CATCHING UP WITH THE CLASS OF 1972, A 2022 MONONGAH BANQUET HONOR CLASS

 

The Class of 1972 will be one of the honor classes at 99th Monongah High Alumni Banquet at 6:30 p.m. Saturday, May 28.

Since North Marion will have its graduation ceremonies on Friday, May 27, grandparents can take in their grandchildren’s high school ceremony on Friday and stay for their MHS Alumni Reunion the next day, right?  Fairmont West and Fairmont East  will have their graduations on Saturday, May 28, same day as the MHS Reunion.

As for Catching Up With the Class of 1972 members:

Kim Thompson is a Thompsons (former Worthington Farm Supply) owner and Marion County Rescue Squad emergency medical technician and Fairmont State graduate who lives in Bridgeport. His parents were Violet “Irene” Thompson, Class of 1943, and Junior Thompson, both deceased. Kim’s brother is R.D. “Donny” Thompson III, who married wife Brenda. Irene’s brother, Steven “Bucky” Satterfield, was in the teen gang that I ran around with in Marion County during my Monongah High days.

Terry Shilley was a civil engineer for 30 years with the Army Corps of Engineers and West Virginia Department of Transportation bridge engineer who worked at Pittsburgh’s Green International. He is a WVU civil engineering graduate from Worthington who lives today in Huntington with his wife for 45 years, Fran. Their children are Chrissy Shilley and Ryan Shilley.

Steve Garrett worked for Consol Energy, which we knew as Consolidation Coal Company in the 1940s and 1950s, and was a Marion County Sheriff’s Deputy. When Steve and wife Robin Harley Garrett’s grandson, Spencer Garrett of Idamay, was in third grade he won a $1,000 U.S. Savings Bond from the Union Springs, Alabama-based Bonnie Plants Cabbage Program for growing a 14-pound cabbage. He competed against more than a million other third graders. Spencer’s parents are Thomas and Kristi Garrett of Idamay. Sharon Garrett Sokolosky, Class of 1967, is Spencer’s great-aunt.

Josephine Allen Popovich Stanley Jones, who goes by Joey Jones these days, once was a Tygart Center personal clothing laundry aide and worked at the Wishing Well. She still lives in Hutchinson, as she did during her Monongah High days. She married Sherwood Jones in 1955. They live in Hutchinson. Their children are Ron Jones, who also graduated from Monongah High, and Vanessa Jones Rodriguez, who graduated from North Marion. Joey and Sherwood have 4 grandchildren: Erik Jones, Kylie Jones and Cory Jones, all North Marion graduates, and Aubrey Rodriguez, a 5-year-old who is Vanessa’s daughter.

Terri Orsini Saye is a former University of North Carolina Law Library cataloger/documents librarian and 1978 Pitt graduate who lives in Durham, North Carolina. Terri Orsini Saye, Class of 1972, who lives in Durham, North Carolina, will be officially retired as of June 1 as Cataloging Librarian at the University of North Carolina School of Law in Chapel Hill. Her parents are Tony Orsini, Class of 1946, and Mary Louise Baker Orsini, who began at Monongah High with the Class of 1948. Tony was one of the six athletic Monongah High Orsini brothers: Tom “Bum,”  Larry, Jimmy, Junior (Cocoa) and Bill. The Orsini family had a grocery store in Worthington run by mom Sylvia Orsini. Tom, Class of 1950, married Peggy Rauer Orsini, Class of 1959.

David Westfall lives in Monongah with his wife for 47 years Marcia Michalski Westfall. Dave worked for Fresa Construction in Bridgeport for 18 years, EIMCO for 1½ and West Virginia’s Division of Highways for 27 years. Dave’s mother, Lillie Marie Higginbotham Westfall, passed away in 2017. Dave’s father, Gilbert Junior Westfall, also is deceased. So is Dave’s brother, George Junior Westfall. Dave and Marcia, Class of 1974, often hop on their Harley ElectroGlide motorcycle for trip to California (Golden Gate Bridge), Yellowstone National Park (Wyoming, Montana and Idaho) and Florida and anywhere else they take a notion to during the summer months when Marcia was teaching in Monongah and Marion County in any grade from kindergarten through 8^th grade for more than 30 years. Marcia’s parents are Ramona Fullen Michalski, Class of 1949, and the late Frank Michalski, Class of 1950. Dave and Marcia were named Marion County Family of the Year in 2015. Their children and spouses are Brandie and Kiley Haney, Chad and Amy Westfall Raines and David and Nichelle Westfall. The grandchildren are, via Brandie, Caleb, Kiley and Aiden Haney; via Amy, Ally and Ethan Raines and Brevon Westfall; and by  Dave, Lucy and Forrest Westfall.

Patti DeMary Evans retired as a UHC registered nurse. She was at UHC from 1987 to 2006. Patti is a 1974 Fairmont State graduate who lives in Fairmont. She was married in 1974 to coal miner Brian Evans, whose 37 years included Consol’s Loveridge Mine. Her oldest granddaughter, Joshlynn Boone, will be graduating from Fairmont West on Memorial Day Weekend, too. Patti’s father, Frankie DeMary, Class of 1947, did father-daughter speeches at Monongah High’s 1972 graduation day for Patti. Patti’s parents were Tina Virginia “Peaches” Aldridge DeMary, Class of 1945, and Frank DeMary, Jr., Class of 1947, who 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. 

Terry Freeman was fireboss or mine examiner during his coal mining days. He once lived in Farmington but today lives in Shinnston.

James “Jack” Fullen retired from Gassafy Wholesale and lives in Columbia City, Indiana.

Bruce Coleman worked at Harrison Power Station and married in 1977.

Pete Basagic worked at Davis Electric and still lives in Monongah and has been married for 47 years to MHS grad Kathy Martin Basagic. 1973 Farmington High graduate Cora Martin Fazio, married to my cousin David Fazio, is Kathy’s sister. Richard Basagic, Class of 1948, is Pete’s father. Pete and Cathy were wed in St. Stanislaus Church, where Pete once was an altar boy, as I once was. They live in Monongah.

The Basagic family ran the beer tavern just across from Consolidation Coal Company’s Champion grocery store, which once was the Frank Lowe Meat Market, and named it the 52/20 Club. For the youngsters among us, that referred to the GI Bill for World War II veterans that provided $20 a week for 52 weeks for unemployed veterans. It doesn’t sound like much today, but it was more than walking-around money in the late 1940s.

Hassan Basagic, Class of 1963, attended the 2013 Monongah High Alumni Reunion with Marlene Sandy. Hassan Basagic, Jr., Class of 1941, died in 1980. Julius Basagic is listed both as Class of 1943 and Class of 1945 in my Monongah High graduation lists but as Class of 1945 in the North Marion High alumni directory. Fairmont West grad Mark Basagic, son of Julie Basagic, Class of 1945, and Ann Vukovich Basagic, passed away in 2017.

Debra Williams Hockenberry attended Clay-Battelle High School before she graduated from Monongah High. She lives in Monongah with husband David Hockenberry, who worked for Consol’s Blacksville #2 Mine. Debra and Dave were married in 1988.

Brenda Starkey Pratt, now Brenda Martin Flanigan, studied math at Fairmont State and WVU and lives in Fairmont. She lived in Carolina during her Monongah High days. Brenda has been at 8 Grands Sew Shop since 2017.

Ruth Ann Mike O’Dell lives in Farmington but lived in Four States during her Monongah High days. She married in 1973.

Beatrice Murphy Henderson still lives in Carolina, as she did when she attended Monongah High.

William Sailor, who preferred Billy Sailor, was a military retiree living in Colorado Springs, Colorado when he passed away in 2019. He lived in Hutchinson while attending Monongah High. Billy’s brother, Roy Sailor, Class of 1967, also is deceased. Another brother, Charles “Chuck” Sailor, Class of 1975, lives in Lumberport with wife Dinah Sailor. And brother John Sailor, Class of 1965, lives in the Bronx section of New York City with wife Jane Sailor. BHrother Jimmy Sailor lives in Fairmont with wife Debbie Sailor.

I have been informed by others that Debra Rowand Swiger, Cheryl Esultante, Brenda Knight Stover, Bertha Kennedy Wilson and Thea Beth Madden Pierce also are deceased. If you know otherwise or know of other Class of 1972 members who have passed away, email me at jo4wvu@neo.rr.com or post it on the Facebook page for John Olesky. 

Stephen Lantz also is a 1977 Fairmont State graduate who worked in electrical and technical jobs including test engineer for Westinghouse Nuclear in Monroeville, Pennsylvania and quality control in electrical instrumentation at the West Virginia Department of Energy in Morgantown. Today Steve sells guns via an Internet-based home business and trades in the stock market. I just buy and hold till I need more money with very lucky success.

Pearl Greynolds Eddy is a Fairmont State graduate living in Grant Town.

Diane Pethel is a Fairmont State graduate who retired in 2020. She lived in Worthington while attending Monongah High.

The Class of 1972 guys and gals, to quote musical playwright genius Damon Runyon, are June Ann Blair Megna, Rosemarie Chucci Buffkin, Debbie Conley Boliner, Diana Conner, Brenda Cunningham Moore, Patti DeMary Evans, Diane Dickens Pethel, Judy Duckworth Campbell, the late Cheryl Esultante, Pearl Greynolds Eddy, Marlene Hamilton Conner, Sharon Hines Link, Debra Holbrook Shumate, Marriet Hunter, Bertha Jones Wilson, the late Brenda Knight Stover, Thea Beth Madden Pierce, Beatrice Murphy Henderson, Ruth Mike (any relation to the legendary Mike brothers barbers of Monongah?), Susan Mikulski Morgan, Linda Mills Levelle, Marsha Minnear Christopher, Jane Moore Alasky, Donna Morgan Snyder, Terri Orsini Saye, the late Debra Rowand Swiger, Nan Sabo Hansen, Greg Aldridge, Pete Basagic, Robert Batiste, Danny Bissett, Donald Chapman, James Colanero, Bruce Coleman, John Domico, John Efaw, James “Jack” Fullen, Terry Freeman, Steven Garrett (any relation to the late Richard Garrett in my Class of 1950?), Aaron Justice, Mark Kuhns, Steven Lantz, Kevin McCombs, Curtis Mayo, Thimothy Miller, Franklin Raddish, Roger Raines, Paul Riggs, Sidney Riggs, Billy Sailor, Rick Shaver (any connection to 40-year Monongah High secretary Ida Shaver?), Terry Shilley, John Starr, Kim Thompson, David Westfall and Paul Wood.

If you ARE in the Class of 1972 and I didn’t get information about you at the top of this article, email me at jo4wvu@neo.rr.com or post a response on the Facebook page of John Olesky and I’ll add it to this article.

If you want to join the Class of 1972 and Class of 1962 honor classes and your former classmates at the 99^th Monongah High Alumni Banquet, which first began in 1922, 100 years ago, making it the longest-running high school reunion in West Virginia history, click on the Reservations form on this blog, enlarge it, fill it out and mail it in with your check for $30 per person.

Join the fun or stay at home and be bored.