A VISIT WITH ANNE SPERRY ROY

The end of this past week I took a short trip to the east coast of Florida to visit with family. I would pass through the small town of Ormond Beach on my way back to Clearwater on the west coast of the State. I knew that Anne Sperry Roy lived in the area so I called her prior to departing on my final leg home and she answered the phone. I asked if I could stop by for a visit and with some excitement in her voice she said “yes, of course!”

I have to tell you it was an exciting couple of hours … we exchanged story after story. I told her about reunion … that we had seen Bob Zimmerman and Bob Daley a couple of her science department compatriots. She wanted to know about “her Cheerleaders” and I told her about several of them, both ones that attended the reunion and several that were not there. She had been to JDHS several years prior to attend the Hall of Fame get together and had talked with a number of the teachers in attendance at that time. With a big smile on her face she said, “What do you think of that basketball facility? What a place to play basketball!”

She had taken a fall several weeks prior and was nursing a bad hip, but other than that she seemed to be in good health and in great spirits. She told me she finally gave up golf two years ago. “When my game began to fall off I decided it was time to give it up” she commented.

She taught for a number of years at JD after we all departed. She finally met her man and got married. She had two sons and took the next nine year off to raise them before returning to the classroom. She said,” you probably won’t like this, but when I returned to teaching I went to that other school – FM.”  She said it never turned out to be like teaching at JD however. Just before I was to depart she told me that it was time to sell the house and move closer to her boys and grandchildren. So, the house will go on the market in the coming weeks and she will join her family in the Raleigh, NC area in the coming months. She took my address and thanked me for stopping to see her. She said she would drop me a note telling me what her new address would be once she got settled.

It was a fantastic couple of hours with her and I am truly pleased that I stopped to see her. I think it’s universal that teachers love to hear from former students and to know that they succeeded to one degree or another in furthering the next generation.