CLASS OF 1958
Sturgis High School
Sturgis, South Dakota

move to: 1958 Classmates Bios and Pictures 2008
 50th reunion  September 2008!

ANN MILLER DENNIS
(Fairbanks, AK)

After May 1958 graduation, three of us from SHS (Joy Olson, Patty Corum and I) went immediately to Denver and began business college. When finished, I worked for an auto import company and then for Martin Marietta (Titan Missiles) under contract to the Air Force.

I met my husband Don at my 18th birthday party, married him two years later, and feel so blessed that God chose to send that gentle giant my way. He is a quiet and reserved, God-loving man who still treats me like a new bride, and we have had such a happy, rather unconventional life.

We have four children - oldest son (born 1961), computer engineer; middle son (1963) manages a hotel/resort; our only girl (1965) is a music teacher; and our youngest son (1971) who lives with his children on our property is a pastor and website developer. We have 10 grandchildren..........isn't it fun to be grandparents!!!!!

Don still (since 1967) manages a semi-pro baseball team in Fairbanks, AK and some of our most fun summers have been barnstorming across the US, driving vans full of ballplayers, playing games from town to town. Tom Seaver, Dave Winfield, Graig Nettles, Jason Giambi and a couple hundred others in the majors started out as college players with this team. We have held sports tournaments in several states and in Hawaii; the experiences with foreign teams that have come to Alaska have been a hoot!     The whole family worked at the ballpark and all the kids grew up as ballpark rats.

We have lived in Colorado, Alaska, Arizona and California. I never wanted a "career", but was a stay-at-home mom for our four kids and several other kids who lived with us for varying periods of time.    I made pottery, gave clay classes,  worked short term jobs here and there, and did a lot of church and volunteer work.   After my children were grown I worked for an airline, sold real estate in Phoenix, and continued making and painting tile and pottery. 

We love driving and long trips (especially when someone else is buying the $6 gas through Canada) and have driven vehicles to Fairbanks for different companies several times, just for the experiences.   Our longest was driving  new school buses from the factory in Little Rock, Arkansas; another time we drove used buses from Chicago including one that caught fire and was left in the burrowpit somewhere in Eastern South Dakota... it took nearly a year to get it trucked to AK.  It is such fun to hook up radios so we can chat back and forth, and roll down the road for days and days!    Don loves backroads and new territory, and men don't use maps.  Ah, the adventures!  Every spring we drive from our home 20 miles from the Mexican border, to Fairbanks, a 7,314 mile round trip.  We usually make it a lot longer by visiting our mothers in SD and CO each way and my two sisters in SD.   We spend 5-6 months in Alaska, and then live in rural San Diego in the winter.

The highlights of my high school were BAND, in all forms, and journalism; and, Col. Brown - a couple times trying to pass an excuse signed with my dad's name after a day of shopping in Rapid.  Marvin Harwood wrote one and Ron Pfleger wrote one.  Score:  Ann 1 - Detention 1.

Life has been good and our blessings are many. I hope the same is true for everyone from 1958.

 

Marriage                                            MiddleYears                             2007

 

Four Children and Ten Grandchildren

              DON DENNIS AND ANN (MILLER) DENNIS FAMILY WEBSITE 

  NEW on the site  

        Calendars 56-61  

Driving to Alaska 09

2009 Goldpanner Barnstorming Trip

click for: Sturgis  Menu  (100 + pages of Sturgis material)

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