Judi Martin McCaslin:
CLASS OF 1967
Broadmoor High SchoolClass of 1967
Baton rouge, LA
Judi Martin's Story
If you do not remember me, you can see my photo in our 1967 Buccaneer yearbook as Judi Martin. I was a quiet, very shy tall thin dark blonde. I worked in the Guidance Couselor's office sometimes. I took art classes each year and was in the traveling choir my senior year, the year we won the State Choir Championship held at LSU, and traveled to several towns in and out of state to perform. I competed in the talent show my senior year singing Ebb Tide and This Land is Mine, even though Lorraine Parrino always won any singing contest there was. I still sing in my church choir, frequently as a soloist, and I still paint.
The last time I saw any of you was when I got notice of and attended our 10th year reunion. The invitation was sent to my mom and dad's home address and mom forwarded it to me. If there was another reunion ever, she did not forward it to me. She and Dad both died in 2003 at 88 and 94 respectively. If we are to have any further reunions, I'd appreciate an email or mail notice. I plan to live here as long as I live independently, which I would guess will be a long while yet.
After graduating from Broadmoor in 1967, I spent one year at LSU. I then spent 25 years working in various jobs starting from draftsperson to upper management positions in Civil Engineering, land planning, and then Commercial construction management, in California for 18 years, in Okinawa Japan for 3 years, and in North Carolina for 2 years, following my Marine Corp Warrant Officer husband from place to place. In 1987 we bought our farm in middle Tennessee with a 5 year plan towards living there when he retired from USMC. In 1991, we sold our home in Jacksonville, NC, and moved me, our two large dogs, two cats and 4 horses to the farm, where I with two 110 pound retrievers and two cats lived in the 590 SF guest house we had build in 1990 as a place to live when he retired and before we could find jobs locally. He moved into the bachelor officers quarters on Camp Lejeune until he retired in April 1992, and I cared for the farm and the animals here.
Before he retired I went back to work in Construction Management where I worked until 1995. He got a job in law enforcement as soon as he retired and we built our permanent home on the hill above the guest house, where we live now (much altered by renovations and additions in 2006 and just this spring). You can see the view from our front patio in my photo album. He still works, but after two years he left...Expand for more
the Police Department and went to work as a criminal investigator (his military job was Officer in Charge of USMC Criminal Investigation Divisions at various bases) for our local Public Defenders office where he still is.
From 1995 to 2004, I served my church on staff as the director of their large and popular preschool and after school program. I left there to complete my early childhood education master's thesis research at LSU Baton Rouge LA in 2004.
In 1988 I graduated from the University of Phoenix in Costa Mesa California, with a Bachelor of Business Administration just before we moved to NC. I attended LSU grad school summers from 2001 through 2004, and graduated with a Master of Science in Early Childhood Education, at 58 the oldest person to graduate with any degree that year. I then taught early childhood education for one of our local community colleges until I started feeling overworked for the pay and under appreciated by many of my students for whom I tried to present a "real" college course. In 2006 I went back into construction management for a local construction firm until I retired from them in 2010 to take care of Jim and the house and gardens.
We have no children as all our children have four feet. We raised Tennessee Walking Horse show colts and show horses until that industry went to hell-in-handcart in 2006, at which time we took all our horses out of training and no longer show any of them. We have two personal pleasure riding horses and 3 retired pasture pets. A friend of ours lives in the guest house now and takes care of our horses and his, and the pets when we are away.
In 2010 we found out that Jim, a Vietnam Veteran, has one of those Agent Orange bone marrow cancers which can be treated but not cured. He is in chemo therapy at the Vanderbilt Cancer Center now trying to get to the point that they can do stem cell transplant with his own marrow sometime this spring. That's basically what moved me to retire to stay home, care for him and our home, and go with him to all his doctor's appointments and treatments. "That's my job (now) and I'm sticking to it!"
Otherwise, life is good! In the next year or so, we plan to build for us a smaller house than this one at the location of the old guest house, with a view out over the lake and across the same valley we now see from our front patio. We'll live there and give this large house to our adopted son and his new wife. I do so love planning and building houses!
Register for Free to view all details!
Yearbooks
Register for Free to view all yearbooks!
Reunions
Photos
