To hear "Wind Beneath My Wings",
double-click above.


The Rogues' Gallery
(Just Kidding!!!!)

Well, it's me, Renée, and my two daughters, Cassie, and Vanna in our Glamour Shots photographs....Can you believe we didn't win the national model search contest? *giggle* Well, we had fun doing the pictures and, with all the pampering we got from the staff there, we felt pretty special!!!

The only one missing from this Rogues' Gallery is my husband, Joe, who said he couldn't hope to compete and wasn't even trying!!!!!


Now, about me...I was born in 1946, which makes me 58 at this writing. My Mom was from Brownsville, Texas, and my Dad was from Monroe, N.Y., and they met in Brooklyn, N.Y., during WWII and married. I have lived in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas and upstate New York. So far, I've had five official careers... and numerous unofficial ones... the ones they paid me for were: reporter, photographer, columnist
and news editor for the now defunct Evening News in Newburgh,
N.Y.; at age 38, teaching aerobics (high impact, low-impact,
jazzercise, kids aerobics, maternity aerobics and senior
aerobics); substitute teacher and computer classroom teacher;
"head cook" at Meals of Wheels of Middletown, N.Y.; and (tired
of fighting ice and snow in upstate New York for so many
years, we moved to the warmth of the Rio Grande Valley
in Texas.) teaching Aqua Aerobics at a large local health
club for the National Arthritis Foundation. It was quite
a change to pack up kids, cats, household stuff and move
to McAllen in 1992. You've probably heard of McAllen
if you watch the Weather Channel... we usually have the high
temperatures in the winter and the summer... that's OK, we get a nice sea breeze, even this far inland, and we got used to it really quickly. The only thing we miss is the long rainy season, we don't miss the ice and snow... well, except for Christmas Eve. Contrary to what you may have heard, we DO have four seasons here, they're just really mild!!! And the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico and wide, beautiful beaches are just a short drive away!!!!!!


Cassie was born in 1982, and graduated summa cum laude in May from Texas State at San Marcos(SWT). She starting playing trumpet when she was in the second grade and played trumpet in the marching band and was first chair in her high school Wind Ensemble. She earned top honors in UIL competition in her freshman, sophomore, junior and senior years. She was named outstanding 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th grade brass student, and outstanding symphonic band student, and was chosen to play in the school's Full Orchestra. She was also band president in her senior year. She discovered the theatre in high school, and was either on cast or crew for "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory," "The Water Engine," "Steel Magnolias," "The Wizard of Oz," "Red Noses," "Cinderella," "The Rimers of Eldritch," "Bye, Bye Birdie" and "Edith Stein". She also was Winnie the Pooh in "The House at Pooh Corner," a children's play. She began gymnastics when she was 10, and had a lot of fun learning and competing as a member of the Summit Sports Club Girls Gymnastics Team, including one competition in Reynosa, Mexico, and others in Corpus Christi, Austin and San Antonio. She is a member of Phi Eta Sigma, national honor society, and Sigma Phi Lambda, a Christian Sorority. She majored in theatre tech with emphasis in lighting, working on all the productions in one job or another. She became engaged at Christmas to a fellow lighting tech, and they have entered the three-year graduate program at the University of Nebraska to get their MFAs. And in her spare time......


Vanna is my firstborn child who definitely walks to the beat of a
different drummer. For one, she is a night owl... as we get
up in the morning, she is just going to bed, and had arranged her
college classes to be all at night. At 2 a.m., I am incoherent,
she is bright-eyed and bushy-tailed and ready to put in several
hours with her music or on the computer. Of course, if you
woke her up at 8 a.m., SHE would be incoherent, while I am
the wide-awake one. Oh well, she'll be making extra money
working the graveyard shift when she settles on a career.
Vanna was born in 1977, and also played trumpet in the marching
band. Not content with just playing the trumpet, she taught
herself to play the saxophone, oboe and piano. After two years
at the University of Texas at Edinburg, she decided to return
to New York State to "try her wings". She's still searching
for her place in the world... she loves her piano and
the stars and music of all kinds...
only time will tell.....


My two daughters are as different as night and day, but each is so totally special in her own way and each has a very firm idea of her own world and how she will live in it... Woe betide anyone who gets in the way!!!!! I have tried to give them each both roots and wings, but OH! how hard that can be... They are both bright and beautiful (a little Mother's prejudice allowed here, if you please) and talented in so many different ways. The older they get, the better friends they are, although 5 years ago, I wouldn't have given odds that they would even let each other grow up!!!!*giggle*
They are truly my pride and joy!!!









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This page was begun on Nov. 18, 1997