Down through the generations with Cathy. . .

Five siblings at Ted's 60th birthday - Donald, Sylvia, Cathy, Roberta, and Ted

With husband Ed Clexton, 2009

Her three children - Mark, Diane, and Mathew.

With Diane and Diane's daughter Catherine.

With two grandchildren at the beach.

And the grand finale - the entire three generations gathered together.

But wait - there's more! Ed sent us this candid shot of Cathy, presumably gleefully toasting the gods of  the grape.

Yes, we will be coming to Naperville in September for our 50th reunion from NCHS.  We wouldn’t have it any other way!  We always celebrate important events, and that is very important to me, therefore it is important to my husband.  The 900 mile trek to Naperville from Virginia Beach, VA will be another adventure in the list of many.  Ed and I will have just celebrated our 23rd wedding anniversary and it has been 23 years of action packed, huge and wonderful adventures.  Together we have eight children and 15 grandchildren.  I brought a daughter and two sons and 6 grandchildren to the marriage.  We have the privilege of living in the same town as “my gang” and four of Ed’s five children live nearby.  So, we are surrounded by loving family.  The grandchildren range from 4 to 15 years.  We enjoy seeing them perform in school and athletic events and sharing in many of the birthday gatherings and family-get-togethers.  We also enjoy our many friends from our local golf and yacht club (we live on the 17th hole of Cavalier Golf and Yacht Club) and friends from our community with whom we share longtime friendships.  Many of which are retired naval aviators.

No, I’m not “retired”; I am a full-time homemaker!  Hopefully, I will work at that profession until the day I die!  Besides, being a homemaker, my employment through the years has gone from teaching school to other jobs.  After graduating from the University of Colorado with a secondary education degree, I taught for a short time.  I coordinated an on-base educational program with Golden Gate University on a naval base.  I worked with a mortgage firm in the loan processing department.  I worked as a customer service rep for Piedmont Airlines.  I was the Executive Vice-Pres of Tidewater Automobile Dealers Association involving 52 new car dealers.  Throughout the years I did the usual volunteer work with church and community.  Since I was a Navy wife for many of the years, I did a great deal of helping Navy dependents.  I currently serve on a scholarship committee raising funds for and selecting candidates whose parent has been in Naval Air Units in either the Atlantic or Pacific Fleets.  In 1993 I was awarded the Meritorious Public Service award from the US Navy which is the highest award the Navy gives to a civilian.  I am very honored and proud of the award.

Because of my husband’s duty with the US Navy and personal travel, we have traveled to wonderful places.  I have been to most countries in Europe, and Egypt, China, Australia, and others.  We had the privilege of living in London, England for three years and as a result met wonderful people like HRH The Queen, the US Ambassador to the Court of St. James, Johnnie Carson, Mario  Andretti, and numerous others.

Having grown up in Naperville, I think of “Utopia.”  My family lived on Center Street for the first nine years of my life.  We lived next door to loving grandparents and aunts and uncles.  In 1950 my parents moved to Chicago Avenue since the family outgrew the starter home – five children born within ?? years.  We loved the larger home and all seemed to flourish there.  As a family of seven, we enjoyed all of our daily meals together around the table.  I still marvel at how my mother was so capable to putting 21 meals (7 family members 3 meals a day!) together every week for all the comings and goings.  Always on Sunday we had sit down dinner at 2 PM, and then we were free to do whatever.  Naperville was a small town, safe, interesting, exciting, and a fabulous place to enjoy our youth.  We could get ourselves anywhere in town on our bikes.  Our summers were spent riding our bikes to the “beach” every day and swimming on the swim team.  Holding the third fastest time in the US at the age of 12 was one of my big accomplishments.  After eight years at SS Peter and Paul Catholic School, to me, it was nicely refreshing to go to NCHS and meet new people.  Looking back, my favorite teachers were Mr. Stephens and Miss McBride.  They covered so much in their fields.  Yes, we had lots of local eccentric characters mixed in with all the normal ones.  Don’t want to single any of them out for fear of recrimination!  Our intro to “upwardly mobile” jobs started early on ---when at the age  of 13 and 14 we de-tasseled corn --- a few of the group ended up as “crew bosses”!  Quite exciting to get our first paychecks.  Fifty cents an hour was not bad pay either!!  Twelve hours a day in the hot sun was tough, but what did we know?  Then we were in high school and enjoying a remarkable four years.  One of the favorite pranks I have always enjoyed was the midnight ride over to Wheaton the night before we played them in football.   The group consisted of the SCA president, several cheerleaders, several key players of the football team, et al.  We took white flour and marked up their football field with NCHS markings.  The following day, we were all called in to the principal’s office for a chat!!

NCHS was a major step in my life’s journey.