Classmates: For you that don't know, we have a 1960 graduate that is now the Supreme Court Chief Justice, her name is Sarah Parker. While growing up in Charlotte area in the '50s, Sarah didn't give thought to the law, she went to UNC Chapel Hill, after graduating, she taught English in Turkey as a member of the Peace Corps. Back in North Carolina, she went to law school and later returned to Charlotte to launch a 15-year career in a private practice. In 1984 she was named to the N.C. Court of Appeals. Sarah was elected to the Supreme Court in 1992. Took the Chief Justice seat on Feb 1, 2006.
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Classmates: Click on this site below, this new article was about one of our classmates: Jerome Williams.
myevent.com
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Classmates: If you have not heard of Clear Lake, Iowa. I have a story to tell you. It's been 50 years since a single-engine plane crashed into a snow-covered Iowa corn field, instantly killing three men whose names would become enshrined in the history of rock 'n' roll. The passing decades haven't diminished fascination with that night on Feb. 2, 1959, when 22-year old Buddy Holly, 28-year-old J.P."The Big Bopper" Richardson and 17-year-old Ritchie Valens performed in Clear Lake's "Surf Boardroom" and then boarded the plane for a planned 300-mile flight that lasted only minutes. The crash site is on private property, a five-mile drive from Clear Lake and a half-mile walk off the road. Corn grows high in the fields during the summer, but in winter the fields are covered with snow and a path to the small memorial if often thick with ice. The memorial features a small cross and thin metal guitar and records, all of which are draped in flowers during the summer as you can see by my picture (click on picture will enlarge). Fans stop by throughtout the year and on summer days, visitors can create a corn field traffic jam. The plane left the airport in the nearby Mason City about 1am. It wasn't until hours later that the demolished plane was found, crumpled against a wire fence. The pilot, who also died, got confused and rammed the plane into the ground. The crash set off a wave of mourning fans across the country. Then 12 years later after the crash was immortalized as "the days the music died" in Don McLean's 1971 song, "American Pie". In part because of its role in rock history, the "Surf Ballroom" has retained its vintage look, with a 6,000-square-foot dance floor, ceiling painted to resemble a sky, and original cloud machines on either side of the room. Ten Buddy Holly banners line the wall opposite the stage. The 2,100-capacity ballroom still hosts many national and regional performers, most of whom add their names to a backstage wall that is now crowded with drawings and signatures, a Surf board member says, "This place looks just like it did in 1959." Just thought you guys would like this piece of history. We were visiting Rosa's daughter and we went to see John Wayne's birth place also, another story I have to tell. RG
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