AUTHORS & ARTISTS
from the
CLASSES of 1963
PAULA HEARIOLD KINNEY
Societal forces that shaped her life as a black woman impact Paula's life. She finds herself attempting to fit into a dominant white society. She describes events from childhood to present that contributed to her life experiences. She addresses her parents' endeavors to teach her how to assimilate and to value the white culture in order to succeed in life. She finds herself concealing her cultural identify when she is in an all-white environment.
A hurtful childhood encounter shaped her mindset in believing being black was a negative attribute. As a four-year-old, she experienced a very negative situation, which launched the beginning of a trajectory that compelled her to transform her life, by assiduously working diligently to assimilate into a white society. She captivates the love and strong foundation of growing up in a black family. Yet the complexity of doing a "delicate dance" between two cultures was not without anguish.
Paula shares both her outward journey and her inward journey. Although she becomes a successful professional woman, it was fraught with experiencing emotional, mental, and psychological consequences.
GENE McKELVEY
ART
AS
I
SAW
IT
In retirement, I turned a hobby of flower gardening into creative expression through photo apps as an AppArtist. That rebirth of artistic creativity has blossomed into a gallery of images. In addition to enjoying the creative process of transforming a photo into a piece of art, I am sometimes inspired to write a creative description. My love of the English language and years working in a communications role has come in handy now. I hope you like my interpretations of the world as expressed in my work.
Jim Aziere
Author
Partner of Bev Moomey Aziere
Honorary NHS '63 Reunion Photographer
Here, Missouri Hall of Famer and sports educator Jim Aziere has crafted a remarkable true story, a classically American story, about an essential part of his youthful struggles and our own, featuring a one-of-a-kind Kansas City parochial high school called De La Salle Academy that flourished in the years between wars--1941-1959--a time of great social strife in our city. It's an eye-opening tale of the seismic shifts in America in the1960s, about a unique group of Christian educators who managed to integrate a high school before Brown v. Board of Education--but could not keep the dream alive beyond Watergate.
You're sure to find Jim's story about his years at De La Salle--where he was first a student and later faculty. Highly affecting and personal as he recounts his many life lessons, survives a learning disability, and uses athletic skill and determination to excel despite everything. It's bound to touch and inspire anyone who's ever felt more at home on AstroTurf than in a classroom.
Dixie's Life
Charley Hood's version
DIXIE HACKMAN HOOD
Young and naive, a successful couple quit their high paying jobs in San Francisco, sold their nice home in Marin county, their Porsche and moved to the wilderness of northwest Montana looking for a better life. They bought land from an old lumberjack high in the mountains sixteen miles from the nearest town and together with this man, who turned out to be a local legend, they built a small log cabin. Living fifteen years without a phone or electricity, they struggled to find a way to stay in their mountain paradise.
Two more children and many failed efforts to make money, Charley finally found his passion building handcrafted log homes and over twenty six years he ran a successful construction company building high end log homes. Forty five years later, Charley and his wife Dixie are still living on their property in an expanded log home with a phone and electrical power. Their three boys are successful and happy and Charley and Dixie are living the Good Life. This is their story.