Barbara Wilkerson Donnelly, Joy Rubins Morris, Rainer Klauss, Bobby Cochran, Collins (CE) Wynn, Eddie Sykes, Don Wynn, Paula Spencer Kephart, Cherri Polly Massey
Contributors: The Members of Lee High School Classes of 64-65-66 and Others
My Little Secret
by Tommy Towery
Class of '64
In a recent set of e-mail exchanges with the webmaster for another organization, she asked me the following question:
“You must have a great passion for the Lee's Traveller website to continue to do it and do it so well. I sometimes find myself slacking off and I only started working to plan and organize the website in January of last year. What's your secret?”
First of all, yes, it is a passion. Why else would a 59-year-old still want to be the editor of a high school newspaper, which is what I am? I consider the weekly posting on the web more of a newspaper than a web page. The secret that she’s looking for is simple - I get great satisfaction out of the process and results of doing something that I always wanted to do. The fact that there is no salary involved in it does not reduce the satisfaction I feel. As John Wayne would say, "Sometimes a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do!" Perhaps if I were in it for the money then it would just be another job and I would not enjoy it as much. While I am sure that all I would have to do is ask for donations and I would get more than most of you might imagine, at this time in my life and my financial status, I see no reason to do that. Actually, several of you readers have offered to contribute in the past and I have politely declined your offers. The idea of using this web site and weekly newspaper to earn income was never a part of the thought process.
What got me started on this strange road? When I was about 12, I was at my grandmother’s house on McCullough Avenue and she showed me a newspaper that one of her nephews in upstate New York had edited and published. It was a small weekly paper - so small that he’d list the birthdays of everyone in town who celebrated one that week. I thought that was about the neatest thing I had ever seen or read and I decided then that someday I wanted to do the same thing - publish a weekly paper. I already enjoyed writing, but until that day, I saw no way that it would be a part of my future. Seeing that paper and seeing the name “Towery” printed on it as editor was one of the foundations of my desire to be a newspaper man and to start me on a path that led to a degree in journalism.
I “joined” the newspaper staff at Huntsville Junior High when I was in the eighth grade, but remember very little about anything I wrote for them or for that matter anyone or anything associated with the paper there. I think they just had someone from each homeroom selected and that person could submit stories. I think only one story that I submitted got printed.
When I started to Lee in the ninth grade, I met Mrs. Parks and she taught me how to type, giving me a skill that would allow me to pursue my passion for writing with more ease. When the high school newspaper was being formed and she was named the advisor, I volunteered to work on it as well. The first year I was named Managing Editor, which meant nothing to me except that I was the one that used the Gestetner mimeograph machine to print the paper before we all gathered around a table and stapled the pages together. For the next two years I was the Editor, finally getting my own name in print, just like my somewhat-cousin in the little town in New York. I felt a void in my life when I graduated and left that role.
In college I worked on the school paper as well, but it was treated more like a business and a real paper than the fun one we did at LHS and I could not identify with that group of people the way I did with my friends and co-workers at Lee. I worked for one of the big local papers in Memphis as well writing sports during football season. During my years in college I worked on-and-off for three different commercial papers and one magazine. My real desire was to earn my degree so that I could enter the Air Force as an officer, so I never became a professional journalist.
When the computer came along and the word processor programs that contained built-in spell checkers were added to them, I thought I had died and gone to heaven. Spelling was always my worst skill; ask Mrs. Parks. This computer software helped me overcome that problem. The ability to cut items from one place and paste them into another without having to retype them made creative writing so much easier. The inclusion of digital photography and desktop publishing software into the personal computer world completed the set of tools I needed to edit and publish the newspaper I was destined to create.
Now, in a way, in this modern world, I feel that I have reached the dream that I envisioned when I was 12. I edit and publish (albeit electronically) a weekly newspaper. The whole process is a labor of love – sometimes thankless, but more often very rewarding and a task that gives me a warm fuzzy when I put it to bed each week. Every now and then I get an e-mail thanking me and telling me how important my work, and the work of the rest of the staff, is to the memories of our classmates. That’s all it takes to keep me going.
I guess if you take the six questions that a newspaper reporter should answer and combine them with the 12 items of the Boy Scout Law, you get one good roadmap of how to keep readers interested in what you have to say. I have found that this formula works for me.
I am happy to still be the editor of a high school newspaper, even at this age. What is it that you always wanted to do, and why aren't you doing it?
Please include your name and class year with your e-mail to me.
T. Tommy
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Click on the button below to view all of the Classmates that have been identified as "missing" by the Reunion Committee. We know that many on this list are not really missing, since at least one of the ones identified is a staff member of Lee's Traveller. The list is made up of those that the committee does not have current information for in their files. They would like for everyone to please check the list. See if you have friends, sisters, brothers, cousins or anyone else on the list that you can contact and get them to send in their info.
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Lee's Traveller Website
Celebrates Fifth Birthday
by Tommy Towery
Class of '64
This week we celebrate the 5th birthday of Lee’s Traveller online. Several of you have sent me e-mails in the past, asking how it got started and what it takes to keep something like this going week after week. Some wanted to know how to start one for their own class. This seems like a great time to take the opportunity to tell the full story.
First of all, many of you remember that I was editor of Lee’s Traveller back in 1964 when my class graduated. When I left Lee I went to what was then called Memphis State University and earned a degree in News/Editorial Journalism. Although I never wanted to be a full time news reporter, I did enjoy learning the skills it took to write news and feature stories. Later on, while in the Air Force, I earned another degree in Information Systems Management from the University of Maryland. The writing skills and the technology skills became a successful combination when the world wide web became so popular in the late 1990s.
In 2000, I had already worked on setting up and maintaining several websites at my office, and was becoming quite skilled in the process. When I was teaching small business owners how to establish themselves on the internet, I saw an opportunity to use those same skills and the world wide web to create a site for the ’64-’65-’66 alumni of Lee High School. Since those three classes have taken the opportunity to combine resources when it came time for reunions, they were the focus of my main audience. My original goal was to have a “meeting place” to exchange information about the upcoming 2000 reunion.
As I was working on setting up the web site, I found out that a classmate from 1968 was also thinking of doing the same for his class. He was not as far along with his design or moving in the same direction or speed in setting one up as I was. I contacted him and told him of my idea, sent him a sample link to view what I was doing, and asked if he wanted to cooperate on a multi-class site. He said that it was his idea and he was working on one for all the alumni including our classes. He stated that had been trying to work on his for several months, and by his own statement, had put it on the back burner because he did not have the time to devote to it.
I suggested to him that one site for all the alumni would include too many people and might be more than one person can handle and do a good job. When I showed him what I had done, he must have felt threatened because he quickly registered the web name that I was considering and started sending out notices that his site was the “official” site for all Lee High Alumni.
At that time, our reunion committee had just started working on the 2000 reunion. I contacted them, told them of my idea for the web site, and asked for their approval of my site as the official site for our three class years and was granted that status. The reunion committee was getting together at Carol Jean’s house for a session, and so I found a web hosting service and created a simple web page to demo my idea. I drove down to Huntsville that weekend and showed them how it could be used to help spread the word about the upcoming reunion. The night we all got together to view it, everyone seemed pleased with the concept.
I was only given “official status” for the site by those three year groups only. That is why 1967 and 1968 were not inluded in our site. Although we are the ’64-’65-‘66 official site, other class year alumni along with anyone else who wants to join in with us are welcomed as visitors with full participation rights.
The official launch of the site was March 31, 2000, with the initial idea of having it as a place to post notices about reunion activities and to keep everyone informed about the progress being made on reunion plans. The concept of a weekly newspaper was not part of the original plans.
Reunion update information and a few photos were added in a random and arbitrary order over the next few months. The method used to update the site was to open the current site, remove the older stuff, and replace it with new stuff on the same page. Most of these items were just notices about the upcoming reunion and not really stories. The manner used did not back up the old pages or content, and as a result, most of those items were lost. A few of the stories were saved however, but not all of the content of the site.
At the reunion in August, 2000, I made a public announcement of the availability of the website and the site’s address was posted in the directory. Apparently very few classmates either heard the announcement or read the directory, because here it is five years later, and some of those that attended that reunion still have not visited the site. The updates to the material continued past the reunion and were added at random times, but were not of a frequency that people knew when to visit and read the new stuff.
Finally on June 10, 2001, the idea came to me and the first issue of a weekly website was posted. It included mainly stories written by me and e-mail responses to those stories and ideas from many classmates. The weekly update idea continued, again only with limited usage by many.
On July 23, 2001, the web page first used the name Lee’s Traveller. I had not used that name before because I thought that the Lee High School newspaper was still using it and I did not want to conflict with them. When I found that Lee had changed the name of the paper, I adopted the Lee’s Traveller name to the site. Lee’s Traveller was the name given to our first high school paper by Woody Beck. Mrs. Parks was the advisor of that paper and felt that the name (which came from the name of Robert E. Lee’s horse) was a fitting name for a school paper.
Since that first weekly issue on June 10, 2001, we have missed putting out a weekly edition only one week. That was the week following September 11, 2001 and the 9/11 terrorist event. I ended up having to drive to Iowa instead of flying so being on the road those two extra days meant that I was unable to meet the deadline. We have not missed another weekly issue since that date. So, officially, we have missed only one week of giving you new issues of news and memories in the last 199 weeks.
In the months that followed I started looking for other contributors to the articles and memories. Terry Preston was one of the first ones to jump aboard and his talent for remembering things and writing them in a down-to-earth manner was a great addition. His death is one of the biggest losses to those memories. Over the years I have had others volunteer and send in stories. You can read the names of the permanent staff on the masthead above, but I could not begin to recognize all that have taken the time to write and send in stories and comments to us. Although many have done a lot to contribute each week, I have to give special recognition for Barbara Wilkerson Donnelly's ever-present support. She has been the "turn-to" person in the production of the weekly issues by previewing the issues before they are released to help edit and correct errors, served as a go-between for several related items and topics, and for writing stories that are inside her brain, even when her first initial reaction is always to say that she doesn't remember a thing about the subject matter.
Lee's Traveller was originally established with these goals in mind:
Lee’s Traveller Mission Statement
Our primary goal is entertainment and to have fun. We do not desire to offend any person or group, but we will not let political correctness cause an unnecessary hardship.
We avoid religion and political issues and do not post e-mails that talk about such subjects unless they have a direct connection with a classmate. We do not forward bulk e-mails or jokes to the group.
The purpose of most articles will be to inform and inspire. We want articles that will make our classmates relate to the subject and force them to remember common things. A good article will include as many names, events, and items that other classmates remember and if possible some visual aid should be included. Some articles will be designed to show that we are not dead yet, and to let our classmates know that there is still a lot of living to do. We want a lot of humor in our lives, and the more we can add the better. The primary goal of most articles is to encourage feedback from other classmates with similar stories or to enhance or expand on the ideas presented. Of course, death notices, sick families, etc. will be the exceptions.
For memories of most music, entertainment, events, etc. we should try to use 1966 as the cutoff. If that is not possible, at least try to relate what we write to that time, such as going to a concert today for someone we listened to back in school, or something that happened in college or afterward, but with a classmate from school. Lee High School and Huntsville in general are our most common bonds for the entire group. Most of our readers are entertained by the things that happened from 1st grade to the time of their graduation.
Here are some of the details of the physical process behind Lee’s Traveller in case some other classes want to do the same:
The web site is hosted by a company named Homestead. It was originally a free service but as the size and demand on the site grew, I had to go to a paid service. It cost $100 a year to have it hosted by them. There are currently three names registered for the site – leestraveller. com, leealumni.com, and leestraveler.com (for those that don’t spell traveller with two “l”s. It costs $9.00 each to use the names or $27 a year total to keep them registered. These were registered so that readers can easily find the site, but in the near future all will be dropped except for leestraveller.com. Classmates dot com is the most universal place on the internet for people to try to find old school friends. To be able to contact new people that sign up on the Classmates website, I have maintained a gold membership there that costs $35 a year. All costs are paid by me personally as a “hobby” expense. There is no charge to any of the readers to receive the weekly issues, nor does any funds come from the money collected for reunions. We do no advertising and take in no advertising revenue. We have no official status as an organization or publication. None of the staff members are paid, but instead volunteer their time to write stories and contribute to the site as a result of the friendship and comradely they feel with their classmates. The only funds that help cover the costs are the small sales sometimes made in the Souvenir Shop, but those are few and far between.
E-mail from the readers starts coming in as soon as the issue is published. Each week, normally on Friday or Saturday night, the new issue begins to take shape. The site is constructed solely by me, using the software supplied by and supported by Homestead. I use stories submitted by the readers or the staff, include any e-mails received, and post any notices that have been sent to me. Inputs such as e-mails received after Friday sometimes may not be included that week; depending upon how much of the work has already been done on the issue. The official publication date of each week’s paper is Monday, but it normally comes out on Saturday night. It is like a magazine that may arrive a month early but has an official publication date printed on it. It takes between three and four hours each week for me to collect the e-mails, to edit photos and save them in the right format for the web, and to find mystery items and Lee-Bay items. If I have to write the main story, that takes another hour or so. I usually spend an hour each week answering e-mails as well.
For those that wish to have a weekly notification of when the new issue is available, a mailing list is created from the information submitted to the site. Due to the complicated process of maintaining this mailing list, the only way for anyone to have their name added to it is to submit their information from the site. People sending personal e-mails asking to be added will be directed to the appropriate area.
The number of hits the site receives is listed at the top of each issue. We average a little over 300 visits a week. That number is very conservative, since it is the addition of the number of hits each week, added to the total number of the week before. If someone goes back and looks at past issues, those hits are not reflected in the total. Currently we are approaching 75,000 first time hits, but are actually closer to 100,000 real hits.
There have been many highlights of accomplishments that Lee’s Traveller has been a part of. We received over $500 in pledges from our readers for a scholarship award to a Lee High School senior in 2002. (The money was pledged in good faith, but there was no qualified entry based on the judges’ opinion.) We assisted the current Lee Parent/Teachers group in their brick drive to raise money. In 2003, the site raised $1,400 to donate to the library at Lee High School to help cover budget cuts. We also organized a Homecoming event that year that attracted many of you. Several Mini-Reunions have been organized and held across the country through the connections made by Lee’s Traveller readers. A Lee High School class ring that had been lost for over 30 years was returned to the owner, as a result of the finder contacting our web site. Many of you have been reunited with old friends and classmates. Our yearly Veteran’s Day issue is a tribute to our classmates who are veterans. Our saddest issues are those that report the death of a classmate.
We created and adopted the phrase “We are Fami-LEE” to reflect the nature of our true feelings for our fellow classmates.
The current plan is to continue the weekly publication as long as there are those who will participate in the discussions and memories. As long as we have readers, Lee’s Traveller will still be around.
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Here's a multi-part Lee-Bay mystery item this week. The above item was taken from a poster for sale on e-Bay. We need to know (1) What movie was it advertising? (2) What year was it released? (3) This is not the way that the men were arranged. They have been moved around. What is the correct numerical order for the sequence? A bonus question...(4) Which theater in downtown Huntsville hosted this movie? Any sharing of personal notes on anything to do with this item are greatly appreciated. The first classmate with the correct answers will be officially recognized next week.
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Another Fami-LEE Parent Lost
Mary V. Blaise
May 7, 1924 - March 21, 2005
Mary Virginia Blaise, 80, of Choctaw Beach, Fla., passed away Monday. She was born May 7, 1924, in Los Angles to the late Oscar and Rosenda Olea. Mrs. Blaise moved from Huntsville to Choctaw Beach and had been a resident there for the past nine months. She was Baptist by faith and was a member of the First Baptist Church of Manchester, Tenn. She loved knitting, sewing and gardening. She loved flowers and was known for having a green thumb. She was also preceded in death by her husband, Herman Thomas Blaise. She is survived by three sons and daughters-in-law, Donald H. and Judith Blaise of Choctaw Beach, Ronald T. and Janice Blaise of Clanton, and Douglas J. and Sue Blaise of Hendersonville, Tenn.; four brothers, Oscar Olea, Joe Olea, Frank Olea and Ralph Olea, all of California; and five sisters, Louise Scott, Josie Nogales of California, Inez Bowen of New Mexico, Helen Lopez and Ruby Cooper of California. She is also survived by eight grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren. Visitation will be from 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday at Berryhill Funeral Home. Funeral services will be held at 11 a.m. Friday at the funeral home with the Rev. John Raymond Tillery officiating. Burial will be in Huntsville Memory Gardens. Active pallbearers will be Don Blaise, Ron Blaise, Doug Blaise, Chad Blaise, Daniel Blaise and David Blaise. Floral arrangements are being accepted.
Published in The Huntsville Times on 3/23/2005.
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Craig Bannecke, Class of '65 - This was an easy one and I thought everyone would have written in on this one. That's Eddie White, Golda Maier and Eddie Dunkel, her Limo driver and part time accordion player in a bar mitzvah band. Ed White, (Class of 65) had later changed his name to Cheney for some unknown reason ? The occasion is a Rainbow Coalition Fund raiser at Mullins and Eddie, Cheney (White, not Dunkel) was the guest speaker. Jessie Jackson who normally would have been the speaker had to appear at a paternity hearing and Eddie, (White err Cheney not Dunkel) had agreed to stand in. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
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Dianna (May) Stephenson, Class of '64 - I know that one of the generals pictured with Vice President Cheney is Barbara Wilkerson, but I can't quite remember the other.
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Skip Cook, Class of ‘64 - Upon closer inspection of the mystery people with the Vice President, the fellow on the right looks a lot like Edward (a.k.a Eddie) Donnelly and the woman can be none other than our editor Barbara Wilkerson Donnelly. Eddie was probably giving the VP advice on commando tactics learned as a Kwik Chek bag boy.
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Jennifer White Bannecke, Class of '66 - The mystery photo is of Dick Chenney, Barbara Donnelly and Eddie Donnelly.
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Linda Kinkle Cianci, Class of '66 - Could the couple with Vice President Dick Cheney be Tom and Linda Collingsworth Provost? (Sorry Linda, we had the Provosts a few issues ago.)
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Sarajane Steigerwald Tarter, Class of '65 - I meant to write last week but had to go out of town and forgot. The two LHS classmates are Barbara and Ed Donnelly and I think the guy with them is vice president Dick Cheney. I wonder where they were and what they were doing?
(Note from Barbara: Ed and I were at a Republican rally with Dick Cheney in Myrtle Beach, SC this past summer and received this picture recently. He's quite eloquent and a real gentleman.)
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Barbara Wilkerson Donnelly, Class of '64 - Easter chicken toy. I seem to remember winding it up and watching it walk. I also seem to have a memory of a toy like this one, or similar to it, laying eggs. Thanks for the purple chicken!
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Dianne Hughey McClure, Class of '64 - This week's e-bay item is a plastic chicken that would lay little white eggs if you pushed down on her. My papa bought me one every year at Easter for several years. I sure wish I had kept one of them. I have told my granddaughters, Grace and Cheyenne, about them and have tried to find one for them. I guess they have gone with the times like many fun toys of our childhood.
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Carolyn Burgess Featheringill, Class of '65 - I had a chick like the one featured on Lee-Bay and what made it special, I believe, was that it laid eggs.
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Jeff Fussell - What made this particular Easter Chicken (Gallus Plasticus) so much fun was pushing down on the critter's back and observing the miracle of birth. Unfortunately, the creator of this item took the secret of "which came first" to his grave -- so the debate rages on.
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Subject:Golf
Vern Lucas
Class of '64
Sounds like we have at least one golfing foursome for the reunion. How about others out there who would like to join the fun? More from '64 and classes of '65 & '66. Sarajane's offer (of her brother's organizational talents) hopefully will be required. I don't care which course we play, I can be just as bad on any of them. Beer, now that something I can do. I vote for early morning on Saturday - It'll be August you know. All duffers, slicers, sandbaggers, etc. should let Sarajane know.
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Subject:Golf
Linda Kinkle Cianci
Class of '66
Mike Cianci is interested in playing Golf Saturday morning. He prefers Hampton Cove.
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Subject:Reunion
Jim Betterton
Classof '64
I am looking forward to attending the reunion this year. Thanks for the great site!!! I have a new email address: jjb_rsvl@hotmail.com
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Subject:Reunion
Gloria Horseman Schmidt
Class of '66
Greetings from Rhode Island. I have been living here since college graduation. I've been happily married for 35 years and I have four grown children. I am the librarian at Elmhurst School here in Portsmouth. I can't make it to the reunion, but I often think of my Lee classmates.
From: Portsmouth, Rhode Island
E-mail: schmidtg@ride.ri.net
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Subject:Looking for Axel Heinz
Visitor
Class YearOther
Currently looking for Axel & Wolfgang Heinz. Anyone heard from the sons of German scientist? All lived on Mt. Sano during 50s and early 60s. Attended Lee Jr. and Sr. 1959/1963. Possibly East Clintion Ele. as well. (Left no name but e-mail address as Spiritmanrocks@peoplepc.com which bounced back when I tried to request name. E-mail me again with more info)
