News Of Neighbors

Historical Summer 2021 article. Dates, prices, services and contacts describe the source period; current availability has not been established.

Hello neighbors! Things are opening up as I write my column and beginning to feel a little more normal or “new normal”.

I know that there are a lot of graduations that have been celebrated and I would like to share that news in our fall issue.

I want to include as many graduates as we can. So please, send me your news about your graduates, whatever level of schooling they are graduating from.

It is an incredible accomplishment, especially this year, and it should be recognized.

I would love a photo and information on where they graduated from and what is next in their future. Thanks in advance for sharing. And now, let’s move on to current news about our neighbors. Special news comes to us from Anna and Eric Friesen of the 6100 block of McPherson. Their daughter, Nathalie Friesen and Matt Brill got engaged in January 2020.

They thought that a wedding date they chose May 1, 2021 was far in the future…with Covid things got a bit uncertain. Luckily the time allowed for most to get vaccines and cases to go down so the wedding happened as planned.

The ceremony took place at Saint Roch Church, officiated by Monsignor Polizzi, followed by reception at Third Degree Glass Factory. Matt is the oldest son of Dave and Pam Brill of Kansas City. Nathalie and Matt have met at Delloite.

They spent their honeymoon in Hawaii. Family and friends were deeply saddened when Neville Vatcha died on June 2. Described as the nicest man, he will be remembered for his friendliness to everyone he encountered.

The children in the family all flocked to him.

He and his wife JoAnn lived in Skinker DeBaliviere for over 50 years.

They were very active in the neighborhood and it’s myriad activities. Neville served on the council and was the amiable co-host of numerous new neighbors parties and other special events.

He and Jo were also active in the 28th Ward Regular Democrats.

A native of Bombay (now Mumbai), he came to Indiana Institute of Technology to study engineering and never left.

His contributions shan’t be forgotten. Condolences to JoAnn, daughters Chanaya (Marc Jacobs),and Dina (Shintu Kumar) and three grandsons, Will and Evan Jacobs and Argun Vatcha -Kumar as well as numerous devoted friends and relations.

After 44 wonderful years, Parkview resident Mary Abkemeir has retired from Fontbonne University. Mary has served as the chair of the department of mathematics and computer science and director of the MS degree in computer science.

We wish Mary the very best in her retirement and future adventures. Congratulations! Mrs. Annie Stanfield of the 6000 block of McPherson passed away at the age of 96 years young after living 47 years in the Skinker DeBaliviere neighborhood in the same home.

Her daughter Gloria talked of her mother’s love to walk through the neighborhood with her good friend Mrs. Crenshaw enjoying neighbors and even going to Forest Park regularly, even in the winter months. Gloria loved her mother’s cooking and learned from her every day until her passing.

She is another neighborhood pioneer that will be missed. Mrs. Oletha Sills, of the 6000 block of McPherson celebrated her 102nd birthday in May! Woodrow Wilson was the president when Mrs. Sills was born and she has lived in this same home for more than 50 years. Mrs. Sills can often be found sitting on the front porch of the house with a family member looking out over the neighborhood.

We all join in wishing Mrs. Sills a very happy birthday!

She celebrated with family and enjoyed the day. Candace O’Connor and Bob Wiltenburg, of the 6100 block of Kingsbury shared exciting news that her daughter Kate Wiltenburg Todrys just published a new book, Black Snake: Standing Rock, the Dakota Access Pipeline, and Environmental Justice.

It is the story of four incredible Native American women leaders in their fight against the Dakota Access Pipeline. Candace actually went on a couple of trips to the reservations with Kate while she did her research.

According to Candace, it was an eye opening experience.

The Rater Family of Kingsbury Square was able to take a trip to Juneau, Alaska to visit daughter Claire. Dan and Molly, along with their other two daughters, Mary and Anne enjoyed a week in March enjoying the beautiful scenery. Claire has been in Alaska since August with Americorps.

She will be attending graduate school at the University of Washington in Seattle in the fall to study public health. DeGiverville resident Gloria L’Ecuyer shared sad news of the passing of neighbors Edward Dock Gunn, David Lewis Bradley, and Albert Polk.

All three passed away in 2020.

We send our condolences to their families. Don’t forget to send in any news you have to share. And especially news about our 2021 graduates. Thank you! Do you have news to share?

Please send your submissions via email with the subject line News of Neighbors to rachelb@sdtimes.org or drop off a note to the attention of Rachel Boxdorfer at the Skinker DeBaliviere office. Be sure to mark it “News of Neighbors”.

We love to hear about neighbors accomplishments, awards, travels, weddings, anniversaries, births, and more!

Originally published in The Times of Skinker-DeBaliviere, Summer 2021.

Read this article in the original newspaper issue.

Archival transcription note: Mary Abkemeir in prose differs from caption Abkemeier. Printed Delloite retained.

Original source: SD_Times2021_06.pdf, printed page(s) 3; PDF page(s) 2.