What have you been doing since high school?
After I graduated from college and graduate school, I taught English for 35 years (and Latin for two years) in Roanoke County Schools and at The Steward School in Richmond. I am married to Roland Turner (for 47 years), and we now live in Goochland County with our Black Lab, Lacy.
When I was teaching in Roanoke, I developed a love for running, and I carried that love with me to Steward School, where I was the school’s first women’s cross country coach. We had a small team of dedicated runners who never won a meet, but we showed up. I taught at Steward for 19 years, 11 of which I chaired the English Department. I also ran the After School Program and the Summer Experience for 7 years. The administration even let me be Assistant Fire Marshal! What a heady experience that was, pulling the switch that sent the entire school into the parking lot. Alas, my time in this position was short-lived. The Head Fire Marshal forgot to tell the fire department we were conducting a drill and here they came with all their sirens blaring! Both of us were reassigned. One of the major highlights of my tenure at Steward besides being in the classroom and working with amazing faculty and administrators, was I chaperoned student trips to Europe during Alternate program. We traveled to England, Scotland, France, and Austria without causing an international incident.
The first teacher I met when I came to Steward was Rugene Paulette. She swears I did not remember her from high school, but I did. I taught Ru’s son Stephen Paulette when he was in the seventh grade! My classroom, fondly named the home of “Big Bad Brenda and the Notorious Lunch Bunch,” was located in the Upper School Building called Taylor Hall in honor of Carolyn Taylor’s father, a major benefactor of Steward School.
Teaching school for 35 years was a wonderful, exciting, and challenging experience. I have stood before students who made me laugh on a daily basis. They worked diligently, but they did love playing practical jokes on me. They hid my podium and sent me on a snipe hunt looking for it. They plastered my yearbook picture all over Taylor Hall with the caption, “Big Bad is watching you!” They moved my entire classroom to the Upper School Parking lot on April Fools’ Day.
I retired from teaching full-time in 2006, when the grands started arriving. We have four, two live in Maplewood, New Jersey and two live here in Richmond. In retirement, I took up the practice of yoga, and I still practice on a daily basis. I also volunteer at Hope Thrift, a mission of Hope Church. I love that job because I have the opportunity to meet all kinds of folks and to buy all kinds of merchandise I do not need…but the prices are so great!
My husband, Roland, retired in 2018, so I have been busy with finding and managing projects for him when he cannot escape to the golf course. We are avid Hokie fans, and most weekends in the fall you can find us on the road to Blacksburg. We are in the process of planning the “big trip” to …we have no clue. We would like to visit all of the National Parks.
I look forward to seeing all of our classmates at the reunion. Go Rebels!
