Published: October 12, 2009 12:27 am      

South African classmate returns for reunion

HOOPESTON — Reunions bring people together to reminisce about old times, share funny stories, reconnect with old friends, and visit with special people.

The Hoopeston Class of 1964 celebrated its 45th class reunion Saturday at Hubbard Trail Country Club in Rossville. Among those attending the gathering was a special surprise guest, Penny Gloag Smith, who was a foreign exchange student in the Class of 1964. She traveled 8,489 miles from Cape Town, South Africa, to attend her first class reunion.

“I have never forgotten any of you,” Smith told her classmates. “You made me feel welcome from Day 1 (in 1963) and that’s why it was important to come back.

“I’ve always wanted to come back. It took me 45 years to come back.”

One of the highlights of Smith’s senior year was participating in the John Greer Players and acting in “Sorry, Wrong Number” and “The Glass Slipper” with classmate Tom Fetters as one of the footmen.

“I was the only footman,” Fetters quipped. “There were no other footmen.”

After graduation, Penny returned home, attended college at the University of Cape Town, married, had a family — a daughter and three sons — became a registered nurse and then left that field and today works in real estate. She also began running three years ago because of a dog.

“I had a big dog that has to get exercised before I go to work,” Smith said. She now runs in half-marathons in Cape Town.

The reunion committee worked for several years on the reunion and coordinating Smith’s visit.

“We were never completely sure Penny could come,” Barbara Davis Hale said. “Only the committee and a few others knew she was coming because we weren’t sure. So it was a surprise to most of the class.”

Steve Weiss, son of the first Hoopeston Regional Hospital administrator Mike Weiss, also made his first trip back to attend the class reunion.

“It may sound a little Native American, but I wanted to complete the circle,” Weiss said.

Although he attended Hoopeston High School only in his junior and senior years, he felt that high school graduation was an important process in his life, one in which he needed to reconnect with this year.

Weiss retired as librarian emeritus after 35 years as Utah’s state reference librarian. A master falconer, he has written a book, “Romancing the Falcon,” a biographical work of training birds of prey. He also performs as part of a figure skating club in Utah and is studying and learning to play the Native American flute at the Franciscan Renewal Center in Scottsdale, Ariz., under John Vames, the No. 1 Native American flute instructor.

Fetters, the master of ceremonies for all the class reunions, said he came back in 1979 to his first reunion to reconnect with classmates and folks in Cheneyville, where he grew up.

“When I come back to Illinois, it was like I never left,” Fetters said. “I was like a kid in a candy store and haven’t missed a reunion since.”

Fetters retired from the Air Force in 1984 after serving 20 years. He worked for 12 years in the California Division of For-estry, buying parts for helicopters and planes used to fight forest fires in California, until he retired.

Mary Ann Carlson was last home for the 25th reunion, 20 years ago. Now retired, she was the academic dean and/or chief academic officer for the Chattanooga State Technical Community College, Easlin Idaho Technical College in Idaho Falls, Idaho, and Alpena Community College, Alpena, Mich.

“These classmates are very important to me. They made me what I am today,” Carlson said.