I got this clipping from my young married life and a glimpse at Pat Meredith Wills’ activities in 1957 from Bill Meredith, Class of 1957, who lives in Sarasota, Florida and Buckeye Lake, Ohio.

Bill’s explanatory note:

“John,

“I was going through some old newspaper clippings in an old family Bible and found the attached Monongah News from the Fairmont Times of January 1957.  My Mother apparently saved it, because it mentions a Sunday School Class meeting hosted by my sister, Patty.  However, it also mentions a 25th Anniversary Party at your parents’ home, which you attended.

“I hope you can read it.  It should bring back some memories for you.

“We are still in Florida.  We had hoped to leave today, but Roleta had an accident while riding on a Segway and fractured her ankle.  Thus, we will be delayed until Monday.  At least, we are going to attempt to get packed and ready, even though she can't walk.  It should be fun.

“See you this summer.

“Bill”

One segment of the Monongah News column, which reported regularly on everyone who left town for more than a day (even to go fishing in Petersburg, as I recall) and everything else about the folks in Monongah, was about the 25^th wedding anniversary of John W. Olesky, Sr. and Lena Futten Olesky, my parents.

My wife Monnie and I (Mr. & Mrs. John Olesky, Sr. in the article) and firstborn Dawn LaQuita came up from Charleston for the celebration. My sister, Jackie Olesky Straight, Class of 1955, widowed and living in Rivesville these days, also was there.

So was my mother’s brother, Fairmont barber Si Futten and wife Mary, and mom’s sister, Gezala Futten Loss (Mr. & Mrs. Frank Loss), who lived in Mill Fall.

And Bob Kasper, Class of 1950, my friend since we began first grade at Sts. Peter and Paul School in Mongah, with Alice Tolwinski, I believe Bob’s cousin, when both lived in Detroit. Today Bob has homes in South Lyon and Presque Isle, Michigan. His Presque Isle summer home is on Grand Lake and not far from Alpena.

While we were in Monongah, LaQuita was baptized with Bob Kasper and Jackie Olesky Straight as LaQuita’s godparents. A few years later, Ann DeMary Eates and husband Joe Eates, both Class of 1945, became my son John Larry Olesky’s godparents.

The article called her Dawn, her first name, but that was before she got older and darker-complexioned and the later change to her middle name of LaQuita seemed more appropriate. Today, she’s Mrs. Tom Timberlake in Aurora, Ohio, where LaQuita is a teacher in the Mary Turkovich mold at the Harmon School.

Also at the celebration were Ruth and Julius “Gee-Gee” Domico, my parents’ best friends. Both couples were married in January so they often celebrated together at the March of Dimes polio benefit dance at the United Mine Workers union hall next to Pepsi’s service station at the entrance to Stoney Lonesome road.

After my mother passed away, Ruth set up my father and her friend, Ann Pavlik, Mitch Pavlik’s widow, into a relationship that helped get my dad through the rest of his life.

Another segment of the Monongah News column was about Pat Meredith Wills, Class of 1950, married to Fairmont West High graduate Don Mills, with homes in Fairmont and on Crescent Beach near St. Augustine, Florida today.

Patty hosted a Dorcas Class of the Monongah Baptist Church gathering in her parents’ home in Monongah. Dorcas president was June Paxton Rogers, Class of 1948, who sisters are Mary Jean Paxton Ryan, Class of 1946, and the late Lois Paxton Dufour, Class of 1944.

June and Frances Savereno Pulice, Class of 1948, have been friends since first grade at their Carolina School.

Also at Patty’s event was her mother, Jane Meredith, and sister, Marion Jean Meredith Riddle, Class of 1945, both deceased.

Thanks, Bill, for stoking some great memories from my young married life.

Later, Monnie and I moved from Charleston, where I was Daily Mail sportswriter at the time, to the Dayton (Ohio) Daily News and stops at the St. Petersburg (Florida) Times and Akron (Ohio) Beacon Journal before I retired in 1996 after a 43-year newspaper career. Monnie passed away Feb. 4, 2004.

 

Paula and I see Bill and Roleta when they host an annual Monongah High Alumni reunion in their Sarasota home, when they come to Ohio and their Buckeye Lake home and visit a friend in Ravenna, near our Tallmadge, Ohio home and sometimes before or after a WVU football game in Morgantown.