduate. She collects the $30 per person reservations for the annual Monongah High Alumni Banquet, the longest-running high school reunion in West Virginia history. Decade after decade. Without Donna there wouldn’t be successful Banquet after Banquet.

 

You can repay Donna by sending in your reservation for the 99^th Banquet at 6:30 p.m. Saturday, May 28, which will again will be at the Knights of Columbus Hall on Mary Lou Retton Drive in Fairmont. $30 per person as usual. Print the reservation form you see on this blog, fill it out, make your check payable to

 

Monongah Alumni Association

 

And mail it to:

 

MHS Alumni Association

c/o Donna L. Davis

858 Park Avenue

Monongah, WV 26554-1143

 

Make Donna smile as she has made so many Lions smile and laugh and exchange memories of their Monongah High days.

 

Bill is on the Monongah High Alumni Association Board of Directors. Bill and Donna don’t restrict their Lions reunions to Memorial Day Weekend in Marion County either.

 

In 2016 Lyla Cosner Howell, Class of 1958, and Len Howell, who had homes in Elkins and Fort Myers Beach, Florida, opened their Elkins home to Donna and Bill; Rosemary Raymond Pagliaro, Class of 1958, and Carmen Pagliaro; Tom Shelosky, Class of 1958, and Phyllis Shelosky; and Dixie Slimmer Rogers Edmond, Class of 1958, and Bruce Edmond, Class of 1957.

 

Next in line are a couple of couples married 58 years, Danny and Brenda Manzo on June 1, 1963, in Cumberland, Maryland, and Nancy Shupp Rogers and James Rogers a month later on July 27, 1963 in the Monongah Baptist Church.

 

Danny is Class of 1957. Brenda graduated from East Fairmont in 1959. They have lived in Traction Park since 1969.  2 married sons and 4 grandchildren. Danny was on the 1955 Monongah High state champ football team and was co-captain with Joe Meffe of the 1956 Monongah High state football title game runnerup team. Brenda has served as Green Hills Country Club in Everson secretary and Fairmont State purchasing agent.

 

Nancy and Jim both are Class of 1960.

 

Then there’s Don Pitman and Fairmont West graduate Joan Pethel Pitman, married 56 years. They exchanged vows April 14, 1965 in Cedar Grove, New Jersey and “love Whitehall,” where they lives.

 

And Carol Kendzior VanMeter, Class of 1963, and David VanMeter, Class of 1962, who have spent their entire lives in Monongah.

 

Carol’s brother was the legendary late softball coach Gene Kendzior who led Monongah to the 1960 Marion County championship. Also on that team was Sherry VanMeter Nicholson, Class of 1965, artist Dorsey Nicholson’s widow.  

 

Walter Adam and Virginia Maxine Shaver Kendzior were the parents of Carol, Gene and Kim Kendzior. Gene’s late wife was Sheila May Kendzior.

 

Coming in at 56 years are Linda Nottingham Willis and Dave Willis who exchanged voews May 15, 1965. Linda is Class of 1964, Dave is Class of 1961.

 

Next at 54 years if Lorraine Snider Hulderman and Raymond “Bugs” Hulderman, both Class of 1966.  Bugs’ mother is the late Olive Jane Kniceley Hulderman. Bugs’ siblings are Sylvia Ann Hulderman Edwards, Class of 1967; Thomas Hulderman, Class of 1969, on 1968 Monongah High state championship football team with Nick Saban as quarterback; and Don Pitman, Class of 1962. Lorraine was on the 1960 Monongah team that won the Marion County softball championship that was coached by Gene Kendzior.

 

Next at 53 years is the Monongah High Alumni Association President who keeps the longest-running high school reunion in West Virginia history humming along, Linda Lopez Gandy, and her husband, Jim Gandy, on the MHS Alumni Board of Directors. I’ll see them again May 28 when I attend the 99^th annual Monongah High Alumni Banquet in Fairmont.

 

Jim is Class of 1964, Linda Class of 1965. They were married August 24, 1968. Linda is president of the Monongah High Alumni Association; Jim is on the Alumni Board of Directors. They live in Gainesville, Florida. Linda also was on Gene KIendzior’s 1960 Monongah softball team that won the Marion County title.

 

Next at 52 years is Mabel Ruth “Pinki” Hess Thompson, Class of 1969, and Raymond Thompson. They had their wedding July 5, 1969, barely more than a month after Pinki graduated from Monongah High. They live in Fairmont. After Fairmont State Pinki worked at Westinghouse and Phillips Lighting. Mabel has 5 brothers and 1 sister.

 

Ah, at 51 years is Rose Matthews Illich, on the Monongah High Favorite Teachers Honor Roll. Rose is Class of 1960, and married to Niko Ilich, from Montenegro. They exchanged vows April 24, 1971. Niko is famous for having SEVEN holes-in-one at Green Hills Golf Club in Everson. The odds of doing that are 9 million to 1!

 

Rose’s brother Simon Matthews Jr., Class of 1956, and wife Shirley Smith Matthews, Class of 1957, once owned The Den in Monongah. Marguerite “Muggy” Matthews Stalnaker, Class of 1966, is Rose and Simon’s sister. Their parents were Simon Matthews and Marguerite Tropea Matthews, Class of 1926.

 

Simon Paul was on the 1955 Monongah High state champions football team, a teacher/coach for 28 years at Monongah and Farmington high schools and a former Monongah mayor.

 

Getting in under the wire at 50 years is Linda McGinnis Sandy, Class of 1965, and Dianna “Dene” Saban Thompson, Class of 1967, long-time teacher at Monongah Elementary till her retirement 10 years ago, who married George Leroy Thompson, Class of 1964.

 

Linda married Roy Sandy on June 4, 1971. Right after graduation, Linda married her first husband, Shinnston High graduate Jerry Halpenny, who sadly died in Vietnam on October 13, 1968. Three years later, Roy became Linda’s second husband. Linda grew up in Enterprise where she still lives. Jerry’s brothers were Jack, George, Herbert, Arlie, Charles and Harvey Halpenny. Harvey’s son, Don “Jake” Halpenny, was in the gang of 12 that I ran around with in Marion County during our Monongah High days.

 

George, who went by Leroy when he played for Coach Jim Feltz at Monongah High, is Class of 1964. Dene is Class of 1968. She taught school at Monongah Elementary. George Leroy worked for Bell Atlantic and Verizon. He organized the Hutchinson School former students reunion in 2015 that drew 63. Diane/Dene’s brother is Alabama football coach Nick Saban. She gave Nick the nickname of Brother that Marion Countians still call him by despite his 7 national football championships.

 

Well, that’s it, Monongah’s rebuttal to the 50% divorce rate in America. Monongah High and quality have always been synonymous, in marriage and in life. I know it catapulted me, an immature rascal, to a fantastic life and career as it did most of us.

 

As Millard Griffin’s words to Harlan Hartman’s music in the Monongah High Fight Song says, “for the school that we love so well.”

 

And it concludes with “Then we’re roar, roar, roar” for Monongah High. Forever. Amen.

 

John Olesky, Class of 1950, proud to be a Lion. My marriage lasted 48 years till My Mona Lisa passed away February 4, 2004. When I join her in Northlawn Memorial Gardens in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio under the double grave marker with “WV” under each of our names I will be, as I tell my children and grandchildren often, “the happiest man in the cemetery.”

 

Anyone who did NOT graduate from Monongah High missed a golden opportunity as the Pride of Golden Lions can tell you, with a song in their heart and a smile on their face and tears in their eyes at the memories that shine brighter than the North Star.

Those who missed deadline

Despite 5 weeks of notifications

 

           

  After this article was published I heard from other Pride of Golden Lions.

Including Robert Morris, Class of 1964, who married Paulette Morris, Farmington Class of 1965. They were married June 12, 1971. Still live, together and in love after 50 years.

Better late than never, although my math/algebra/geometry teacher Mary Turkovich gave an F if we turned in our assignment late.

Bob was a master electrician for Consol Energy, studied business economics at Fairmont State and lives in Idamay, where he grew up. Lions who marry Farmers is common from the time of my childhood. Just had to go over the hill from Monongah to find them.