Lee Note 26 Memoriam Notes from Doris Edwards April 20, 2001

Kay, You had an email the other day that said if we wanted to we could write something about our deceased classmates, and you included a list. I would like to add notes about two of our classmates: Frances Kisling and Mike Wratten.

Frances Kisling: Probably not very many people knew her. She was not one of the "in crowd" and "popular ones" in high school. Frances and I were friends in high school, and I believe also in Lee Jr. College. (My memory is not great about those days.) Frances was a very sweet, naive person. My one memory of her that I will never forget is our going to see the Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon movie, "Some Like it Hot." I thought the movie was hilarious, but Frances never really understood what was happening in the movie.

She was so innocent she had no idea what female impersonators were. It's really strange the things we remember, and that's one thing I have never forgotten about Frances. Many times in the ensuing years I have thought about that incident.

Mike Wratten: I could say so much about Mike. He was a very sweet, caring person. In school, when I felt many people were making fun of me for my weight or not being the most popular, Mike was never like that. If I remember correctly, he was in my church group. I have pictures somewhere of a group of us, (Mike, Me, Tina Lee Dickerson, Kay Garner (I believe), going to Galveston.

My mother took us. We buried Mike in the sand. If I can find the pictures sometime I will try to put them on here. I always liked Mike through high school, but never thought we could date. Many years down the road, my mother told me when Mike died, and I told her I always liked him. She said then that I probably could have dated him because she said Mike liked me too.

Isn't it strange how our lives have twisted and turned? You are doing such a fantastic job of keeping us all up to date. I can't believe how many people you have found. Their lives have taken such interesting routes. My goodness we have college professors, scientists, really famous people, don't we? All from our "little" 1960 class.

I don't have all the memories of teachers like some people have mentioned. I remember my Spanish teacher, but can't recall her name. I remember Mr. McCandless, but don't remember what he taught. I heard later that he liked to corner the boys in a closet somewhere.

I used to have nightmares well after I started teaching of roaming through the halls of Robert E. Lee not being able to find my locker. I really wanted to go back to the school and walk through it before it burned. Now I'm sure the inside is totally changed. Our Spanish class was at the front of the school, with a lot of windows, because I can remember looking out the windows at the cemetery across the street.

Looking out the windows at the cemetery is my one memory of Spanish class. The other teacher I remember was Mr. Wentworth. He taught me Algebra 1 or 2, I'm not sure which. But I do remember he didn't want to spend much time with students who didn't grasp things right away and I almost had to take Algebra 2 over again. If you want, Kay, you can use the memories on your letters to everyone. I do enjoy reading them, and saying, "Oh, my goodness. Look what this person has become!"

Doris Edwards Andrews