Dorcas Jean Cooper-Thomas (Deceased)

Passed away Nov 16, 2018–Occupation: Retired Federal Civil Service …. Dept. of Defense – Ft. Sam Houston, TX
Husband …. Bobby D. Thomas

1st Husband: Charles Edward McGee
Marriage: 30 Dec 1956 Place: Enid, Garfield Co., OK
Divorced:
Two Children…
Douglas Wayne McGee – Occupation: Health Care/Construction/Wildlife Ecology/Journalism
Gregory David McGee – Occupation: Machinist/Construction

2nd Husband: Bobby Donn Thomas
Marriage: 7 May 1964 Place: Enid, Garfield Co., OK
Military: Retired MSgt USAF/USA – Apr 1959 to May 1980
Occupation: Retired Federal Civil Service Dept of Defense (1 May 1985 – 30 Jul 2004) … Randolph AFB, TX

One child: Todd Patrick Thomas
Occupation: Federal Civil Service Worker – Disability Retirement

I was born in Snyder, Oklahoma where I attended school until relocating to Enid with my mother, grandmother and two half sisters in the seventh grade. I attended Emerson Junior HS after moving to Enid and graduated from Enid High School in 1957. While attending high school I was active in in the Aquaette Snychronized Swimming Club, and played the French Horn in both band and orchestra. I was first French Horn my senior year. I was on the school honor rolls at Emerson Junior High and Enid High except for one semester my senior year when I took short hand.

I married Charles Edward McGee in my senior year of HS and we had two children. After my divorce from Charles I went to work at Vance Air Force Base where I worked in base supply and later in aircraft records. While working at Vance I met my present husband of 43+ years who was a career airman. My husband Bobby D. Thomas served 21 years in the military and had sixteen permanent change of station assignments. I was privileged to go on five of those assignments with him (Carswell AFB, TX, Randolph AFB, TX, Elmendorf AFB, AK, Barksdale AFB, LA, and Vance AFB, OK for a second tour). At the time of my husband’s military retirement I was living in Longview, TX where I worked in several jobs in the medical field. We moved to the San Antonio area in 1985 where I worked for Federal Civil Service at Kelly AFB and Ft. Sam Houston until my retirement in the year 2000.

My husband and I are contemplating moving back to Enid in the next few years.

Don Carey

The path after graduation from Enid High seems long and varied in retrospect-Don Carey

The fifty years after graduation from Enid High has been more varied than I could have imagined. I attended the University of Oklahoma, majoring in Aeronautical Engineering. After two years, I was sure that I would be in the military in some capacity in the future. Being an airplane nut, I applied to the Air Force Academy and was fortunate to receive an appointment. I graduated in 1963 and was assigned duties as a Civil Engineer at Vandenberg AFB, CA building satellite launch facilities. That career field was not my calling, so I attempted to cross-train into research and development. I attended the Air Force Institute of Technology and received a Master’s degree in Astronautics/Space Facilities. Graduates were being prepared for work on the Manned Orbiting Lab (MOL) program, the planned prototype for what is now the International Space Station. Unfortunately, the Air Force did not get the MOL mission, so I was immediately obsolete. My assignment was back to Civil Engineering as a Combat Engineer in Vietnam.

In June 1968, I was assigned to the faculty at the Academy in the Engineering Mechanics Department. While there, I was selected for a NASA-sponsored team to develop a design concept for a self-sustaining lunar base. After five years, I attended Ohio State University and received a PhD in Metallurgical Engineering. I returned to the Air Force Academy to implement a curriculum in Materials Science. After five years, I was totally burned out on the academics. It was time to “learn a trade”, so I transferred to Kirtland AFB in Albuquerque to work in the R&D (Research & Development) field. I was assigned to work on the laser portion of the Strategic Defense Initiative.

In 1983, I retired from the service, and began work with aerospace contractors such as TRW and Northrop-Grumman. This work was a continuation of other aspects of laser development. In 1996, I got caught in a downsize, so I found work as a Manufacturing Engineer with Johnson & Johnson working on endoscopic surgical instruments. I was functioning as a consultant, so this work ended after two years.

I was then really fortunate to be hired by Corning, Inc. to manage the Albuquerque Operations for development of optical switches for telecom. That also turned out to be short-lived as Corning withdrew from optical components and concentrated on optical fiber manufacture. The plant was closed and 45 highly select people were on the street. At this point (2002), I tried the consulting business again with the Bureau of Indian Affairs in the office responsible for the construction of education facilities for all the Tribes. This appeared to be a position in which one could make a real impact to improve life on the reservations. Like most bureaucracies, the negative inertia proved to be a constant hindrance. My contract ended in 2005 and retirement beckoned.

On the family front, I was fortunate to meet my wife Christa early in my Air Force career while at Edwards Air Force Base. We were married in October 1963 and raised three children: Jennifer (41), Jacqueline (38), and Andrew (34). We have four grandchildren and one on the way. Four live close to us in the Phoenix area, so that occupies a lot of our time. I also have a continued interest in promoting various forms of renewable alternative energies.

Don Carey

  Cynthia Muir-Hanselman
{Cynthia at left and again with husband Don.}

After graduating from OSU, I have worked in retailing, accounting and teaching. I have been married to Don Hanselman 37 years and lived around the world from Okinawa, Japan to England to Del Rio, TX while he was in the Air Force. We now live in the Houston area where Don works for NASA as a Quality Assurance Specialist (Aerospace) and I keep busy as a part time library clerk.

We have 2 children; Stacey, a nurse, and Ray Jr., a professional fishing and hunting guide and a tournament fisherman. Each are going to present us with our 1st grandchildren at years end! For those who remember me, the big surprise is I ride on the back of Don’s Harley with our group “Midlifecycles” and have had a write-up with picture on the bike in the Houston Chronicle!

We lived in Pearland for 10 years until the house flooded for the 4th time. Not fun wading out. We took the FEMA buyout and now live in Alvin, TX. We hope we don’t have to evacuate for another hurricane like we did for Rita in 2005. Four hours to go 16 miles is how our trip began and we were among the lucky ones!

Cleo Jean Mielke-Fratzke

Greetings to all my Classmates of ’57 –  After graduating from EHS and Phillips University, I was a speech therapist for the Clay County Health Department in Liberty, MO (a suburb of Kansas City). After teaching for two years, I married the man I had been dating since high school, Vernon Fratzke (class of ’54).

We started married life in New Orleans and were there for three years. After our first daughter was born, we moved to King of Prussia, PA where our second daughter was born. In another four years, we moved to VA where our third daughter was born. We decided we had better stop moving!

In VA, Vern worked for the Defense Intelligence Agency and I was mostly a stay at home Mom. I did keep very busy with church work, some community work, and putting three girls through the Camp Fire program. I also taught speech therapy on occasion.

When the immigrants started coming to our country in large numbers, I put my phonics training to work by teaching English as a Second Language (ESL) to adults. This was pure pleasure. I learned so much from my students and they were so grateful for the help.

Since Vern retired in 1997, we have done a lot of traveling. We have been to all fifty states, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, Austria, Netherlands, Hungary, Italy, France, Greece, and Turkey. We still have some more trips planned for the future. I love seeing the world and learning about the different cultures.

At home, I am in charge of the senior group at church and still help with ESL sometimes. Most of my time is spent with the three grandchildren we already have. We are also anticipating going to Guatemala to help our oldest daughter bring back two adopted children.

It has been so nice to read all of your bios. God has richly blessed all of us. I wish that I could attend the reunion, but we are sitting by the phone waiting for a call from Guatemala. Blessings to All –

Cleo Jean Mielke Fratzke
Stafford, VA

  Charles Warren
{Charles is pictured with wife Ann}

After high school, I enlisted in the Air Force then worked for the government. It was the best thing that could have happened to me. During the next 42 years, I managed to get a college degree in Social Psychology. I was sent to far away places that I could not or would not have gone to. I’ve got the T-shirts to prove it. While stationed in Oregon, I met and married my wife Ann in 1961. We have 3 children and three grand kids.

Am looking forward to the reunion. FIFTY YEARS!!!!!!!!!!!! WOW
Charles Warren

Charles E. Pyle (Deceased)

After completing high school in Enid, I enrolled at OU, sure of becoming an Electrical Engineer. Like other curriculums, the first two years were quite similar with all Engineering. Calculus, Chemistry, and Physics gave me as many problems as they did other new college students. I was fortunate to be a member of the OU band and enjoyed the activities through my OU career. After deciding that EE was not where I belonged, I changed to Music Education for a semester. I found there were so many natural musicians who were much better than I was with long hours of practicing. So once again I changed majors to Industrial Engineering, and stayed there and graduated in 1962. Along the way, I was married in 1959, and our first daughter, Susan, was born in November of 1961. This naturally emphasized the need to decide on a major, to finish, and get a job.

I was hired by a great company, Caterpillar Tractor Company, and went to work in Peoria, Illinois three days after OU graduation. After training, they moved me to Milwaukee for my first, real, full time job. During the stay in Milwaukee, our second daughter, Elizabeth, and our son, Robert were born. After transferring back to Peoria area in 1968, I enjoyed different assignments through the years in either the Industrial Engineering field or in manufacturing supervision. I worked for Cat until retiring after 36 years to enjoy life, grandkids, traveling, and to play more golf.

Susan graduated from University of Illinois in Music education and now is teaching in Lake Bluff, IL. Betsy wanted a family, and retired early from Illinois State University. Bob joined the Air Force and served with them for 8 years, before the USAF cut back, and gave him a nice separation check. He now works for a contract company with assignments within Caterpillar at Peoria. Each of them has four children of their own, seven girls and five boys.

I divorced after 24 years, and was fortunate to meet a wonderful lady who decided to become (as she puts it) “the last Mrs. Pyle”. So now Kathryn and I have the pleasure of a blended family of six children and fourteen grandchildren. Her daughter, Anne, lives in Vail, Colorado, after graduating from CU – Colorado Springs. Her son, Chris, graduated from Truman University in Missouri, received his commission in the Army, and experienced a tour of duty in Iraq. He now works for an employer in an assignment for the State Department in Washington, D.C.

The youngest of Kathryn’s children, Sarah, enlisted in the U.S. Coast Guard, and was eventually stationed near us in New Orleans, LA., one month before hurricane Katrina. She and our two young grandsons, who were then three and one years old evacuated with us from our Gulf Coast homes to avoid Katrina’s rage. This gave us a month of close bonding before we were able to return home.

Kathryn and I decided that cleaning up after three hurricanes in a period of six years after we built our retirement home in Diamondhead, MS was sort of a waste of our precious retirement time together. Katrina did a pretty good job of destroying the way of life we had enjoyed there. We sold our home and found a new home on the Elm Lake Golf Course in Columbus, MS. We are now about 200 miles North of the Coast, but warm enough that we can still enjoy our pursuits of golf, travel, and grandkids.

Through all of these years, I have continued playing music for fun and pleasure. I still play the clarinet that I bought in 1956, and have picked up bass guitar and keyboard skills. I noticed that Gerald Hemphill was listed as a favorite teacher by many EHS graduates. I would also echo that and say that I was privileged to have one of the most complete and exciting musical educations in Enid that anyone could hope for. I will always be grateful for those years and the pleasures they brought to so many of us.

Charles E. Pyle, 81, of Peoria, passed away Monday, July 19, 2021 at Reflections in Morton.

Carolyn Scheffe-Anderson   (Passed away in April 14, 2017)
This biography is dated January 14, 2007.

June 1957 I went to Beetch’s Beauty College, operators, advanced, and instructors courses. I worked in a couple of small shops (can’t remember the names). I worked for Ruth’s Beauty shop in the Wallace Shopping center for a couple of years. I moved to Wichita Kansas (for 2 years) where I passed the Kansas State Board Of Cosmetology. I worked at the Lassen Hotel beauty salon at the same time I was an instructor at the Douglas Beauty academy. I had bleached my hair blonde and wore it shoulder length. What started out just going to a Hair Stylist convention ended with me modeling hairstyles in competition. Lot of sitting, boring, times but it was very interesting in learning a lot of different techniques which I taught to my students at the Beauty academy.

I met my husband Bobby Anderson while living in Wichita. We were married at Calvary Baptist Church in Enid on 12/22/62. We moved to California (San Fernando area) arriving Christmas day 1962. I went back to beauty school, passed the California Cosmetology Board and worked in a large salon in California. It was all nights and weekends which I didn’t like so I quit and became a mother to a girl, Laurie, and 2 boys Daryl and Andy.

After nine years living in the San Fernando Valley, we bought our first home in 1971 in Simi Valley CA. Then, 5 years later we moved to a larger house where we lived for 30 years. Pop Warner style football, youth baseball and girls softball kept us busy for a number of years. Bob graduated from Pepperdine University with a BS degree in Adminstration. Bob worked for Rocketdyne the whole time we lived out here. The company changed hands three times (North American, Rockwell and Boeing). Bob worked on space shuttle and space station programs. Bob retired Jan 99. We took advantage of all the sights and the warm climate for camping. When Andy was 14 I decided to go back to work. Building computers. I also had a chance to return to school and learn to read blue prints, schematics, in addition to soldering and mechanical assembly. I got a job at ITT Gilfillian and worked for 2 years as an Electro/Mechanical Assembler. Applied for inspection and worked as an inspector for 8 years. (Much easier work than hair dressing). In Jan 1994 I took temporary layoff. I was injured in the Jan 17, 1994 Earthquake and began the worst year of my life. I don’t remember much of it.

My youngest son Andy (age 24) was murdered March 3, 1994 in a car jacking while on a fishing trip. (Andy was shot in the back from 144 ft.) The scum bag who killed him is serving life in prison without possibility of parole. At the trial I realized how few rights the victim’s parents and relatives have. I joined Parents of Murdered Children which helped me keep my remaining sanity. I have been working with Collene (Thompson) Campbell on an amendment to the constitution for victim’ rights. When it was voted down, we tried again. We did get a victims rights bill which was passed and took effect right away. We are now enjoying retirement, motor home camping and traveling. We spent a month each summer from 1998 to 2005 camping and fishing with my brother and sister-in-law, plus my sister and brother-in-law at the Lake of the Arbuckles in Sulphur OK… (now we have too many health issues to continue doing that). So we just get out and wander around the Western United States lodging in Thousand Trails campsites. They have full hook ups. Lots to do. We have two grand daughters who keep us busy. The youngest is 2 and really keeps us on our toes. The older is 11, sings with the Los Robles Children’s choir.(3 years). We are busy taking her to practices and concerts. She is in her third year of piano and voice lessons. Her goal is to go to Berkley School of Music in Massachusetts.

Carolyn Campbell-Roller

I attended Enid schools all twelve years … McKinley Grade school, Emerson Junior high, and Enid High school. After high school graduation, I attended Oklahoma State University four years, graduating in May, 1961 with a degree in Sociology. Richard (Dick) Roller and I were married the Sunday after my graduation. We celebrated our 46th wedding anniversary this year.

Dick received his degree from OSU and his ROTC Army Commission as an infantry officer. We were sent to Ft. Benning, Georgia and Ft. Jackson, South Carolina. We loved living in the South. Dick ultimately decided against a military career and returned to OSU in 1964 for graduate School. We have spent Dick’s CPA career in Oklahoma and Kansas, living in Topeka, Kansas the past 29 years.

We have two daughters. Tamara is single and an RN in ICU at a Topeka hospital. We are blessed to have her living in the same town with us. Our daughter, Tracie is married to Mike and they have three daughters, a son, and a baby due the end of November! They live in Kansas City, about an hour from us. Their 3 1/2 year old son, Gideon was born with Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome (HLHS) which is a very severe heart defect….born with half a heart. He has had three open heart surgeries (the last on July 17) and will eventually need a heart transplant.

Since graduating from OSU, my main job has been wife and Mother. When I was employed, my jobs had a lot of flexibility. I spent 10+ years working for the Santa Fe Railway, many of those years on a call-in basis. I would receive the call and have an hour to be there ready to do whatever clerical job they assigned that day. I spent another 10+ years working part-time for a local hospital in administration.

Our volunteer activities have revolved around our church and politics. We currently sing in the choir and are on the Mission’s Committee at our church. We both retired in March, 2001 and have enjoyed quite a bit of travel since then. Dick surprised me with a two week trip to Paris to celebrate our retirement and our 40th anniversary. Since then we have been on several mission trips to print shops in Belgium and France where Bibles and other Christian literature are produced and distributed to the French speaking world, much of it going to Africa. Last fall we spent seven weeks in Marpent, France, serving as the host couple for mission teams coming from the US to work in the print shop. We were responsible for meals, transportation and the day-to-day needs of teams of eight persons for twelve-day periods. We had ample time to explore the area using the car from the mission. We also took the train to Paris and made trips to Rouen and Chartrez.

I have enjoyed reading the biographies already submitted and look forward to seeing many of you at the 50th reunion!