Jean
Ann Shields Graham
In the Beginning:
After graduation in 1963, I attended
Missouri University for 2 years. I married Marlan Graham from
Hannibal, Mo. in June 1965 and moved to Maplewood, Missouri. Marlan
worked as a chemist for Tretolite in Webster Groves and I worked as a secretary
for the GM&O Railroad in downtown St. Louis.
Our family began:
I quit working in 1970 to stay
home with our first baby, Jeff. Jeff was a pretty average child,
but Jimmy, who was born in 1973, had a rare lymph disease.
We spent lots of time at Children’s Hospital during his young life.
Jimmy died in 1980. Jeff kept us busy and active. Life went
on even though Jimmy’s death had lifelong effects on our entire family,
friends, and neighbors. Then, in 1982 we had our third boy, Matt.
He brought life and joy to us again and Jeff was thrilled to have a new
brother.
Update on our family:
Jeff is now 33, works at CORE,
an advertising agency in downtown St. Louis. His wife is Shari (Redington)
and they have three daughters, Madison - 5, Haley - 2 and Sophie - 8 months.
Matt is 20 and will be starting his junior year as a Pre-Med Student at
St. Louis University. He is living at home and working this summer
at the Medical School through a work study program. He will live
on campus when the fall semester starts in August. Our dads have
both passed away, but our moms now live close to us in Manchester, Missouri.
We all attend Community Christian Church and are very active there.
Work Update:
Marlan retired from Tretolite (renamed
Petrolite) after 30 years, and now works for Archway Sales, Inc., a chemical
distributing company, in downtown St. Louis. He has been there for
5 years. I didn’t work away from home while my boys were young,
but I did craft shows, room mother, scouts, etc.--all the things
that prepare young moms for going into the work force later.
In 1974 I started
selling handcrafted gifts at The
Ark, in Webster Groves. I worked there until 1986. I also worked
parttime at Famous Barr, did some drawing/framing for a business
that did embroidery patterns for several years, and took some college classes.
In 1989, when Jeff was starting college, I went to work at Parkway South
High School as a Computer Resource Specialist and have been there
for 14 years.
We enjoy our jobs, our families, and our church and life is good in 2003 and we are looking forward to our Class Reunion.