(kls2000@swbell.net) reports:
"Was so sorry to see where so many of our Class members lost a loved one recently, I lost my Mom in Oct. of 99 and know how great that loss is. My thoughts and my Prayers will be with those who now must learn to carry on without their beloved Parents. I would be most interested in hearing from all our old class mates so please pass along my address. Oh yes, I still have my Fish as always. Love them! Even my Screen Saver is of fish."

She would love for Ruby to contact her.
Ruby Ballard Kirk has email at:
tammiemiller@hotmail.com

I have managed to locate TWO of our classmates.

was with us a while in high school. He now works with Jim Campbell in Alabama. Here is his contact information:

"I moved to Alabama in 1975, still here. Brought James Campbell Down here in 1976, he's still here also. My address is Barry Vaughn, 3994 Beaver Creek Road. Wing, Al 36483 (251) 867 3286 home, (251) 867 7752 work barryv@magbell.com I was back ther Oct. 2000, first time since 1980. Would be great to come in 2003, just have to wait and see. Look forward to hearing more from ya'll."

Ok, Central School attendees. I have located Doug Reece. (DREECE@2onesource.com)

"My mailing address is 2459 Copperhill Loop, Ocoee, Florida 34761. Telephone 407-654-9363. Thank you for the information. Yes, I was aware of the untimely deaths of Linda and Butch. Also, I'm told that Johnny McGuire died as well. I have never been able to actually confirm the information. I am very pleased to hear that Max is doing well and still in the general area. We all ran together as a pack in the 1950's. I miss the wonderful and simplistic childhood days. My last visit to Neodesha was in 1987, a twenty five year gap from when my father was buried there in 1962 (Carl James Reece). I was shocked by so many changes in the town. My house, the schools and church, all gone. Main Street looked completely different. A few things were as I remembered, but so few. My heart will always be in Neodesha. I was thrilled to find your web site..

Here is the biography he sent later:
James Douglas Reece (Always called Doug) born September 30, 1945 to Carl and Barbara Reece.  My mother was the daughter of Charles (Hi) and Rose Havens who had been in Neodesha since the early 1920's, living and dying in the same house on Iowa Street.  Charles Havens worked for the Frisco Railroad for more than 40 years.

I have one brother, Steve, four years older than I ,and now residing in Seattle, Washington.  He'll be 60 on November 30, 2001.

Our family left Neodesha in 1957 and moved to Wichita.  My mother and father divorced around that time.  My dad remarried and fathered four more children. He returned to Neodesha and subsequently died of lung cancer in 1962. He was only 42 years old. I have never been able to locate any member of his second family.  My dad, among other things, had been a conductor on the Frisco Railroad.

My mother remarried as well.  She married a widower in Wichita who had three sons of his own.  We became an instant large family.  We left Wichita in the summer of 1962 moving first to Lake Charles, Louisiana, then to Texarkana, Texas, back to Wichita and on to Des Moines, Iowa.  It was a confusing period.  I ended up graduating from Roosevelt High School in Des Moines in June 1963.  My fondest memories of any High School time was 1962 at Southeast High in Wichita.  I was a star swimmer and it was a great year in life.

After High School, I enrolled at Drake University in Des Moines to study Journalism and, simultaneously, was working as a radio news broadcaster with KSO-AM in Des Moines.  I would go on to spend some fifteen years in broadcast journalism from Des Moines to Lansing and Detroit, Michigan.

In November 1965, I enlisted in the military. I served three years with the Army Airborne Special Forces and was a decorated combat veteran of the Vietnam War.

I was married at the end of 1968 and fathered two children, a boy, Dustin and a daughter, Heather.  Both are now married with a daughter each and twins on the way for Dustin.  Dustin lives in California and Heather in Las Vegas, Nevada.  They are doing well.  Neither of them has ever been to Neodesha.

From 1972 to 1979, I worked as an Assistant to the Speaker of the House of Representatives in Lansing, Michigan and ended up divorcing my wife.  I returned to radio from 1979 to 1983 and eventually moved to Florida.  My career took a left turn and I found myself in the Resort and Hospitality business where I continue to this day.  Presently I'm remarried and living in Orlando.

I hope this information is useful.  I'll try to get a photo to you one of these days soon.  Again, thanks for the interest.

I love Neodesha!
Doug