Burbank High Class of 1968

We’ve learned that a number of our Burbank High Class of ’68 grads have recently celebrated 40+ years of marriage — congratulations to all who have reached this milestone!

Donna Canzoneri Wray and husband, John Wray, both BHS’68 grads,  are celebrating their 43rd anniversary this weekend in San Diego at their favorite hotel on Shelter Island, The Bay Club Hotel and Marina. They have a room on the harbor, and “watch ships, sail boats, and planes coming and going all day. . . The weather sure beats the heat here in La Crescenta.” Donna retired from teaching 5 years ago and many friends and family traveled to The Bay Club for her retirement party. “This hotel room has been our home away from home for 12 years, but we have been vacationing in San Diego since 1971. Our girls now 33 and 27 and still single, learned to ride bikes and water ski on Mission Bay where my mom and stepdad kept their AirStream trailer every summer. Lots of fine family memories there. My sister and her sons live there now after my mom set up such a lasting tradition.”

Donna says that she “is delighted to stay in La Crescenta, and John agrees to live here as long as I am willing to travel whenever possible. I like everything about this place, our church, our friends, running into people I know, and even testing for the Glendale Schools’ Gifted Program. John stays busy refereeing basketball and doing a fire education program for 5th graders for the Glendale Fire Department.

Donna spent her 65th birthday at Kutna Hora, an hour drive outside of Prague. They visited the Ossuary decorated with 40,000 bones of victims of the plague of 1500, walked through the old square adjacent to St. Barbara’s, enjoyed a gorgeous long view of the valley, saw many bridge statues, and ate a typical Czech lunch.

The Wrays were in 9 countries in 44 days this past spring. They sailed across the Atlantic on a Celebrity ship and took their first river cruise down the Danube River. Their eldest daughter, Jaisha, who is on a two year assignment working at the the U.S. embassy in London and they all met in Italy for five days. Unfortunately, their younger daughter, Karleen, who works at Mattel Children’s Hospital at UCLA as a Child Life Specialist, couldn’t get away to join the rest of the family. They stayed with a former exchange student from 20 years ago in Munich, and ended up in Paris where they met British friends.

She says, “We feel blessed and privileged to be healthy and able to enjoy this life of retirement. Being able to choose what you do or don’t do every single day is a true gift!” She adds, “We have no elderly parents left, no grandchildren, and no pets, so [there’s] no reason not to travel! The reunion committee is already planning our 50th reunion, and we hope everyone is planning to attend!”

Steve Raine and his wife, Mary, also celebrated 43 years of marriage on July 15th. Steve says “Mary worked at Security Bank on the corner of Olive and the Golden Mall. When we went to get our marriage license, the clerk recognized her, and said, “Oh! If you’d been here 10 minutes earlier, Robert Wagner and Natalie Wood just got a marriage license!”

[July 15th is the same day my husband, Carl Crosier, and I were wedded in 1977, and we had 37 years together before he succumbed to pancreatic cancer nearly a year ago.]

Steve says that “On the day of this photograph, I think we both thought our parents might not have given our marriage six months. However…we had been dating for two years: some of it half a country apart, some of it half a world apart, and much of it 100 miles apart. . . After just a few years, I think they figured we were ‘keepers’.

He also writes that when they met, Mary told him she was a terrible athlete, and always the last picked for teams in P.E. But when she beat him by 187 strokes at miniature golf at the Sherman Oaks Castle, he knew she was either very wrong, or had been training with a US Olympic Team.

Steve and Mary Raine are both ordained Presbyterian pastors (Presbyterian Church in the USA), and members of the San Joaquin Presbytery, in central California. They are both graduates of Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California. Mary is the solo pastor of Coalinga First Presbyterian Church, and Steve is a Presbytery minister-at-large. Steve also serves on the City Council of Coalinga. They have four daughters, a foster son and six grandchildren, shown in the photo below. “When the Bride was 15, she asked me if her boyfriend (JJ, on the far left) could come live with us. (She wasn’t even allowed to date until 16.) My answer was something like, “three bedrooms already occupied by six people leaves zero space for a boyfriend or anybody else. And you don’t need higher math to figure that out.” Well… Would you believe he came to live with us, and off we went into the interesting realm of foster parenthood. (expletives deleted) This photo was taken on the ‘wedding boat’ in the Newport Beach harbor on a beautiful day…!”

Of the photo above, Steve describes himself as a”broken down Dad from too many women in his life!” He says that his wife Mary “deserves the Presidential Medal of Freedom—the highest civilian award in the United States. She has earned it. Should that not be forthcoming, I will gladly present her with the Lifetime Achievement Award for being the highlight and the delight of my life.”

Tonia Szilagyi Mapston and her husband, Darrell Mapston, just celebrated their 45th wedding anniversary. They met at Pacific University in Forest Grove, OR in 1968 when she was a freshman and he was a junior. She was dating his fraternity brother and roommate, and Toni and Darrell started dating the following school year. In three weeks, they were engaged in October 1969 and were married on June 20, 1970.

She says a bunch of BHS kids were in their wedding party, including Joyce Mulder Ferguson, Janene Verge Ferguson, Carole Freeman Edelhauser, Suzanne Schweitzer, Corinne Bugbee — all from the Class of 1968, and Alan Mulder from the Class of 1967. She was married at her childhood church, Luther Memorial in Burbank. Toni remembered that Esther Matica BHS’68 caught the bouquet!

Other BHS classmates at the wedding included Crilly Butler, Janet Robbins, James Edelhauser, Tina Anderson, Cynthia Miller, Mary Morris, Bev Blais, Debbie Martino, John Ferguson, Lynne Giese Anderberg, Kathy Southwick, Jane Giese, Teri Hill Clark, Jerry Clark, Kenda Vaughan, Sue Paquette, Sally Paquette, George Parsons and Meredith Wegner! (Toni sent so many great pictures of the wedding that I’m going to put them in another post.) The reception was at Pickwick Royal Crest Room, and the newlyweds honeymooned at Las Brisas in Acapulco.

The Mapstons also have four daughters, born in 1974, 1978, 1980 and 1982 — all are college grads, all married and all have children! —eight grandchildren, four of each, ranging from five months to 14 years. They took a huge road trip this year to celebrate Toni’s 65th birthday in May and their 45th wedding anniversary in June. They were gone for 60 days through 19 states and 5 Eastern Canada provinces!

When I told Toni that Luther Memorial no longer exists (it became a Korean congregation), she said she had lots of memories there, including baptism, confirmation and wedding. Her confirmation class had BHS kids in it too — Lark Ziegler, Linda Hausman, Cathy Carlson and Bruce Bierman.

For other classmates who have been married forty or more years, we’ve heard from Robin Neklia Smith and Don Smith (“Made it to the Prom“)—42 years; Teri Hill Clark and Jerry Clark — 45 years (“Joy and tragedy through 47 years“), Bonnie Moody Rapp and Dave Rapp — 45 years (“Five generations in one family”); and Sue Parker Easley and John Easley — 46 years in September! (“Married for Life”).

Anyone else in our class in this elite club? Please write! Use the Contact form above.