After graduating from GHS, I attended Pittsburg State for four years, working summers and part-time during the school year for an accountant in Pittsburg.  Upon graduation, I accepted a job with a public accounting firm in Kansas City, Haskins & Sells, now Deloitte Touche.

Three years later I went to work for a client, the local Coca-Cola Bottler and am still with the same company after 32 years.  The experience has been incredible, going from a privately owned company to a public company, which subsequently has been bought and sold eight times.    Finally some stability, when the company was purchased by Coca-Cola Enterprises Inc., a public company with substantial ownership by the Coca-Cola Company.   Throughout my career with Coke, positions have ranged from the financial area to strategic planning, Divisional Controller, and other operational aspects of the business.

In 1976, I married my husband, Larry, who also worked at Haskins & Sells.   Larry is now a partner in a business which supplies wholesalers with paper products.

We have two sons and a daughter.   Brant and Robert are both married with three children each.   Brant and his family live in Springfield, Mo.   Robert is in Monroe City, Mo with his family.   Our daughter, Sherry, is 21 and a student at KU (much to her Dad’s chagrin, who graduated from MU).   Sherry is majoring in architectural engineering and is in her fourth year of a five year program.     

My mother still lives on the farm outside of Girard.  She’ll be 82 this year and is going strong.  She bowls on a league and thinks that she’s had a lousy game if her score is less than 150.  She still drives to Kansas City in record time, which has earned her the name of Lead Foot Grandma.

In the early 80’s, we purchased a cabin at the Lake of the Ozarks, which has been a great place for entertaining a lot of kids throughout the years.   The old adage “a boat is a hole in the water in which you pour money” is certainly true.   However, the place has provided the family with a lot of fun, relaxation and great memories throughout the years.

I’m looking forward to retirement, if the stock market will just cooperate.

It will be great seeing everyone this summer.