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Couples celebrate 6 decades together

By Times Staff
Published September 30, 2005

Elsie and Robert H. Jones celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary with a 12-day family reunion at the home of their son, Robert W., and his wife, Laura, on Bainbridge Island, Washington state. The celebration included several dinners and celebrations and an anniversary dinner at the Fairmont (formerly the Four Seasons Hotel) in Seattle.

All the events were hosted by their children and families, which included not only their son and his wife, but their daughter Cheryl and husband Thomas Hillman of Sioux City, Iowa, and their grandchildren, Megan Hillman, Denver, Colo., Caitlin Jones, Bainbridge Island, and Kendra Chilcoat, who came with their great-granddaughter, Gwynith Chilcoat, from Highland Park, Ill.

The couple met during World War II in Brisbane, Australia, when he was in the Army and she was in the Royal Australian Air Force. Both served in the Signal Intelligence Service SWPA (South West Pacific Area).

They were married July 14, 1945 in Melbourne, Australia, and came here in 1981 from Westchester, Ill. He worked as a data processing operations manager and she is a homemaker.

Janet and Kendon Gosney of Clearwater celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary with family and friends at the Roaring 20s Pizza & Pipes in Ellenton, where they enjoyed an evening of organ favorites performed on a Wurlitzer theater organ. This was followed by dessert and viewing of photographs at their daughter's home.

They then embarked on a cruise to Key West and Cozumel as guests at a friend's granddaughter's wedding, where he was one of the photographers for the wedding and cruise events.

They were wed Aug. 6, 1945, at the Little White Church in Conklin, N.Y., where they were participants in radio and television mission programs in their teens.

They came here in 1966 from Quito, Ecuador, where they had been serving as missionaries for several years with HCJB World Radio and Television Ministry. They went again to Ecuador in 1969 as photographers and teachers and returned in 1975 to Clearwater.

As a professional photographer in Ecuador, he once accompanied the president of Ecuador on an official trip to Venezuela and another trip to the United States.

He also worked many years for IBM and Honeywell and retired locally after 15 years as a bilingual field support interviewer for A.C. Neilsen.

Along with working with her husband in his photography business and as a broadcast missionary, she was a teacher in Ecuador and Florida and served as a center manager for Head Start. She also worked more than 15 years in a local chiropractic office and most recently was a teacher's assistant at Country Day Montessori School in Tampa. She graduated from Florida International University.

They have lived in five different states, Ecuador and Costa Rica, where both attended Spanish language schools. They also have been involved in film assignments in Panama and Peru.

They are active members of Grace Community Church, Largo, where they served on the church board and staff as choir directors and performed a duet for special musical programs. She also provided piano and organ accompaniment while he led congregational singing.

They have three children (a fourth died in a traffic accident in 1999), four grandchildren and a great-grandchild.

After nearly 16 years, Carolyn Mitchell retired as activity director at Bayview Gardens. As her very last activity at the facility, rather than being the one who planned and executed the party, she found herself the special guest of all those with whom she had worked and the residents whom she had served.

Mitchell came to Bayview Gardens in October 1989 from Manor Care nursing home in Dunedin, where she had served as activity director for three years.

She found out about the opening at Bayview Gardens from a friend who had also applied for the position, and after meeting with then-facility director, Barbara Wise, Mitchell was hired on the spot. She began her 15-plus years there on Oct. 9, 1989. Bayview Gardens is located on Gulf-to-Bay Boulevard and is affiliated with Morton Plant Hospital.

When asked about the staff at Bayview Gardens, Mitchell said, "Working here has been a dream. Our staff is so cross-functional, and everyone helps each other. Our director, Judy Cunningham, is a delight to work with and treats everyone with respect and dignity."

But, for Mitchell, more important to her is her love and feelings for the people she served through the years.

"I really have enjoyed working with our residents," she said. "They have so much to give. Their lives have been so interesting. We spent a lot of quality time together remembering their pasts."

Mitchell diligently organized luncheons, craft bazaars, parties, picnics, exercise classes and numerous other activities for residents and their guests. She was quick to advise the Times whenever a milestone occasion was about to take place so that the special resident might be able to share his or her story with readers.

About the numerous activities and programs she directed, Mitchell said, "I have really enjoyed providing weekly entertainment, cocktail parties on Friday afternoons and birthday parties, but I guess my very favorite memory is the time in 1990 when I chartered a 44-passenger bus with TVs and bathroom facilities and took our residents to the east coast for a cruise to the Bahamas."

The retiring activities coordinator said of the people and the facility, "I feel I have been very fortunate in being part of the Bayview family. I also feel that anyone who has never walked through these doors is missing a great deal. This is the most wonderful place to work and live in the world."

Mitchell told everyone at the party that her plans for retirement include riding bikes, swimming, enjoying her husband of 50 years and traveling to visit family and friends.

But she was quick to add: It won't be the last time Bayview Gardens will see her face.

"I plan to visit and volunteer often, so I will have the best of both worlds."

--For information or anniversary form, call 727 445-4109. To submit an item to Good for You, write to Betsy Bolger-Paulet, 710 Court St., Clearwater, FL 33756, send fax to (727) 445-4119 or e-mail to paulet@sptimes.com

[Last modified September 30, 2005, 01:35:17]