Connie Stanley Vickery

We met in grade school.  Everyone always emphasized her looks but she was one smart cookie and a sweet person.  Always popular but sometimes shy, I think of Jodie often when remembering school.

Ten is another longtime friend.  We were in a lot of classes together and I knew his brothers from orchestra.  He was so talented in so many ways.  Ten wrote beautifully as well as being a musician.  His dry sense of humor and love of irony cemented our friendship. 

Ellen was a dear and loyal friend.  The two of us met at South School Elementary and remained friends through NCHS and beyond.  Ellen's compassion for others made her a sensitive soul, too tender for the vagaries of life.

On the playground at South we used to play tetherball tenaciously in long running matches that lasted weeks at a time.  Ellen's notable athlethic abilities were often seen in the tournaments run by the NCHS Girl's Sports department before school.  We continued and expanded our friendly competition throughout the year in gymnastics, badminton, fencing and other sports.

Ellen's agile mind often picked up glints of humor that passed others by.  That's only one of the enduring qualities that endeared her to me.  Right before graduation she provided a safe haven for me when I needed it most.  My longstanding regret is that I could not do the same for Ellen after her boy friend died in Viet Nam that summer of 1971 when the war was already lost.  Both their deaths became part of the tragedy of that war.