Bonnie/Lavonne Hanlon:
CLASS OF 1956
Scottdale High SchoolClass of 1956
Scottdale, PA
Bonnie/Lavonne's Story
Life
Married Don Hanlon of Ohio in 1961 and had four children (two of each) and one AFS (foreign-exchange) daughter who has remained a part of our family. She arrived the day after our older son was killed in an auto accident in 1985. We have 13 grandchildren including the two of our AFS daughter. Our first great-grandchild, a girl, was born June 25, 2009 -- same day Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson passed away. Our first great-grandson was born July 29, 2011. Our third great-grandchild was born April 15, 2016. We also have a step-grandson.
Jane Diven and I went to DC together and were roommates for a year and a half during which time we attended the Corcoran School of Art located in the basement of the Corcoran Art Gallery a couple blocks from the White House. In more recent years it has become the Corcoran College of Art and Design so I now feel more intelligent!
After Jane married I lived with a variety of roommates and learned something from each of them. I even learned to speak some Pennsylvania Dutch from my roomy from Northeastern Pennsylvania. My mother's heritage was PA Dutch, but our family did not continue speaking the language after relocating to Westmoreland County in 1772 and 1808. When I researched my mother's maternal family I discovered my 6th great-grandfather was a Mennonite minister who arrived in Philadelphia, PA in August 1709 aboard a ship from Germany. His grandson brought his family to the Jacob's Creek Settlement near Smithton in 1808. Meanwhile another branch of my family came from Germany to the Harrold's Settlement near Youngwood in 1772. My father's parents came from Poland in 1884 and 1889 and attended the same Polish-Catholic Church in Everson where they met, married and raised their children.
I became a USO Junior Hostess in February 1957 and continued until my marriage in June 1961. This is where I met my husband. The USO organized a traveling variety show which went to the various NIKE bases where the servicemen could not leave to come to our USO. I was a dancer, a chorus girl and did lip-sinc to some popular songs of the time. I met singer Steve Lawrence when he performed at our USO with the US Army Band.
I worked for the Federal Government for 8 year...Expand for more
s and then was a stay-at-home mom for 15 years returning to the work force as a secretary at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab where I held down the office while my boss was in Florida helping design and build the first space shuttle. I then worked at a Job Corps Center for 6 years and finally 14 years as a medical technician/transcriptionist in the private practice of an ophthalmologist (eye surgeon). During the last five years with the doctor, I also worked as a night supervisor at a fabric store (helped people design their quilts) and then I retired from it all on Leap Year Day, February 29, 2004.
While the children were growing up we were avid campers -- took a two-week trip every summer and camped in 32 states before our children decided they didn't want to be gypsies anymore :o). We then bought a time-share condo and exchanged for other areas having traveled to the countries where our ancestors came from in addition to seeing more of the good old U.S.A. mostly without the children. Countries visited were Germany, Poland, Ireland, England, Scotland, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, Aruba and Mexico. Also have taken a Caribbean Cruise and an Alaskan Cruise--saw lighthouses there also. (Only had ancestors come from the first 6 listed!)
Since retiring I am continuing my interests in quilting, genealogy, traveling, swimming and line dancing. We have visited 105 lighthouses as of Sept 2015. Most of them are on the east coast, but we did travel the Oregon Coast, around the mitten (lower peninsula) of Michigan, and have seen one in Aruba and another on the Hawaiian Island of Kauai. Saw our 61st lighthouse at Assateaque Island, VA on July 1, 2011 on our return trip from Williamsburg, VA where we spent a week with 20 members of our family in celebration of our Golden Wedding Anniversary.
Our only pets are those Mother Nature provides in our back yard: squirrels, chip monks, rabbits and lots of birds. Don feeds them and sits in our sun room and watches them interact with each other. Have you ever seen a rabbit butt a robin with his head? Don did!!!
I have lived in the DC area for 60 years and in Laurel, MD for the past 50 years. Our children are in OK, GA, PA, and MD, but we stay in touch.
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