Agnes Jean Larry DiLaura, Class of 1950, passed away in Nevada.

The former Powers model, who went by Agnes Larry when she graduated from Monongah High in 1950, lived in Henderson, Nevada, a Las Vegas suburb, with her daughter, Linda Cassesse.

Class of 1950 book (2015 edition) published by John Olesky

Linda wrote:

“It is with a sad and heavy heart that I share with you all that my Mom, Jean DiLaura, has peacefully passed on. She is at peace in Heaven now. Keep her in your loving thoughts & prayers. Thank you.”

Agnes Jean lived in Michigan for many years, and ran her own building cleaning business, before moving to Nevada to be with her daughter.

Agnes grew up in Carolina with her sister, Gloria Larry Boehm, Class of 1959, who lives in Pennsylvania. Agnes was a majorette at Monongah High.

Since Agnes Jean was an avid hiker, as per her wishes, her ashes will be spread at Bryce Canyon and Zion Canyon in Utah. There will not be a traditional funeral service.

Linda still lives in Henderson, Nevada, a Las Vegas suburb where Agnes Jean shared a home with her, but Linda has moved into a new condo.

Rose Larry Burket, Class of 1944, lives in Akron, Ohio with husband John Burket,  apparently is not related to Agnes Jean and Gloria. Rose’s son is Larry Dan Eates, Class of 1970, known as Dan Eates at Monongah High, is married to a Farmington High grad, as a lot of Lions did -- Frances Victor Eates.

Larry Dan’s parents were Dominick Eates, Class of 1946, and Mary Larry Eates. 

Last year Linda visited Christine Sokolosky, friends with Agnes Jean since childhood who keeps in touch to this day, in Christine’s Idamay home.

To send your condolences to Linda, who grew up as Darlene DiLaura, her email address is lindacassese@aol.com Or you can go on her Facebook page.

Class of 1950 members who predeceased Agnes Jean:

 

Top: Brad Paisley singing "Country Roads" before Saturday's WVU-Maryland game.

2nd: Jackie Olesky Straight, Class of 1955, and John Olesky, Class of 1950.

3rd: John's daughter, LaQuita, Jackie, Jackie's daughter, Renee.

4th: Tony Eates, Class of 1950.

5th: Shelton Gibson's super TD catch.

Bottom: Wendell Smalwood TD (he had 147 yards)

Pope Francis is the guy between Cora and Dave Fazio

Mama mia! It’s Big Papa!

Cora Fazio, a 1973 Farmington High graduate, and husband Dave Fazio, Class of 1968, walked into this Italian grocery and --  Mama Mia! – there was Pope Francis, the most talked-about person in the world these days.

Contrary to all the reports about Big Papa being warm and human, the Pope seemed rather stiff. As in a cardboard cutout.

Cora runs Fazio ElderCare in Stoneylonesome, which grew from 3 residents in 1995 to close to a score nowadays. Cora has extra qualifications to run a residence for senior citizens: She’s a 1995 Nursing School graduate. Cora’s sister is Cathy Basagic.

Dave is a 1998 Fairmont State graduate.

They celebrated their 40^th wedding anniversary this year with a February cruise to Cozumel, Mexico; Belize, Honduras; and Grand Cayman.

Their children are C.J. and Mary Beth and the late Tony Fazio.

Dave’s siblings are Irene Fazio Preolitti, Class of 1966, who lives in Traction Park, Monongah, with husband Mike Preolitti, Class of 1962; Mary Chris Fazio Ramsey, Class of 1969, married to Tom Ramsey and living on Pike Street in Monongah in the home once owned by Helen and Steve Kerekes; and Steve Fazio, Class of 1975, whose wife, Nancy, is deceased.

They are the children of the late Frances and Renzy Fazio, both Class of 1937, who owned Fazio Grocery at the bottom of Jackson Street hill at the Thomas Street intersection.

Frances was the sister of John W. Olesky Sr., who was the father of John Olesky, Jr., Class of 1950, who publishes this Monongah High Alumni blog. Helen was Frances and John’s sister.

If you are in Mountaineer Field on Saturday for the Maryland game, or watching WVU play on TV, keep an eye out for Shane Commodore, No. 38.

He’s free safety Dravon Askew-Henry’s backup and also is on the kickoff team.

Although Shane is only a redshirt sophomore, he’s capturing the attention of WVU’s coaching staff. He’s come a long way from being a Scout Team Player of the Week in 2013 to his 2015 performances.

And, somewhere in the Afterlife, the attention of his grandfather, the late Jim Commodore, Class of 1950, who was a pretty fair football player himself at Monongah High. Jim’s son, John Commodore of Morgantown, is Shane’s father and Donna Commodore’s wife.

The 6-foot, 210-pound redshirt sophomore was a star at Morgantown High School. Boy, was he!

Under Coach John Bowers, Shane was All-Ohio Valley Athletic Conference first team and All-State second team.

At Morgantown High, Shane had 973 yards rushing, 205 yards in pass receptions and 108 tackles and one sack on defense, six kickoff returns for 75 yards and scored 90 points on 15 touchdowns.

In the 2013 state playoff quarterfinals, he totaled 243 yards while scoring four touchdowns to beat Huntington High. In 2012, he had a 64-yard touchdown run for another, 21-7, victory over Huntington High.

He also homered as a rightfielder for the Mohigans’ baseball team. And played on Morgantown Post 7 American Legion baseball team.

At WVU, business major Shane made both the Garrett Ford Academic Honor Roll at WVU and the Big 12 Commissioner’s Honor Roll.

Jim Commodore passed away last October in Morgantown, where he had lived for decades. His widow, and wife for 60 years, is Marian Ola Jones Commodore.

The other children of Dominico and Dominica Commodari of Monongah are Rose Commodore Cain, Class of 1950, who lives in Fairmont; Joe Commodore, Class of 1954, who also lives in Fairmont; Tom Commodari, Class of 1958, who lives in Monongah, and Don Commodore, also Class of 1958, who lives in Rock Creek, Ohio (population 529), in Ashtabula County in the most northeast tip of the Buckeye State. Tom reverted to the Old Country spelling of the family name, Commodari.

A previously unknown WVU engineer, Daniel Carder, and his WVU team caught Volkswagen cheating on emissions standards in America and Germany for its diesel cars. VW CEO Martin Winterkorn  resigned.

The head of Porsche -- Matthias Mueller -- was promoted to the top job at Volkswagen.

VW set aside $7.3 billion for pay off claims tied to the cheating. Perhaps 11 million cars had the cheating technology installed.

The scandal reduced the value of oil nation Qatar’s 17% stake in VW by nearly $5 billion, with VW’s stock dropping $28.5 billion after the news got out. Germany's Daimler and BMW, Peugot, Renault and Fiat stock prices all dropped significantly.

Carder's team – a research professor, two graduate students, a faculty member and himself – performed road tests around Los Angeles and up the West Coast to Seattle in 2013. They uncovered the humungous difference in emissions when VW vehicles were tested when stationery and when they were rolling down the highway.

VW was able to fool the EPA and its Germany counterpart because the agency tested the cars only on treadmill-like devices called dynamometers and didn’t use portable test equipment on real roads.

 

The software in the cars’ engine-control computers checked the speed, steering wheel position, air pressure and other factors to determine when dynamometer tests were under way and turned on pollution controls that reduced the output of nitrogen oxide, an ingredient in harmful ozone, the EPA said.

Once on the road, the VW diesels would pump out up to 40 TIMES the allowed level of nitrogen oxide.

And VW got away with it for seven years. But no more.

All because WVU got a $50,000 grant from the International Council on Clean Transportation to test auto emissions.

1966 Monongah yearbook 28^th to go online

 

The 1966 yearbook,  loaned to me by Debby Morrison Harden, is the 28th Monongah High Black Diamond converted from print version to an online album. To see the 1966 yearbook, click on https://picasaweb.google.com/115483244393507838338/1966MonongahHighBlackDiamondYearbook

 

Anyone in the world can see the 28 Monongah yearbooks via the Internet, from 1939 through 1966. I have promises of yearbooks through 1979 (the final graduation class) when I’m ready for them. I’m converting them one at a time because it takes up to 4 weeks to convert one yearbook from the printed version to the online album. I also have a promise of a 1938 yearbook, so I’ll work the older ones, too.

There are 45 online albums with Monongah High alumni in them, including the 28 yearbooks.

Click on or Copy and Paste the next line into your Internet browser’s http destination spot to see the online Monongah High Class of 1939 yearbook 

       https://picasaweb.google.com/JohnOlesky/1939MonongahHighBlackDiamondYearbook#

 Click on or Copy and Paste the next line into your Internet browser’s http destination spot to see the online Monongah High Class of 1940 yearbook

https://picasaweb.google.com/115483244393507838338/1940MonongahHighBlackDiamondYearbook#

Click on or Copy and Paste the next line into your Internet browser’s http destination spot to see the online Monongah High Class of 1941 yearbook

https://picasaweb.google.com/115483244393507838338/1941MonongahHighBlackDiamondYearbook#

Click on or Copy and Paste the next line into your Internet browser’s http destination spot to see the online Monongah High Class of 1942 yearbook

https://picasaweb.google.com/115483244393507838338/1942MonongahHighBlackDiamondYearbook#

 

Click on or Copy and Paste the next line into your Internet browser’s http destination spot to see the online Monongah High Class of 1943 yearbook

 

https://picasaweb.google.com/JohnOlesky/1943MonongahHighBlackDiamondYearbook?authkey=Gv1sRgCK-jxabN5YaQdw#

 

Click on or Copy and Paste the next line into your Internet browser’s http destination spot to see the online Monongah High Class of 1944 yearbook

https://picasaweb.google.com/115483244393507838338/1944MonongahHighBlackDiamondYearbook#

Click on or Copy and Paste the next line into your Internet browser’s http destination spot to see the online Monongah High Class of 1945 yearbook

https://picasaweb.google.com/115483244393507838338/1945BlackDiamondMonongahYearbook#

Click on or Copy and Paste the next line into your Internet browser’s http destination spot to see the online Monongah High Class of 1946 yearbook

https://picasaweb.google.com/115483244393507838338/1946MonongahHighBlackDiamondYearbook#

Click on or Copy and Paste the next line into your Internet browser’s http destination spot to see the online Monongah High Class of 1947 yearbook

https://picasaweb.google.com/115483244393507838338/1947MonongahHighBlackDiamondYearbook#

Click on or Copy and Paste the next line into your Internet browser’s http destination spot to see the online Monongah High Class of 1948 yearbook

https://picasaweb.google.com/115483244393507838338/1948MonongahHighBlackDiamondYearbook#

Click on or Copy and Paste the next line into your Internet browser’s http destination spot to see the online Monongah High Class of 1949 yearbook

 

https://picasaweb.google.com/JohnOlesky/1949MonongahHighBlackDiamondYearbook?authkey=Gv1sRgCL36u9jE8r_WiwE#

 

Click on or Copy and Paste the next line into your Internet browser’s http destination spot to see the online Monongah High Class of 1950 yearbook

 

http://picasaweb.google.com/JohnOlesky/MonongahHighClassOf1950Book#

 

Click on or Copy and Paste the next line into your Internet browser’s http destination spot to see the online 2015 version of the Class of 1950 that updates their lives since Monongah High

 

https://plus.google.com/photos/115483244393507838338/albums/6146905814649173217?banner=pwa  

Click on or Copy and Paste the next line into your Internet browser’s http destination spot to see the online Monongah High Class of 1951 yearbook

 

https://picasaweb.google.com/JohnOlesky/1951MonongahHighBlackDiamondYearbook# 

 

Click on or Copy and Paste the next line into your Internet browser’s http destination spot to see the online Monongah High Class of 1952 yearbook

https://picasaweb.google.com/JohnOlesky/1952MonongahHighBlackDiamondYearbook?authkey=Gv1sRgCNOYy9uP__yZ9AE#

 

Click on or Copy and Paste the next line into your Internet browser’s http destination spot to see the online Monongah High Class of 1953 book

https://picasaweb.google.com/115483244393507838338/1953MonongahHighBlackDiamondYearbook#

 

Click on or Copy and Paste the next line into your Internet browser’s http destination spot to see the online Monongah High Class of 1954 book 

https://picasaweb.google.com/JohnOlesky/1954MonongahHighBlackDiamondYearbook?authkey=Gv1sRgCL3exdyNkuif8wE#

 

Click on or Copy and Paste the next line into your Internet browser’s http destination spot to see the online Monongah High Class of 1955 book

https://picasaweb.google.com/115483244393507838338/1955BlackDiamondMonongahHighYearbook#

 

Click on or Copy and Paste the next line into your Internet browser’s http destination spot to see the online Monongah High Class of 1956 book

 

https://picasaweb.google.com/115483244393507838338/1956MonongahHighBlackDiamondYearbook# 

 

Click on or Copy and Paste the next line into your Internet browser’s http destination spot to see the online Monongah High Class of 1957 book

https://picasaweb.google.com/115483244393507838338/1957MonongahHighBlackDiamondYearbook# 

 

Click on or Copy and Paste the next line into your Internet browser’s http destination spot to see the online Monongah High Class of 1958 book

https://picasaweb.google.com/115483244393507838338/1958MonongahHighBlackDiamondYearbook#

Click on or Copy and Paste the next line into your Internet browser’s http destination spot to see the online Monongah High Class of 1959 book

https://picasaweb.google.com/115483244393507838338/1959MonongahHighBlackDiamondYearbook#

 

Click on or Copy and Paste the next line into your Internet browser’s http destination spot to see the online Monongah High Class of 1960 book

https://plus.google.com/photos/111741206573856893163/albums/6068000765192827553?banner=pwa

 

Click on or Copy and Paste the next line into your Internet browser’s http destination spot to see the online Monongah High Class of 1961 book

https://plus.google.com/photos/115483244393507838338/albums/6154872249500943905?banner=pwa

 

 

Click on or Copy and Paste the next line into your Internet browser’s http destination spot to see the online Monongah High Class of 1963 book

https://plus.google.com/photos/115483244393507838338/albums/6158397626030676993?banner=pwa

 

Click on or Copy and Paste the next line into your Internet browser’s http destination spot to see the online Monongah High Class of 1964 book

https://picasaweb.google.com/109595153419846725152/1964MonongahHighBlackDiamondYearbook#

 

Click on or Copy and Paste the next line into your Internet browser’s http destination spot to see the online Monongah High Class of 1965 book

 

https://picasaweb.google.com/115483244393507838338/1965MonongahHighBlackDiamondYearbook

 

Click on or Copy and Paste the next line into your Internet browser’s http destination spot to see the online Monongah High Class of 1966 book

 

https://picasaweb.google.com/115483244393507838338/1966MonongahHighBlackDiamondYearbook

 

Click on or Copy and Paste the next line into your Internet browser’s http destination spot to see photos of Monongah High Alumni email group album

 

http://picasaweb.google.com/JohnOlesky/MonongahHighEmailGroup#

 

Click on or Copy and Paste the next line into your Internet browser’s http destination spot to see miscellaneous photos that have appeared in Monongah High Alumni newsletters, mostly recent photos of MHS grads mentioned in 2013 or later newsletters

https://picasaweb.google.com/115483244393507838338/MissingMHSNewsletterPhotos#

 

Click on or Copy and Paste the next line into your Internet browser’s http destination spot to see photos of Monongah High’s Kendzior family

https://picasaweb.google.com/115483244393507838338/KendziorFamily#

 

Click on or Copy and Paste the next line into your Internet browser’s http destination spot to see photos of Monongah High Alumni Reunion in Sarasota Jan. 21, 2012  

https://picasaweb.google.com/115483244393507838338/2012MonongahHighAlumniReunionInSarasota#

 

Click on or Copy and Paste the next line into your Internet browser’s http destination spot to see photos of Monongah High Alumni Reunion in Sarasota Jan. 19, 2013

https://picasaweb.google.com/115483244393507838338/2013MonongahHighAlumniReunionInSarasota#

 

Click on or Copy and Paste the next line into your Internet browser’s http destination spot to see photos of the 2015 Monongah High Alumni Reunion.

https://plus.google.com/photos/115483244393507838338/albums/6152867613044171713?banner=pwa

 

Click on or Copy and Paste the next line into your Internet browser’s http destination spot to see photos the 2013 Monongah High Alumni Reunion

https://picasaweb.google.com/115483244393507838338/2013MonongahHighAlumniReunion#

 

Click on or Copy and Paste the next line into your Internet browser’s http destination spot to see photos of the 2012 Monongah High Alumni Reunion.

https://picasaweb.google.com/115483244393507838338/2012MonongahHighAlumniReunion#

 

Click on or Copy and Paste the next line into your Internet browser’s http destination spot to see photos of the 2010 Monongah High Alumni Reunion. Everyone who was there, except those in the balcony at Westchester Village, is in the photos.

 

http://picasaweb.google.com/JohnOlesky/MonongahHigh2010Reunion#

Click on or Copy and Paste the next line into your Internet browser’s http destination spot to see photos of the Kubiets, Pigotts and Weises

 

https://picasaweb.google.com/JohnOlesky/KubietPigottWeis?authkey=Gv1sRgCManzbPpk7KPyQE#

 

Click on or Copy and Paste the next line into your Internet browser’s http destination spot to see photos of the trip to Tom Dean, Class of 1949, to the Offutt AFB of his Air Force career, Missouri relatives, Monongah High classmates in Ohio and his Fairmont birthplace

https://picasaweb.google.com/115483244393507838338/TomDeanS2012Trip#

 

Click on or Copy and Paste the next line into your Internet browser’s http destination spot to see the Henry “Dinkle” Martin tribute

https://picasaweb.google.com/115483244393507838338/HenryDinkleMartin#

 

Click on or Copy and Paste the next 3 lines into your Internet browser’s http destination spot, one at a time, to see each of the photos of the 3 visits by John Olesky, Class of 1950, to the summer home of Bob Kasper, Class of 1950, on Grand Lake, between Alpena and Rogers City in Michigan

 

https://picasaweb.google.com/115483244393507838338/2011VisitToGrandLakeSummerHomeOfBobKasper#

https://picasaweb.google.com/115483244393507838338/2012VisitToBobKasperOnGrandLake#

https://picasaweb.google.com/115483244393507838338/Michigan2013VisitToBobKasper#

 

Click on or Copy and Paste the next line into your Internet browser’s http destination spot to see photos of the visit by Bob Kasper, Class of 1950, to the home of John Olesky, Class of 1950, in Tallmadge, Ohio and the LSU-WVU game in Mountaineer Field

https://picasaweb.google.com/115483244393507838338/BobKasperS2011VisitToJohnOleskySHome#

 

 

Feel free to send emails with details about your life since Monongah High, with photos if possible, to John Olesky at jo4wvu@neo.rr.com  so that we can share experiences and Monongah High and childhood memories.

 

John Olesky, Class of 1950

newspaper editor, reporter and sportswriter for 43 years; retired in 1996

West Virginia University School of Journalism 1954 graduate

Living in Akron, Ohio suburb of Tallmadge