"My life since Vigor" 

Our children are both in the Air Force. Our daughter is stationed in North Dakota and our son and his family are in Montana. Our son has since retired and they plan on remaining in Montana. They have spent time in Europe, England, and Okinawa, collectively. We developed a love of travel when our son was stationed in Berlin in the early 80s and visited more than once. Our grandson was born in Berlin. It is one of our very favorite cities to visit. Our daughter was stationed near Ramstein AFB for several years and we have ties there, also. We continue to visit Europe as often as possible.

My last five years with the Navy was working in the International Training Office at Fleet Training Center, Naval Station, San Diego. We had international military students from all over the world attending the Navy schoolhouses. We were there to help them administratively. I loved my job but it was interfering with my personal life so I retired. My husband and I joined the Order of the Eastern Star in 1975 and are actively engaged in enjoying all the lovely people worldwide that we meet. I am currently the Grand Representative of Puerto Rico in California and visited Puerto Rico over Memorial Day weekend 2002 when they had their jurisdiction convention. I thoroughly enjoyed meeting the people of Puerto Rico and people from all over the United States who were attending. I am looking forward to returning with Dave. He has never been to Puerto Rico. There is a Navy base there and we will visit there, also. This year, Dave is Grand Treasurer of CA so we will be traveling all over the state, Oregon, Washington, Arizona, Minnesota, Iowa, and I don’t know where else. 

For now, Nov 02 through Oct 03 will be very busy for both of us and I won’t be able to attend the reunion. I am sorry to say that because I love my husband’s high school reunions in Iowa. We were both anticipating the reunion in AL. A lot has happened to all of us in the last 45 years. Our grandson graduated from high school in June 2002 and our granddaughter will graduate in June 2003. We visit my brother who lives in Grand Bay once in a while. Dave likes to go during Mardi Gras. About three years ago was the first time he had been to Mardi Gras. I hope everyone who attends the reunion will have a wonderful time. I know Johnny has been working hard and long to make it a success. Mobile has changed so much since we were in school. Those were the good old days!! 

I left Vigor at the end of my Junior year, moving to Greenville, South Carolina.  I married Bob Grace from Whistler, Al.  We were married for 37
good years before he passed away in 1994.  We have four wonderful children who now live in  Seattle/Atlanta, Dallas, TX, Jackson, MS and Gilbertown,
AL.  I have 10 grandchildren and am about to become a great-grandmother for the first time in October.  They all live away from me but do visit when
school schedules permit.

I worked for Bellsouth for 35 years beginning as an Operator in Mobile, AL in 1962, moving to Marietta, GA for 8 years in 1965 (Bob worked for Lockheed
Georgia) and to Jackson, MS (Bob worked for General Motors) in 1973 where I worked until I retired to Orange Beach, AL  Jan. 1997.  I held various
positions with Bellsouth beginning with Operator and ending as Analyst on GM's Area Staff.  It was a wonderful career and treated me well
educationally and financially so I can enjoy my retirement.

While in Jackson I was very active with the Mississippi Special Olympics at the state and local level.  I worked with the State Games as well attended
the International Special Olympics .  This was a very learning experience. I usually handled developmental sports and worked with athletes who were not
able to compete in the regular competitive sports .  It was a lot of fun.

I now dance, play cards, bowl, cook, read, travel (and of course - the beach)  and anything else that seems like fun.  I have a special friend
Dennis Massie whom I have dated for the past 18 months.  He will be coming to the reunion with me.  Life is good!

  I'm very glad the class decided to let those who had to leave the school or the area because of life changes to attend the reunion. I have kept in
touch with Ruby Parnell Webb over the years as she was my best friend during school (and is also a member of my family by marriage).   I remember a lot
of the names from school and am looking forward to seeing everyone.

Margaret died in September 04

Update 1/22/06  I have retired from NASA and now am trying to figure out what to do with myself.  Have one 3 year old grandson and 2 grandchildren.  Enjoyed reading all the comments. 

Employment:  Last 25yrs, sales & sales mgmt in applied  thermodynamics. (Read:  refrigeration/air conditioning.)   Now, semi-retired involved in entrepreneurial ventures.

Danya Jones Bowers

 

He is an emeritus member of the Board of Directors of Newcomb Medical Center, Vineland, New Jersey.  Parker led the consolidation of three local United Way organizations into a county wide organization resulting in increased contributions and social service offerings.

Note: Pat died  12/26/03

How do we recount our lives?  Perhaps it would be better to quickly summarize our family life and move on to our professional life since in most cases that determines the environment and life style we experience. 

I have two kids and expecting a wife any day.  Not true! I married June Smart who taught ballet for about 30 + years and performed therein prior to that. We jointly have four “children” who have given us 8 wonderful grandchildren to spoil rotten. We are retired (you know you are “retired” when no one will pay you to do anything). We live in the Destin, Florida area and enjoy outdoor activities especially to do with water. So much for  the important stuff.   

I finished at the University of Alabama in 1966 with a Business Degree and a major in Accounting.  I joined Arthur Andersen & Co. (CPAs) (yes, The Arthur Andersen, of “Enron” fame) and obtained my Certified Public Accounting license in the state of Tennessee in 1970.

I then changed industries to the Health Care Field and joined Hospital Corporation of America (HCA), one of the first and largest private healthcare firms in America.  At one time they had more hospital beds than the country of France. My pursuits were in management.  Some may remember that some local Mobile physicians and I designed, built and operated Spring Hill Memorial Hospital off I-65 (1974 I believe).  My role was President and COO.  The most interesting memory I have is that I had to go out to “Ragg Swamp” before there was even a road and start construction. The hospital literally rose out of the mud. Due to our meager budget, for a while, it appeared that way as well. Later, of course, “Dauphin Street was extended through to McGregor Avenue. I evolved through CEO of a single hospital to corporate management of multiple hospitals both domestically and internationally.

My international experiences were probably the most interesting.  Some of the stories are unbelievable and would take far too much space to recount.  However, some of my time was living and working in London where I was CEO of the European/Middle Eastern Theatre for HCA. My family and I traveled world-wide including Africa, India and most all of Europe.

One of my prior assignments was in the Middle East where I was the CEO of the King Faisal Medical City.  It was the “taj mahal” of Saudi Arabia including black marble appointments and gold ware in the cafeteria.  It included our own power plant, TV station, research center, etc. We practiced medicine with state of the art facilities, equipment and a premier staff from around the world. The Dr. Michael DeBakey team performed an average of two open heart surgeries per day. . Most all heads of state who visited Saudi were scheduled to tour our facility

My position put me one on one with most of the many heads of state, including such as the King and Queen of Spain and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher of England.  She arrived with her husband and due to the reluctance of Saudi’s to relate directly with women, my Saudi Government counterpart escorted the husband and asked me to conduct the tour separately with Ms. Thatcher. No one was allowed within 30-feet of us due to security concerns. I found her very charming and surprisingly feminine in spite of her “iron woman” characterization by world politicians.

Because Saudi Arabia will not let any business be owned solely by “foreigners” HCA only managed and was required to have a Saudi agent. His name was Salem Bin Laden and he was half brother (I believe) to the now infamous “Bin Laden”.  Salem was the oldest child of the Bin Laden family and head of the family business. Generally they paved most all the roads in Saudi at the behest of the King.   It was done on a handshake. I routinely interfaced with Salem as we were expanding our operations there. Unfortunately, Salem died in a plane crash.  He flew his own planes and had 5 jets and one combustion-engine aircraft at the time.  He was highly educated and I found him to be very interesting and highly concerned with the advancement of the Country and its people and their healthcare in particular.

I trust my memory of the foregoing serves me well. I could go on as the stories are endless but perhaps encountering the boredom of any possible reader. 

 I look forward to the 50^th Reunion with much anticipation.  I really get “high” when revisiting with my fellow VHS graduates.  I have only positive memories of the time and all those I was fortunate to know and continue to visit with from that time. God Bless Our Class!

 Rick and I sold our house on 11-19-05 and have moved to our property here in Westville, which is about 90 miles east of our house in Milton. We are living in our 36' 5th wheel travel trailer and loving it...such a great feeling not having that big house to worry with and being able to go wherever we want.  We'll probably get tired of this in a year or so and build a very small cabin...no more big house and all that cleaning for me. Oh, we are in the woods and our street is a dirt road very close to the Chotawhatchee River....It's great.

When Ed retired from the Department of the Army as a senior intelligence analyst, we moved to Mobile.  Although my Yankee husband had his heels in the Virginia tarmac, he quickly adjusted and we are both active in historic research and interpretation.  He is a volunteer at the Museum of Mobile, and I can be found giving tours at Oakleigh on Tuesday afternoons.

In September of our senior year I joined the Marine Corp Reserve.  Immediately after leaving high school I entered six months of active training.  I planned to go to college thereafter.  When I returned home I didn't enter college right away, still undecided about what I wanted to major in.  I worked at various jobs, none particularly noteworthy.  During Mardi Gras of 1960 I met Martha Mosley (Martie).  She was in her senior year at Vigor at that time.  I may have been undecided about college but there was no indecision about her.  We dated until March of 1961 and were married.  There was a serious job search going on during the engagement.  We have had more than 42 years of a great marriage.  She has been everything to me, supportive, full of love and with her I felt myself to be complete for the first time in my life.  We have 3 daughters and 4 grandchildren.  (Are grandchildren great or what?) We were fortunate with our girls.  None ever got into the drug scene.  One has an MA in business; the two others have MBAs, (Accounting and education).  I worked 33 years and 3 months for Stauffer Chemicals, mostly in supervisory positions and most of my work was confined to manufacturing sulfuric acid.  I have always loved golf, working on my lawn, reading, writing (poems and short stories), chess and spending time doing anything with Martie.  I retired at 59 and 1/2 years of age.  We always to loved to travel and had done so before my retirement but after retirement we made many trips here in the states and a week in Europe (Mostly in the Netherlands).  

Last year in February I had a mole removed from the top of my head.  Testing confirmed it was melanoma.  Other test indicated it had not spread.  In June of this year lymph glands behind my left ear swelled and again proved to be melanoma.  All the glands in the area were removed but further testing revealed that the melanoma was in the fourth stage.  Several of my vital organs had already been invaded.  There is no cure for fourth stage melanoma.  The disease has rapidly weakened my immune system and me.  Pain is a constant thing without heavy medication.  I have had a wonderful life and I am content to meet the final experience.  My family is close by and they have been very supportive.  I regret deeply that I am not strong enough to attend the reunion.  I hope everyone is in good health and enjoys the reunion enormously.  (P.S.) I finally spent one year in college.  I guess I just wanted to see if I could have been successful.  I got nine A's and one B.  To late the scholar.  Ha!  Ha!
Note: Sammy died 12/28/03

Williams, Florence
6475 Lillian Drive
Theodore, AL 36582
251-653-0724
Spouse: None