Yearbook page ST-WA

Mike Stensrud
mikestensrud@cableone.net
1101 Magnolia Bayou Boulevard
Ocean Springs, MS 39564
703- 819-1617 (cell)

Bio information entered September, 2006
Duane Michael “Mike” Stensrud

After graduation in 1964, I worked for my dad in a construction company as a laborer. In the spring of 1965, I went to LSU for a semester. In the summer of 1965, I worked as a helper for a small electrical company. That fall I was able to enroll in the IBEW Electrical Apprentice Program in Local Union #995.

In late January of 1966 Uncle Sam invited me to come be a soldier. I didn’t want to be a soldier. I wanted to wear a nice looking uniform, so I joined the Marine Corps. I went to boot camp in San Diego, CA, so I was a “Hollywood” marine. On boot leave in June, I married my hometown love who graduated in 65 from BHS, Linda Boatman. After almost three years in “Uncle Sam’s Misguided Children” (USMC), we had our son, Brynn Lee, who was one of the first half dozen born in the new Woman’s Hospital. He cost my dad $25.00! Try to have a kid for that now. That was 1968.

In 1969 I “graduated “from the Marine Corps. In 1970 we had Sherri Lynn, our daughter, and I was working as an electrical apprentice in #995. From then until now kind of goes like this. I became a licensed LA General Contractor and built multi and single family houses and some light commercial work. I joined the Navy Seabee Reserve at “Ryan” Airport for 3.5 years, and then transferred to the LA National Guard as a weekend warrior, little knowing or even imagining where that would wind up. At the time, it was just some extra money to help raise a family.

In the late 70’s when the housing market went bust, I started traveling around the country doing electrical work. After two divorces I wound up in the Washington, DC area doing electrical work. The company I was working for asked me to go to Alaska to work; I said no, got laid off, and was unemployed. I had then joined the DC National Guard on weekends, so a friend of mine asked me why I didn’t go to work for the National Guard Bureau in Arlington, VA. I agreed to go on a 180 day “tour”, liked it, and signed on full time in 1992. Spent several months in Iraq and Kuwait and I retired from there in 2006. I now work as a consultant for a defense contractor.

As of this writing, I am going through a third divorce and am planning on moving to the Gulf Coast area where my daughter and two of my four grandsons live, ages 8 and 7. My daughter is a court reporter and her husband works for the DEA. My son also has two boys, one 5 and the other is 7 months. He is a mortgage banker in Atlanta and his wife is a housewife raising the boys. THE END.

Doc Stevens
lstevens47@yahoo.com
3041 State Line Road
Osyka, MS 39657
601-542-1841 (home)
225-921-6552 (cell -his)
225-937-4956 (cell -hers)

Bio information entered June, 2006
Doc Stevens since 1964

1964-1965 Ranger Junior College, Ranger TX Football Scholarship

United States Marine Corps Officer Candidate School 1967

Graduated from LSU, commissioned USMC 2nd Lieutenant and married Lyn West, all from August 3, 1968 to August 6, 1968…Wow!

Vietnam- 1969- Infantry platoon commander was wounded- hospitalized in Portsmouth, VA. Medically retired but went back in USMC and stayed in until 1979
Worked for Exxon and owned own businesses in construction and retail after 1979

2 sons Michael- born 1971- mechanical engineer and Eric- born 1975- physical therapist

Both married to beautiful ladies- four grandchildren

Grandchildren: Michael’s are 7 year old Justin and 2 year old Haley and Eric’s are 2 year old Jaxon and 1 year old Kira

Retired in 2003 at age 57- got lucky in the stock market,

Currently playing:
with grandkids
golfing
fishing
honey do’s
flying- licensed in 1973 and bought airplane

Crazy Stuff:
Still married to my first wife…married for 38 years
Parachuted out of perfectly good airplanes
Scuba diver- dove in Hawaii, Philippines, Taiwan and Okinawa
Owned and sailed three different sailboats- two in Hawaii in the 70’s and one in Lake Ponchartrain in 90’s. Sailed extensively in the Virgin Islands and Hawaii
Owned and drove race boat- class E-service (E-10-S) similar to offshore boats. Raced closed course and ranked 3rd in nation in 1971
Today- Enjoying life- Don’t sweat the small stuff-It’s all small.

Bio information entered June, 2006

PENNY TAYLOR

I was born in New Orleans, spent six wonderful years in Jackson, MS (3rd – 8th grades), then started Baker High in the 9th grade, when my parents relocated to Baker...so I came to the party late.

I graduated from Southeastern with a BS in Zoology in 1968 and from Charity Hospital School of Medical Technology with another BS in 1969 – guess that degree is historical now.

I married Harlan Struble in 1970, and we lived in Richmond, VA (another wonderful city) for three years while he was in medical school at the Medical College of Virginia. Our first daughter was born there. We spent a year back in New Orleans, where he did a year of residency at Tulane (again at Charity) and where we had our second daughter. He finished his residency at the University of Arkansas medical school in Little Rock and set up a practice there.

Harlan and I were married for 16 years and have been divorced for 20 years now. We have stayed in close touch because of our daughters - Marci, who is 35, has been married to Andy Belval for 11 years (they both graduated from Bradley University in Peoria, IL) and has the two boys in my life - Jason, who is five, and Ethan, who just turned two. No one could have ever told me how happy they would make me. They live about a mile from me here in St. Louis. Dabney is 33 and has been married to Sean Vaccaro for two years. They are expecting twins - a boy and a girl (so I will have a granddaughter!) - in September. She graduated from Southeastern in nursing and met Sean there. So the only downfall is that they will live in Hammond forever (at this point) - I will miss getting to be with the new babies as often as I am with Jason and Ethan. Harlan is there and my family is still in Baton Rouge, so they will get a lot of attention. And Sean is very close to his family in Hammond.

I had a brief (disappointing) second marriage (truly married on the rebound), and that is what got me to St. Louis - he was transferred. But good things can come out of bad - I have had the good fortune to work with many dedicated, smart people at Medtronic, Inc. for almost
19 years now. St. Louis took a bit of adjusting - midwesterners are different from southerners - but it is home now. I think I would prefer to return to Little Rock when I retire (I just loved it there and have many close friends there still), but I imagine I will stay where the grandkids are...and Marci is just my best friend in the world.

Medtronic, headquartered in Minneapolis, is the largest cardiac therapy device (pacemakers, defibrillators) company in the world. The founder of the company was the co-inventor of the pacemaker. I am sales support for the St. Louis district office. I answer to (or vice versa) about 30 people - requires many skills, most of which I have learned over the years. It is a very satisfying job. I hope to work until I am 66. I worked as a med tech until Marci was seven months old - then didn't hold a formal job for 14 years. I managed the business part of Harlan's medical practice for eight years, so I was not entirely without skills when I had to return to the work world fulltime. So I have been in the medical field, directly or indirectly, since we graduated. I think I have had the best of both worlds - being able to stay home when the girls were young and then having a fulfilling career.

Even more directly I have had my share of medical problems for about 13 years now. In 1993 I was diagnosed with the autoimmune disease ulcerative colitis - the counterpart of Crohn's disease but in the lower intestine. Finally in 2003, they had to remove my colon - so I live with an ileostomy (call myself the “bag lady”), which has become "no big deal" - better than the alternative, as they say. I have had several surgeries, the last one being the Friday before Katrina hit - so I had plenty to watch on TV while recuperating. I am doing much better now; Medtronic has been so good to me with all of the time off I have had to take through the years. I mention this only to say if you know of anyone having to face a situation like this, I would be glad to talk with them. It does help to have someone to talk to who has had a similar experience. They could call me any time.

My dear mother died of Alzheimer's in 2002 - we really lost her about four years before that - what a terrible disease. My dad was a great caretaker and is enjoying good health for 82 years old - lives just off of Kleinpeter Road now. I really enjoyed the anecdotes Gwen related about her aging parents. I have similar funny memories from my mom.

I have had many hobbies (nothing that would win any awards) and have done some traveling through the years. I did quite a bit of volunteer work when I didn’t have a job. I hope to do more of all of these activities when I retire. Reading has always been, and still is, my favorite pastime. Also, I am a news junkie – political and otherwise. I count my daughters as my greatest accomplishment.

Like most of us, I will turn 60 this year. Quite a milestone; this exercise has been a good reflection. So my life thus far --- very good – especially if I can say my greatest disappointment has been Mark McGwire!

March 2020, the world as we all knew it turned upside down. Covid-19 attacked the entire planet. Most people’s lives went into chaos, but not ours. Nancy and I lived in a very rural area and made a practice of not going to town more frequently than once every 7 to 10 days already.

Geraldine Threeton Bonvillian
gbonvillian@ibervillecompanies.com
6511 Bryce Canyon Dr. S.
Greenwell Springs, LA 70739
225-752-2194(work)
225-261-9624 (home)

Bio information entered April 2, 2007
Name while at Baker High? What is your name now?
Geraldine Threeton Gerri Bonvillian
What year, grade did you begin at Baker? What schools did you attend before Baker?
I began school at Baker in the fourth grade. I think that would make it somewhere around 1955.
What are your three best, most vivid, or funniest memories from your years at Baker? In the classroom? At BHS events or games? Friends? Teachers?
One of my best memories is Coach Jones and how handsome I thought he was.
Most vivid would be when my father found out I had gone to the Ratzskeller with Wayne Wroten after a football banquet. Naturally, we were underage. That was a really black day.
Funniest- a talent show that Peggy Ford, Brenda Herring and I were in. We sang “Sugartime”. We wore millions of petticoats (starched) to make our skirts stand out. The guys in the audience told us they could see up our dresses. They thought it was funny. We were so embarrassed.
Tell us about education or training following graduation from Baker High? Degrees? Honors? Accomplishments?
N/A
Did you get married? When? Where? To whom? Still married? Do you want to talk about how many times?
In 1979, I married “Kit” Bonvillian. He is the best thing that has ever happened to me.
Tell us about your children and grandchildren. How many? Ages? Accomplishments? Best or funniest experiences with them.
My son, Christopher Mark Bonvillian, Jr. was born in 1981. He graduated from Central Private School with a baseball scholarship to McNeese in Lake Charles. He was a pitcher, blew out his elbow, had Tommy-Johns in Birmingham, AL, rehabbed for 18 months, never really came back, and transferred to LSU where he is now in Mechanical Engineering with a 4.0 GPA. He got his father’s brain.
What places have you lived? Where do you live now? Will you stay where you are or will you move elsewhere when you retire?
We live in Comite Hills Subdivision in Central. We built our dream house three years ago so I am quite sure Christopher will bury us on the land
What kinds of things have you done in life? Have you held just one job or have you done lots of different things?
Many different things- worked for the City of Baton Rouge for 18 years. Part of this time was spent scheduling events held at Centroplex and traveling to various states selling the city to groups who were interested in having their conventions in Baton Rouge. I worked in real estate for many years. I have worked many, many years with my husband in our business.
What are your hobbies? Interests? What do you do for fun? Reading? Gardening? Fishing? Dining? Concerts?
Gardening- I recently completed the Master Gardener Class and this is my therapy.
Are you still working or are you retired? Retiring soon? Plans for retirement?
Still working. I seem to function a lot better when I have a schedule. I have cut my hours down a little and have been gardening more.
Any pets? Dogs? Cats? Horses? Snakes? Tarantulas? Wombats?
I help my sister with Sassy, a miniature dachshund. She is my love. Since I work a lot, she is Judy’s dog but I keep her anytime they let me
Have you been published? Won any awards? Have you invented anything? Have you held elected office?
Not a thing
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I have lived in Baker on the corner of Lavey Lane and Morvant my entire life. The only reason I was born in College Park, Maryland was my dad; Jack Toler was attending the University of Maryland and playing football for a new young coach named Paul Bryant. When I was 3 ½ months old, my parents returned to Baker.

The Sunday after our June 10th dinner the following letter appeared in the Ask Marilyn section of the Parade Magazine:
Why do our high school experiences occupy such a prominent place in our memories?
During high school, we develop the most vigorous adult bodies we will ever have. At the same time, we possess the least amount of sense we will ever have. This combination produces many memorable moments!

Well I know without a doubt I fall into the ‘least amount of sense” category. I loved going to Baker; didn’t care much about the learning, but I sure enjoyed the socializing. I made the “extremely intelligent” decision to run off and get married in my junior year. I went to summer school and received my diploma and did not graduate with my class. I haven’t had many regrets in my life, but not graduating with my fellow classmates is one.

Here are some of my memories:
· Sandy Quirk and I were best friends in high school
· Riding my horse over to Mary Alice Foster’s home on Groom Road.
· The 25 cent cheeseburgers at Blankenship’s Drug Store
· The cafeteria’s yeast rolls, cornbread dressing and cherry cobbler
· The cute tight shorts the basketball players wore
· The old ratty wooden building that was the GIRLS gym and the BOYS got the nice new gym.
· The Quonset hut that served as our cafeteria in elementary school. If at age 5, I can remember how deplorable the building was, can you just imagine how bad it must have been?
· At age 14, driving myself to the school to take Driver’s Ed with Coach Boudreaux
· During a Biology exam, Mr. Brumfield reading something and saying “OK now, folks, I’m fixing to look up”
· Mr. Griffin, the Band Director picking up a rock to prompt us to play “Rock Around The Clock” during football games

In 1965, I went to work for the Department of Highways as a keypunch operator. Sheila McGrew Sharkey and I worked side by side for about 15 years. Over the years I took classes at LSU and moved into the accounting field. In 1981, I transferred to the Department of Health and Hospitals. In September of 1997, I retired from the Department of Social Services as a Fiscal Manager.

In November 1996, I started working part time for Feliciana Cellars Winery in Jackson, La and became the Business Manager after I retired from the State. In January of this year, I started working as the Clinical Program Coordinator for a weight management program at Ochsner Health Center on Bluebonnet and still manage the winery on weekends. So much for retirement.

Needless to say the first marriage didn’t work out. In 1971, I married Johnny Bourgeois and we had Brandon Toler Bourgeois, born January 27, 1974 and Beau Jeffrey Bourgeois, born November 27, 1979. I also had the privilege to help raise two step-children (with whom I am still close) Tim Bourgeois, born August 27, 1963, and Beverly Bourgeois Lasseigne, born January 27, 1966. Johnny and I divorced in 1982.

My boys have been the joy of my life. (That’s so much easier to say now that they’re adults.) Brandon is self-employed in the construction business and is married to Kacie. They have given me a “perfect” grandson, Brenden Toler Bourgeois, born March 27, 2004. Oh by the way, Kacie’s birthday in on October 27. As long as I can remember the month, I have no trouble with birthdays.

Before I tell you about Beau, I have to tell a quick “Beau” story. When Beau was around 9 years old, he got a puppy and named her Muffin. The first time Muffin came into heat, I had to explain to Beau that Muffin could get pregnant and have puppies. His little mind pondered this information for about three days. One morning as I was fixing Beau’s breakfast, he looks at me and says, “ Mom, I guess you’ve been in heat twice, huh?” Beau is now a corpsman (Surgical Room Tech) in the US Navy stationed in Virginia Beach, VA. on the Marine amphibious assault ship, USS BATAAN. He’ll be deployed in January to the Persian Gulf. Please keep him in your thoughts.

My parents are still living next door to me and my son Brandon is remodeling a house next door to them. So I guess I’ll still be in Baker for a while. I just wish it were the Baker of our youth!!!!

Bobby Turner
tcr1946@msn.com
5435 South Kaitlin Road
Billings, Montana 59101
406-254-8508

Okay, Ann. I've been putting this off since writing cuts pretty deep into my sleep time. Also, since I didn't do so well in Mr. Allday's computer classes, I have to send all this to you via a reply. My wife tells me it's pretty simple to create/attach files and send them, etc, but I've never bothered to acquire this 20th century skill. I trust you will be able to see that it gets to the appropriate site?

Like many of my classmates, I was born. Before Carlos and I moved to Baker we had lived mostly in Venezuela (Hugo Chavez Lives!) until age five. Then we grew up in SW Arkansas about 40 miles from Texarkana. Very rural. We were 50 miles or so from Bill Clinton and undoubtedly shared the same general lifestyle and "culture" which is why I always knew he was a big phony.

Our family, Mom, Carlos and me, moved to Baker in October of our tenth grade year. I thought the town and BHS were the most cosmopolitan things I had ever seen. Actually, they were. I'll never forget. Geraldine Threeton was an office aide ( Is that what you called them then?) the morning we registered at school. She walked me to my first class and I knew that I liked it here. I believe I've had a crush on her ever since. That first class was Mrs. Lyle's--now Olmstead's--English class. Everyone was taking some sort of National Achievement Test and I had to be shown how to fill in the A,B,C,D,or E with a #2 pencil on some sort of computer graded sheet. I felt like a cave man.

BHS turned out to be one of the best times of my now old and decrepit life. I didn't know it at the time, of course. I was so damned shy. I was never an athlete nor could I pretend to be one, but I played Pony League baseball in the summer with many of you. Nicky Vance, Grady Radcliff, and Danny Barnett come to mind. The first football game I ever saw in my life was that fall. I knew enough to cheer when everyone else did, but I was puzzled when people started hollering about something called "clipping". Frankly, I was better at academia. I think I got a pretty good education at Baker High, especially when I compare it with what I see today's high school graduates know and don't know. I learned a lot. Some of my favorite teachers were Mrs. Lyle, Mrs. McDowall, Mr. Bezet, and Mr. Stevenson ("History is just a good story."). Coach Jones was a hero of mine. He was so cool. I was shook a little when I heard a few years later that he'd committed suicide. I guess I didn't have any teachers that I actively disliked. And let me make this absolutely clear--I am no relation to Ivy Turner.

After graduation I went to LSU. Was there ever really a choice? That was another good time, but now it seems even further back than high school. Remember just how different it was then? I majored in English--I think people expected me to--and ended up graduating in Psychology. I really don't know why. It just seemed easier than anything else. Remember back then all the males were only trying to keep their 2S draft status. Viet Nam. Try explaining to an 18 year old today what that's all about. I remember long talks on what then passed for philosophy with Grady Smith. I remember going to Pensacola in the summers with Larry Germany and Oscar Southall. One Labor Day weekend we put Larry G. on the bus from there to go start Loyola Dental School. J.C. Seguin and I chased women with mediocre results until he went into the Air Force. Then I chased women with mediocre results by myself. From time to time I'd run into some of you on campus, but mostly we all lost touch with each other.

Remember that 2S Status? Well, even though I wanted to keep that and stay in school, I went into advanced ROTC. I got a semester of psych grad school in before I had to report in. My branch was Armor. I went in as a 2Lt and came out as a captain. That was almost three years. I never went to Nam. Never saw combat. A pair of squirrel hunters fired some .22s at us one day in the boonies at Fort Hood, Texas, but that's the only time I was ever shot at. All in all, the war that defined our generation didn't have that much of an adverse impact on my life. The Army was probably good for me in a perverse sort of way.

During the Army, I realized I didn't want to go back into psychology. Too many fruitcakes. That's why, when I re-entered grad school at LSU, I went into Marine Biology. After three years and still no degree I went to work for the great state of Texas as a Marine Biologist. We lived in Port Lavaca, Texas between Galveston and Corpus Christi. I studied zooplankton in the estuaries. I loved that job and that area and thought that's where I wanted to settle forever. Then I learned a harsh lesson about government jobs and election-year politics. The state closed the fisheries lab down and laid all of us off in a cost-cutting move. Boom. We're back in Louisiana and I go through a series of industrial laboratory-type jobs until I ended up at Exxon where I lasted for almost 27 years. It's pretty ironic. I only took a lot of chemistry because I was interested in physiology and biology. Actually I hated chemistry; I remember celebrating the day I walked out of my last college chemistry lab with a D because I thought I would never ever have to fool with another flask and bunsen burner again. So what happens? I work in chemistry labs for about thirty years. It just paid too well to quit. Ask Wayne Griffin and Jimmy Germany. They can tell you.

I came to Billings, Montana on an Exxon loan assignment in 1989. Exxon's smallest refiney is here. I loved Montana and managed to stretch that six-month assignment into a year and a half before I had to return to Louisiana. I was getting divorced then and it was time to move on--more about that later--so I spent the next six years trying to pull strings and generally sucking up in a degrading manner trying to get transferred back to the great Northwest. Finally ten years ago I returned to Billings and here I finished out my "career" with Exxon. I just retired October 1st.

About marriage. Many of you know or knew Sue Wilson, Class of 1966. Sue and I dated at LSU and we married in 1969. Together we we went through school, army, more schools, various jobs, many many moves, and two kids. After 20 years we mutually agreed to divorce. Things just wore out and we parted more or less amiably. I'm sure many of you have been through the same story. Sue remarried to a good man. I actually like him and I believe she's happier. As for me, things have turned out better than I ever deserved. Barb and I have been married over 15 years now and life is really good. She's from here in Billings, and let me tell you, things are different with a Northern woman. She moved to Louisiana when we married so she's learned to cook some cajun food and she knows now you can eat rice every week without harm, but she still tries to get me to eat rutabaga every once in a while. She's a wonderful woman and I look forward to having all of you meet her.

Kids. Sue and I had two. Both graduated from Zachary High School.

Jeremy went to West Point. He's now a captain in the army and has been active in the war on terror. He was featured in an article in Time magazine last October 10 (or 13), 2005, about fighting in Afghanistan. Infantry, Airborne, Ranger, speaks chinese, the whole thing. Sometimes I can't believe he's my own flesh and blood. I'm very proud of him. He's married and has two daughters.

Sarah married and ended up moving to Toledo, Ohio. Her husband manages a golf course and she works in marketing at the Toledo Zoo. I didn't even know you marketed a zoo. She has a daughter and a son. I'm very proud of her too. I can believe she's my flesh and blood. She's more like me than anyone I know.

Barb has two offspring as well. Her daughter is a Physical Therapist and lives near Hood River, Oregon, in the Columbia River gourge. That's one of the most beautiful places I've seen and, if I ever wanted to leave Montana, that's where I'd go. One son. Barb's son lives here in Billings and builds swimming pools--they do have them up here. Our blended, extended families get along well together and we all love each other. The only thing that would increase the goodness of our life would be a few more grandchildren.

I never wrote the great American novel. I've started one and, with retirement, I may finish it someday. Writing is something I've always thought about doing but never did. Now, as I look back on where I've been and things I've done or experienced, I can see a pattern of not always finishing things I started. I can't complain though. I'm probably happier than I've ever been in my life. I don't have time enough to keep up with my hobbies. My funniest activity is my horse. There's so many places to trail ride here. I love to just hook up the trailer and go. Now Barb's putting her foot down and won't let me go off by myself in the mountains. She thinks a grizzly is going to get me. I love her. I play bass guitar and teach Sunday School at church. Can you believe that? Play a little golf although I suck at it. Billings has a pretty active theater and symphony. Concerts come through all the time. The Rolling Stones played near here last week, but I didn't go. Getting too old. This is the one place where you can go to the opera one night and the rodeo the next night and wear the same outfit with a cowboy hat both places. I know--I've done it.

We just bought a 5th wheel trailer and will be traveling, seeing the country and visiting the kids, probably starting next Spring. Too much snow and ice to travel around here in the Winter. We will probably get down to Louisiana too. In the meantime, Billings is not far from Yellowstone National Park and some of the most awesome country you'll ever see. If any of you ever come up this way be sure to look me up. I love to tour guide and I'd be offended if you didn't give me a chance to show you around.

I am really looking forward to seeing the '64 class again. I believe we were the best one.

After 20-some-odd years in journalism--Student Sports Information Director at SLU, a couple of years at the weekly and then the daily paper in Hammond, and then roughly 10 years each at newspapers in Florida and California--I moved my family to Roswell just outside Atlanta and launched a new career in marketing.

At the Orange County Register in California, I was part of a team that won a Pulitzer Prize for coverage of the 1984 Olympic Games. The Sunday Magazine I edited in Bradenton, Florida, was nominated for a Pulitzer, but did not win.

My sons, 28 and 26, both graduated with honors from Oglethorpe University, a small private college in the city. The oldest earned his MBA from Georgia State, created an E-commerce/Marketing company, and then sold it to a leading firm in Atlanta were he is now a VP. He'll marry next summer when his fiancé finishes medical school. The wedding is set for no-cars-allowed Daufuskie Island near Hilton Head. The youngest just returned from England where he completed his master's degree in education. My daughter, a graduate of State University of New York, and her husband and my two beautiful granddaughters live in Denver, where he is an investment banker and she runs an online business out of her home.

My wife is an assistant principal and I handle marketing for a global travel technology company with offices in Atlanta (actually the village of Vinings where Sherman is said to have set up camp on a high hill to watch the city burn) and Austria. My wife and I plan to retire in a few years and move to the Carolinas. We enjoy traveling with friends and family, cycling, and dining. Some of our favorite trips have been Alaska--a week inland with a glass-domed train trip from Fairbanks to Denali Park, and a week cruising down the inland passage from Seward to Vancouver--Italy; Maine; Sundance, Utah; and New York, upstate and the city. My sons and I enjoy the outdoors. We have an annual guys-only trip to the Blue Ridge Mountains for fly fishing and white water rafting.

Last year my wife, my sons, and my wife's parents (who still have family in Italy) cruised the Mediterranean including a few days in Rome before we started and a few days in Barcelona afterwards. The cruise included Naples, Pompeii, Sorrento, Amalfi Coast; and Capri; Messina and Taoromina, Sicily; Florence, Pisa, and Tuscany; Nice, Ville Franche, and Monaco; and finally Barcelona--a wonderful three-generation adventure. We'll return to Italy in two years, this time Lake Como, Bellagio, Venice, and a bit of Switzerland. Ireland and the Canadian Rockies are also on our list.

History of a 1964 Baker High School Graduate
David W Venable

My family relocated from Memphis, Tenn to Baker during the summer prior to my 6th grade year in elementary school. I started playing sports in the 8th grade, football and track. Fortunate to excel in both sports, I competed and lettered in both through high school. I earned a football scholarship to Southeastern Louisiana, where I continued competing and lettered in both football and track. After graduation from Southeastern with a BS degree in mathematics, I married and started working as an engineer with the telephone company. The company at that time was named South Central Bell, later to be renamed BellSouth Corporation. Shortly after beginning employment with them, I was drafted into the U.S.Army. While in training for the infantry (11B), I reinjured a college football knee injury, underwent surgery and 4 months of rehab, and then was reassigned as a physical therapist. I was stationed at the hospital at Fort Polk, La until receiving orders to report to Viet Nm, where I served the last 8 months of my two year Army career. There I worked at an evacuation hospital in Qui Nhon, where we treated wounded guys airlifted out of firefights in the bush. During my tour of Viet Nam, my first daughter was born, and when I returned to the USA, she was a bouncy 6 months old. I returned to work with the phone company, and years later moved into a department which handles investigations of internal/external affairs, as well as interfacing with law enforcement. My second daughter was born 5 years after my return from overseas, and in 1981 I relocated my family to Jackson, MS where I worked until my retirement in 2000.

After 22 years of marriage, the mother of my children decided the grass was greener and headed west. That was fifteen years ago. I am dating a lovely lady now for the past 8 years. We have known each other for about 30 years after having worked together in New Orleans.

My father, long-time pastor at Baker Presbyterian Church, passed away in Baton Rouge in 2004 at age 92. My mother died when I was in my late 20’s.

Since my retirement, I volunteer as an assistant track and field coach with a high school in Jackson. I coach both girls and boys and work with the hurdlers and the jumpers. I officiate at local and state championship meets as a certified USA Track & Field official. I enjoy sailing and competing in Senior Olympic track meets held each year. After a stellar track career in high school and Purdue University where she was all conference and an All Academic Big Ten athlete, my oldest daughter Brandy is now a professor and the assistant men and women’s track coach at Western Carolina University in North Carolina. My youngest, Courtney, a high school All American cheerleader, graduated from the University of Southern Mississippi with a degree in Deaf Education. She is presently a school teacher for hearing impaired children in Atlanta, Ga. No grandchildren yet, but "good things come to those who wait," or something like that.

Bio information entered June, 2006
Gwen Waguespack

At this age (and you all know what age we are), it seemed that my life has passed like a speeding bullet. Therefore, a bulleted list seemed appropriate:

· Arrived in Baker entering Mrs. Law’s 4th grade class. Times tables and Native American (I think) sand table and I loved my teacher.
· Charlotte Alford and Mary Alice Foster were my first friends.
· Began taking baton twirling lessons.
· By the 6th grade Freda Beth had become my best friend and we were always at one another’s house spending the night.
· We also became band members. The friends I made in band became my “other” family.
· I played saxophone in the marching band (the case I had to bring home daily was as big as I was) until I became a majorette. Then, I played the bassoon in the concert band (its case was bigger)!
· My happy senior year, I made drum majorette. My first football game to direct the Star Spangled Banner, Jimmy White had to bale me out of a false start on the down beat. Only Jimmy knows and he never told.
· Some of us were also in a Jazz instrumental group. I can’t even remember where we played, except not at Jazz Fest, I’m sure of that. Too bad.
· Left Baker, went to SLU, got my MRS.--didn’t finish college
· Married Brandon Kershaw, Freda Beth stood in my wedding
· First house in Baton Rouge
· Had three kids: named the first one after Freda (Kimberly BETH), third one is her Godchild
· Moved to Mobile. Loved it!
· Moved to Kenner. It’s not pretty.
· Three kids got bigger.
· Went to UNO, finished college, started teaching in St. Charles Parish.
· Three kids left home.
· 25yrs. had passed, Brandon Kershaw was too busy to know who I was
· Got divorced.
· 1st kid, girl, hairstylist, lives in Covington. 1st grandson, gifted (no, really!)
· 2nd kid, boy, lawyer, lives in Baton Rouge. Two grandsons, handsome (no, really!)
· 3rd kid, girl, stay-at-home mommy, lives in Metairie. Three granddaughters (want to guess?)
· 10 years passed. Took a long European summer vacation. Met a German.
· Gondola’d in Venice together. Eiffel Tower’d in Paris together. Hiked in the Alps together.
· We both traveled back and forth for two years. Looooong distance dating.
· 1999, got married in a 1200 year old church in the village where he lives in a “real” gingerbread-looking house.
· Reception and honeymooned in a Rapunzel-like castle.
· He came to live in the U.S.
· My mother’s Alzheimer’s got worse. Daddy had a heart attack taking care of her.
· They came to live with me in March 2004. All OK with new hubby.
· Daddy died in January 2005.
· Mother is still with me, getting worse.
· German thought I should choose between putting Mother in a home and having him for a husband.
· Divorced
· 7 years of marriage---so much for fairy tales
· Getting old is mandatory---growing up is optional
· Working as a teacher trainer in the Curriculum and Instruction and Federal Programs Departments in St. Charles Parish.
· Sometimes I teach off-campus classes for SLU (kind of full circle, you might say)
· Such is the story, up to now
· Going to Rome this summer—Kids say I shouldn’t bring home any souvenirs

Gwendolyn Ann Waguespack Kershaw Stenzel (Whew!)

Mike Watson
jurarr@eatel.net
11802 Bel-Meadow Avenue
Baton Rouge, LA 70810
225-753-3939

Bio information entered October, 2006

Meyer “Mike” Joseph Watson was born in Natchez, Mississippi on January 21, 1945 to W.O. Watson and Lucille Taylor Watson. Our family moved to Baton Rouge when I was six due to my father’s occupation on the Mississippi river.

I attended St. Gerard and Banks Elementary before my parents purchased a home in Brown Heights. Four of my siblings and myself registered at Baker where I attended sixth grade until graduation. My plans after graduation was a dream come true to follow in my father’s footsteps to pursue a career on the Mississippi river.

I started as a deckhand and attended Marine School in New Orleans and Memphis. In 1967 I received a Pilot License of unlimited tonnage from the United States Coast Guard. I went in the wheelhouse as pilot and captain for American Commercial Barge Line covering 2,000 miles on the Mississippi, Illinois and Ohio Rivers.

I married Jeri Shackelford from Baton Rouge in December of 1967. My wife Jeri and I will be married 39 years December 2006. We have no children but we have six godchildren. We see the three little ones on Sunday. We are all members of Most Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church.

Jeri is a pediatric nurse who retired her license in 1997. St Jude is our charity of choice due to her first hand knowledge.

In 1972, I was elected into the New Orleans Baton Rouge Steamship Pilots Association (NOBRA) where I worked for 35 years moving ships between New Orleans and Baton Rouge. I have recently retired as of April 2006, but remain informed on the Association activities. In fact I will attend an International Pilot Convention in Cuba October 2006.

Jeri and I have maintained two residences for the past 35 years. Our home has always been in Baton Rouge because of family and friends. We have been located in Santa Maria for the last 15 years. Our second residence was a fourplex apartment on Chateau Boulevard, Kenner, Louisiana. We were affected by hurricane Katrina. Our apartments are two blocks from Lake Ponchatrain. Construction is over and the apartments have been sold.

Jeri and I have traveled extensively with our motor home in our twenty’s and thirty’s we have seen the U.S.A., Canada, Mexico and of course LSU football games. Then we started with the cruises, which have been really enjoyable. We have sailed on approximately 20 ships to many ports of call. We’re in the process of plan a second sailing to Hawaii. Since retirement we spend a little more time at our camp in Maurepas, Louisiana on the Amite River of thirteen years.

We will attend the reunion

See you then,
Mike and Jeri Watson
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