The Class of 1971, one of the most active among Monongah High alumni, is having its problems in bunches. We’re going to need a bigger prayer chain.

Gary Haught, of course, passed away after years of battling his medical problems.

Let Jay Holman, Jr., keeper of the Class of 1971 flame, explain the rest:

“Lions, time to circle the wagons.

“Keep Jim Foster in your prayers. He’s having surgery today in Cleveland Clinic.

“Brenda Urban is going to meet a surgeon and other doctors as she fights colon cancer.

“Deborah Puccio is recovering in Morgantown. I do not have an update on her.

“JoAnn Chipps is not feeling well.

“Charlie Miller is recovering from the effects of a stroke.

“Keep them all in your thoughts and prayers.”

Gary’s calling honors will be 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday, September 15 and 10 to 11 a.m. Friday, September 16. Funeral services will begin at 11 a.m. Friday, September 16 at the Domico Funeral Home, 414 Gaston Avenue, Fairmont. Gary will be buried in the West Virginia National Cemetery in Grafton with full military rites.

Jim will undergo an ablation – surgical removal of body tissue – at the world-famous Cleveland Clinic. His wife, Linda Phillips Foster, Class of 1977, writes:

“He is in the cath lab now for 4-6 hours. Cleveland Clinic has been so wonderful. Hopefully the ablation works..

“If the ablation works, we will probably continue with his cardiologist in Morgantown and drive up every 6 months to see the EP specialist.”

Brenda is a Fairmont State graduate who lives in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.  She is Stanley Urban, Jr.’s daughter and the granddaughter of Stanley Urban, Sr., long-ago proprietor of Urban’s Grocery south of the UMW Hall.

Brenda's brothers are Greg Urban, Class of 1966, who lives in North Carolina, and the late Mark Urban, Class of 1969, who lived in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

Debby is not listed in the immediate family in the obituary for Terry Ann Moore-Puccio of Monongah, married to Chad Puccio, who passed away in 2015.

Charlie was a star defender and halfback on Monongah High’s 1968 state title football team and state champ relay team in track. HH He also starred at WVU.

Alabama coach Nick Saban was the quarterback in 1968 and Kerry Marbury was elusive running back for the 1968 and 1969 state football crowns. Marbury and Miller were on the relay team that won the state in track. 

The 1968 and 1969 Monongah champions nucleus came from the Idamay Black Diamonds, a Pop Warner children’s football team that was coached by Nick Saban, Sr. Miller and Marbury also played together on the WVU football team.