Margie Roedel Cox leaves us way too early

It is a sad duty to report Margie's death.  Several tributes to her have come to me and we all remember her as the same sweet, wonderful, funny, lively active girl she was at KHS.  She was diagnosed with cancer last year and fought the brave and good fight, but developed pneumonia after Christmas and couldn't win that battle.  Here is her obituary.  We know she is resting in loving peace.  Several of our classmates will attend the Mass for her on January 22 and I imagine St. Peters Church will be very full of people who loved and respected our Margie. 

KHS65 Sports stories --- one thing leads to another, read on!

As a result of my post about the Track and Cross Country teams, see below, some wonderfully fun sports trivia has emerged and brought up other memories.  I love it when one conversation among us leads to so much more.  After reading the below post, classmate Steve Fick commented thusly via email:

"One thing puzzled me. Mike Bosworth was not among Kirkwood's top 7 runners that day, according to the writeup. But I know ('cause I have both yearbooks) that he lettered in Cross Country in both his junior and senior years; and I am pretty sure my recollection is true, that he sometimes was among the top 5 Kirkwood finishers in races during that final (fall of 1964) season. Was he injured or ill and didn't compete in the state tournament? Or what? It was definitely quite a team."

Upon receiving that I promptly consulted Gary Schmidt, a GREAT font of sports knowledge, who sent the following explanation:

"Mike was a VERY good runner.   Unfortunately, he managed to get hurt at the end of the track AND cross country seasons.  He was on the track team, just didn't qualify for a letter.

Coach Lyon decided (quite rightly in my opinion) to award varsity letters to Mike Bosworth and John Rogers, in addition to the seven who ran at State.   Much to his credit, Jim Olson (and others) fought hard to be sure John and Mike got varsity letters.

At the end of the cross country seasons Bruckdorfer was just getting back from injury, Schmidt and Pape were really hurt, Mills had a small injury, and Bosworth was out.    And we could have had Thor, except he was back in Iceland.

I think it's not impossible that Thor, a healthy Mike and Pape, Leonard and Rogers might have finished high in the State, maybe 3rd or 4th.  We were much healthier for the National Track and Field postal, where we finished second in the nation."

After sending that information to me to send to Steve, Gary had a further reminiscence:

"Our Senior year, the Pep Club challenged the Lettermen to a basketball game.    Except we had to wear boxing gloves.    So first thing they did was untie our shoes so we couldn't run or jump.   Great fun.  

We probably would have lost, except Mike Bosworth nailed five 25 footers in a ROW from the head of the key.    Denver Miller was checking the rules, "Can he wear boxing gloves in a varsity game?"  True story (except for the Denver Miller part.)"

To which Steve replied:

"Yes, I remember that well. Richard Hodill and I were among the many who got a great laugh out of seeing Mike make those shots. Incidentally if you happen to have a copy of the yearbook from our junior year ... you can see a little joke that Richard Hodill and I played on Miss Butts, who was the yearbook advisor . Rich and I were both in her Journalism class, in which the yearbook was produced. There had been a tradition among the yearbook staffs from year to year, of playing a small joke on her while still aiming to create a very high quality yearbook. An opportunity fell right into our lap. Coach Lenich, who did not know Mike Bosworth from football because Mike was not a football player, nevertheless knew him, although not well, from gym class. To our amusement, whenever Coach wanted Mike's attention, he always called him "Boswell". So Richard and I listed him as "Boswell" in the yearbook. We told Miss Butts for months that we had put a mistake in the yearbook, but she never found it. After actual publication we explained to her what we had done, and why. She didn't cut our grade or anything." [see page 97 of the 1964 Pioneer:  "Nine members of the cross country team, Pete Bausch, Ed McMickle, Mogens Larsen, Bob Welsh, Mike BOSWELL, Rod Bruckdorfer, Bill Pape, Terry Johnson, and Phil Mills, were awarded letters.  With BOSWELL, Bruckdorfer, Pape, Johnson and Mills returning, the prospects are bright for another victorious season next year."]

I always say that staying in the same place all one's life has huge rewards and this is a great example. Our memories stay fresher in our minds because they are constantly reinforced by our proximity to the location of our activities.  Under that blurb on page 97 is the photo of the Cross Country team.  The names bring back so many memories, and it fascinates me how the memories of each of us in KHS65 would differ as we read the names....Frank Rodman, The Geyer Inn; Randy Smith, elusive but recently found classmate; Fred Trail, brother of my Nipher locker partner Susan; Stu Tomey, great guy on whom I had a crush and dated a time or two; Steve Swofford, another great guy and in touch with us in our reunion activities over the years; Bruce Immekus, KHS64, lived near me in Des Peres and was part of my KHS64 "crowd", Bob Leonard, a devoted KHS65 alum for many years; Wayne Stine, MD, gone way too soon and a part of my earlier crowd in grade school and at Nipher; Eric Lothman, MD, see post about memorial bricks and below two posts; Ed McMickle, older brother of one of my brother Kert's KHS69 early heart-throbs; Bob Welsh, KHS64, another of "our crowd"; Mogens Larsen, well loved foreign exchange student, to name a few.  The tentacles of our lives intertwine and form such memories, good, maybe bad, some clear, some murky, but certainly provide us an amazing story of our young lives.