This photo of the late Ruth Koon’s Thoburn School class sent me on a multiple-weeks hunt for what has happened to those students since their picture was taken. Many in the photos graduated from Monongah High in 1972 and 1973.

Terri Orsini Saye, Class of 1972, is touring Scotland, Ireland and Northern Ireland.

Terri replied to me:

“I retired in 2015 from the Law Library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. I was a librarian there for 30 years.

“My husband died in 2012 from complications from MS. I take one long trip each year in addition to spending 2 weeks in West Virginia in both the spring and the fall.”

Her father, Tony Orsini, “is doing great,” Terri reports.

Terri also provided information on others in the Thoburn photo:

“I would say Ruth Koon died 20 years ago.

“Alice Shaw went to West Fairmont for high school. Her mom taught there, graduated in 1973.

“Dave Graffius died a good while ago.

“Alan Williamson died 2-3 years ago because mom (Mary Louise Baker Orsini, who began at Monongah High with the Class of 1948) told me.” Mary Louise passed away in June.  

“John Serian is a schoolteacher.

“Anthony Dingus, Valerie Vandetta Aldridge, John Yokay, Doris Cain all are on Facebook.

“Philip Nicholson gave my dad a business card to give to me 10 years ago. He worked for Consol.”

Pastor Mark “Hooch” Aldridge, Class of 1973, ran for Monongah Town Council in 2017. He lives in Rachel, played football at Monongah High and at Glenville State College and is former law enforcement officer. He has been married since 2000.

His siblings are Greg Aldridge, Class of 1972, and Scott Aldridge, 1983 North Marion grad. Their parents were the late Edwin Aldridge and Mary Jean “Mickey” Walker Aldridge, Monongah town clerk for 30 years. Both are deceased.

 

Valerie Vandetta Aldridge, Class of 1973, helped Susan Staron Sanders with her Monongah Christmas street lights fundraising. Valderie worked at Fairmont General Hospital and lives in Monongah with husband Jim Aldridge.

John Serian, Class of 1973, is a schoolteacher living in Martinsburg. He is the son of the late John Ralph Serian, a coal miner for 30 years at several Consol mines and former Fairmont policeman, and Mary Jane Glover Serian. Son John’s siblings are Ralph Serian of Kilarm, Dave Serian of Kilarm, Dennis Serian of Fairmont, Doris Serian Myers of Cherry Point, North Carolina, and Bertha Serian Anderson of Virginia Beach, Virginia.

·         Paul Eugene Lambert, Class of 1973, is married to Vivian Pierce Lambert, Glass of 1978. He became a schoolteacher, just like John Serian.

The late Al Williamson, Class of 1973, helped care for Amelia Shenasky Zentz at her Shenasky Lane home in Monongah for years. In earlier years, he worked for Amelia’s parents, Pete and Nell Shenasky, at the Shenasky Grocery on U.S. 19 in Monongah next to Thoburn School.

·         Doris Kaye Teets Cain, Class of 1972, is married to Jim Cain.

Robin Huffman Satterfield, Class of 1973, is married to Jim Satterfield.

Anthony Dingus lives in Honea Path in northwest South Carolina where, in 1934, company goons shot and killed six textile union workers and wounded 20 others. Many bullet wounds were in the fleeing workers’ backs.

Doreen Edwards passed away in 1999, according to Patty Edwards, Doreen's sister-in-law.

It took a while and my 43 years of newspaper editor experience, but that’s information on more than half of the 31 in the photo. If you have more details about them, or information about others in the photo after they left Thoburn and Monongah High, email John Olesky at jo4wvu@neo.rr.com and I’ll add their details to this article.

Also, if you have adults photos of any of the Thoburn students in the photo, email them to John Olesky in jpeg format and I’ll add them to the photo montage.

You leave your school, but it never leaves your memories.