THE MOTHER of our classmate BRUCE McALEXANDER passed away peacefully at home on Monday morning, July 15, 2013. The funeral will be held Tuesday, July 23, at Pikes Peak Christian Church located at 4955 Bradley Road (about four blocks East of Main Street and Bradley Road) in Security. Founded in 1956, the church met in a small house on Morningside Drive and later built its first facility on land purchased on Aspen Drive. In 2001 the church moved to the Bradley Road location, where it has been located to this day. Please check the Gazette newspaper or our class website for the time and other details of the funeral for Mrs. Bonnie McAlexander.
The longtime matriarch of the McAlexander family, Mrs. McAlexander was a regular cashier at Simms Super grocery store in Security for many years before working with her husband Charles at the family’s Certified Public Accountant firm in Security. I always appreciated Mrs. McAlexander always making me feel like one of her own children upon opening up her home as my “home away from home” during grade school, junior high and high school. With my unhappiness at home with my stepdad before my mother divorced him when I was 13 years old, Mrs. McAlexander always made me feel safe at the McAlexander home that was a refuge for me. The delicious skillet-made bologna sandwiches she always made for me never could be duplicated whenever my mother tried to make that type of sandwich for me.
Please join me in extending condolences to the McAlexander family. Although it has been my longtime policy not to publicize street addresses and email addresses in the updates that are broadcast by me, Bruce’s street address and email address were repeatedly listed (with his permission) in all monthly updates leading up to the historic 45-year reunion in 2011. Therefore, his street address and email address once again will be posted in this update. People who would like to send a hard-copy card may do so at the following address:
McAlexander Family
141 Spencer
Manitou Springs CO 80829
Bruce’s email address: LeviMcAlexander1@Gmail.com
As periodically noted in my updates to our classmates over the past seven years, it is important to keep in perspective that we are at a point in our lives when death will be a frequent visitor. The recent death of Mrs. McAlexander needs to be viewed in that context. In reference to the deaths of parents, our classmate Bruce made the following relevant statement almost two years ago in his September 2011 blog that is posted on our class website: “Like it or not, but we are very aware of what people have gone through or going to go through with our moms and dads.”
In addition to her son Bruce, Mrs. McAlexander is survived by her husband Charles, with whom she had been married for 69 years; her daughters Claudia and Charla; and, numerous grandchildren and great grandchildren.
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TO VISIT OUR CLASS WEBSITE that was assembled and is maintained by our Class Committee member and Webmaster, Paul Snell, please go to:
The software that Paul used to build the website allows people to access the website through a regular computer as well as a smartphone or digital tablet. At the bottom of each page of the website is a link to a Facebook page that can be used by classmates who have Facebook and want to communicate and receive information through Facebook. Please be sure to bookmark the website address on your computer so that you will have it handy whenever you want to visit the website.
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THERE is a NEW HEALTH DEVELOPMENT that has entered my life over the past ten months. Along with my eight-year-long incurable neurological illness, the past ten months I have noticed that I am “slowing down” more and more – it takes me forever to get something done. Upon asking my doctors if the slowing-down process is related to my ongoing neurological illness, I was told that the slowness is related more to me getting older. To give you an example of me slowing down, it has taken me about four months to get around to providing feedback to Gillie about the very thoughtful gift she sent to me in the early part of this year. I will get around to my feedback as well as replies to kind messages from other classmates, but it may take a while. One of my own sisters has been waiting six months to get a reply to a long letter she sent to me.
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AS a LONGTIME LOVER of DANCE since childhood when I first learned Mexican dances and later learned ballet, I have always appreciated good dancers upon seeing them. In an approximate 3-minute video sent to me by our classmate Barbara Billingsley Massarano, two young dancers are fabulous with their detailed footwork and outfits during their modern-day dance performance of the Shag dance. A forerunner of the 1950s Swing dance, the Shag dance originated in the 1920s and became popular in the 1930s and 1940s. The young dancers in the video are dancing to Big Joe Turner’s mid-1950s popular song, “Flip Flop and Fly” – which was a follow-up to Big Joe Turner’s other mid 1950s popular song titled “Shake Rattle and Roll.” To watch the five-star dance performance by the modern-day young dancers, turn on your computer’s sound and click the following link:
http://videos2view.net/shag-dance.htm
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OUR CLASS COMMITTEE consists of several classmates who volunteer their time, at one point or another, regarding issues pertinent to our class. Our Class Committee members are: Gillie Walker; Bruce McAlexander; Marcia Hagans Allin; Meg Hulsey Mailo; Ron Petty; Donnie Collier Martinez; Paul Snell; Mike Adragna; Bruce Brian; Linda Nolin Weber; Ken Loveless; Roy Manuszak; Mary Ellen Brada Manuszak; Jerry Moyers; Barbara Billingsley Massarano; Warren Knight. Other classmates are welcome to be part of the Class Committee.
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WE ARE VOLUNTEERS. Please do not ever take it personally if you do not hear from the Class Committee or the Website Committee right away. As volunteers, we have only so much time within which to do our volunteer work as well as tend to other aspects of our personal lives.
Delays in my replies, in particular, are due to me not being awake very much anymore as sleeping long hours is the only time period during which there is total relief from my neurological illness for which there is no cure. It is now eight years that I have had massive nerve damage. With this neurological illness continuing to take center stage in my life each day, there cannot be very much so-called normal or routine activities on my part as long as a state of normalcy has not been returned to my life.
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This update was prepared by me.
Respectfully submitted,
Donnie Martinez, WHS Class of 1966 Committee
Known at WHS by stepfather’s surname Collier
Martinez is my birth certificate and legal surname
a/k/a Butch, family nickname since childhood
a/k/a Don, presumably the adult version of Donnie
a/k/a Primo (Cousin) to dozens of my Martinez cousins
a/k/a El Aguila (The Eagle), a version of Gillie’s name for me.
I don’t care what people call me, just call me.
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