Diane Peterson

 Hello all, 

    I have procrastinated enough! I have really enjoyed reading all the bios and looking at all the pics... wish there were more!

    Wow ... 40 years since we all graduated! Where did the time go!

    Anyways, my life since 1966 graduation follows... I had no clue as to what I wanted to do for the rest of my life, mom and dad suggested secretarial school, so  I went to Nettleton College for 3 months, hated it!  

   Moved back home.  The job hunt was on.  I applied for a job at The Broadcaster Press (Feb. 1967), been there ever since! (We have lived in Vermillion all our lives as well). When I started it was privately owned by Bill Willroth and Jack Jacobsen, it was sold in 1996 to Morris Communications, Corp., based out of Augusta, Georgia. Since then it has gone thru many changes. We have had a new general manager since May 2005, and our business is booming. The Yankton Press and Dakotan and Missouri Valley Shopper are also Morris properties, which we also do job work and composition for. I am the department manager in the Broadcaster composing/graphics department. It is a very busy & fast paced job, and we are always up against deadlines... but I still love it. The saying... '' find a job you love and never work a day in your life ''  describes my job (most days!). Fred and I were engaged in my senior year. He was drafted in 1968, we married in August 1968 at Fort Leonard Wood, Mo.,  and he began his Vietnam stint that October. I lived at home with the folks during that time. It was a very long year.

    Fred has been employed for 18 years with the Vermillion Street Dept., prior to this he was with the Clay County highway dept. In 1975 we were blessed with our daughter Lisa Dawn and a son, Brad Dean, in 1977. Lisa married Josh Wood in 1996 and they live in Vermillion. We have been REALLY BLESSED with 3 grand daughters, Kiley Wood (6), Elizabeth Wood (4), and Maddison Savoie (4) --Sioux Falls. They are the joys of our lives. We have lots of hobbies ... when younger we toured the US on our motorcycle and tented, now we have a 5th wheel and camp with family and friends... we golf, I love to shop (without my husband!) ... and last year hubby came home from the Back to the Fifties Classic Car show in Minn. with a fully restored 1930 Ford Coupe. (Our jobs really interfere with all our hobbies) tee hee...

    We, sadly, have both lost our parents, and some dear friends ... the part of getting older I really do not look forward to. I have been blessed so far with good health, Fred, on the other hand, was diagnosed with Large Diffuse B Cell Lymphoma, stage 3, in Nov. 2003. The PET scan revealed it was scattered throughout his body with quite a bit of it in the throat-chest area. Our world was turned upside down. The first chemo treatment melted the cancer in his esophagus, which was good, too good, it created a hole in it that leaked food/liquids into his lungs. A stomach tube was placed and they tried to feed him that way, but he would end up getting sick and up it would come and into the lungs it would go... followed by pneumonia... After almost 2 weeks of getting no where I finally talked him into transferring from Yankton Hospital to the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha. WONDERFUL WONDERFUL FACILITY... Plain and simple... they saved his life. Fred was one of a handful of such cases... a stint, still experimental, was placed in the area of the hole, with the hopes that eventually the hole will grow shut on its own... long story short ... it did. He finished 6 rounds of Chemo, followed by a Stem Cell transplant in April 2004. This also took place in UNMC, I took 6 week family leave from work and stayed there with him at a wing especially for Stem Cell patients and family members. They were able to harvest enough of Fred's own stem cells (after massive Chemo treatments for a 5 days) to use for the transplant. It has been long journey, and I am so proud of him for fighting so hard to survive. Fred returned to work part-time 5 weeks later, after being home from transplant. He never will regain his full strength, but is very close to it... He lives every minute to the fullest ... so we have a very busy, full life... he has discovered the planner in his cell phone and has to check his schedule often to see if he is booked or not... Tee hee ...  God has been so very, very good to us ... everyday I live with the message... today is a gift, that's why they call it the present.

    I hope to see everyone after your dinner at the Winery. We will be out of town that week, and just don't know for sure if we will be back by then or not. Take care and God's blessings to all. Diane Savoie