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Yvonne Ottewell, 1984 Yvonne Annette Heffron was born in 1949 in Michigan, the daughter of Edison J. Heffron and Anna Theresa (Wysocki) Heffron. Edison and Anna were married in June 1949 in Bowling Green, Ohio and divorced in February 1950 in Oakland County, Michigan, only two months after Yvonne was born. When the 1950 census was taken, Anna and Yvonne were living with Anna’s brother Joseph Wysocki and his family. Yvonne’s father Edison Heffron was married again and died in Missouri in 1985. Her mother Anna passed away in 1999 in Michigan. Yvonne was first married to Gary James Dillon, also a Michigan native, but they were later divorced. They had at least one child, Jamie Edward Dillon, born about 1975, who graduated from Fenton High School in 1993 and was married in 2001 in Holly, Michigan. Gary died in 1995. Yvonne was married again to Donald Robert Ottewell, before the fall of 1984, when I was assigned to her Reading class at Avondale Middle School. Mrs. Ottewell always dressed ve...
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Janalee Barrick, 1984 Janalee Coyle was born in 1941 in Michigan, the daughter of Lee and Margaret (Knisel) Coyle. In 1950, Janalee was living with her parents and younger brother Wayne in Royal Oak, Oakland County, Michigan. Her father was employed as a production engineer for an auto body builder. Janalee went to Birmingham High School in Birmingham, Michigan, where she was a member of the school’s band. Janalee was married in 1962 to Paul Gary Shippell, according to this announcement from the Detroit Free Press: “In a double ring ceremony Janalee Coyle and Paul Gary Shippell were married Saturday evening, Dec. 15, at First Presbyterian Church, Farmington. The bride, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Lee K. Coyle, of Bloomfield Hills, wore a white satin gown with lace insets. Mr. Shippell is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Dale C. Johnson, of Farmington. The newlyweds will reside in Royal Oak.”   Before 1972, Janalee and Paul were divorced, and Janalee was married a second time to Robert Lee Barr...
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Nancy Jane Rice, 1942 Nancy Jane Rice was born in 1926 in Highland Park, Michigan, the daughter of William Albert Rich and Edith Leyhew, natives of Canada. In 1930, she was living with her parents and older brother in Troy, Oakland County, Michigan. Her father was a tool and die maker working on his naturalization papers; her mother was already a naturalized U. S. citizen. The 1940 census located the Rice family residing in Detroit, Wayne County, Michigan; William was a machinist and Nancy was attending high school. Next to her photograph in the 1943 Northern High School (Detroit, Michigan) yearbook, it tells she was going to attend Michigan State University and that she was a member of the Physics Club and the French Club. Nancy was married in Highland Park in 1949 to Paul Cornwell Kennedy, also a native of Michigan. When the 1950 census was taken, Paul and Nancy were living in Highland Park, Wayne County, Michigan, where Nancy was an public elementary school teacher and her husband w...
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Sue Ellis, 1983 “Ellis, Roberta Sue; of Bloomfield Hills and Carlsbad, California; October 19, 1989; age 59. Beloved wife of David M. Ellis; dear mother of Mrs. Allan (Elizabeth) Dilly, Ms. Margaret Chandler and Ms. Catherine Ellis; dear grandmother of Adam and Justin Dilly, Courtney, Ashley and Kristen Chandler; dear sister of Joan Wynkoop; also survived by two nieces and three nephews. Mrs. Ellis was a graduate of Northwestern University and an area educator. She taught in the Avondale School District at Elmwood and Stiles Schools, from which she retired in June 1988. She also served on the language arts, Gifted & Talented and mathematics committees. She was a member of the MEA and the NEA. She was also a former member of Great Oaks Country Club. Cremation took place in California. Memorial service will be conducted at the Kirk in the Hills Presbyterian Church at 10 a.m. Saturday, October 28, 1989, Bloomfield Hills, MI, with Rev. Dr. James officiating. Memorials may be made to th...
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Twila Helferich, 1982 Twila Kay Barker was born in 1940 in Michigan, the daughter of John and Lily (Hobbs) Barker. When the census was taken in 1950, Twila and her family were living in Troy, Oakland County, Michigan. Twila was a freshman at Avondale High School in Auburn Hills, Michigan in 1955. Twila attended Cornerstone University in Grand Rapids, Michigan between 1959 and 1962. While at Cornerstone, she was a member of the Sigma Delta Pi sorority and played the flute as a member of a “gospel team”. Twila was married sometime after she graduated from college to Carl DeWitt Helferich, also a Michigan native. They had three children and belonged to the Saint Andrew Catholic Church in Rochester, Michigan. Both Twila and her husband Carl were teachers in the Avondale schools – Carl was a seventh grade English teacher at the middle school, and Twila taught fourth grade at Stiles Elementary School. As a group, we had a rough year in fourth grade. Mrs. Helferich had a large shag carpet (pr...
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Doris Chase, 1981 Doris Clementine Tellex was born in Rochester, New York in 1931, the daughter of Peter Anthony and Clementine Pauline (Collins) Tellex. Peter was born in Massachusetts, and Clementine was born in New York State, but all of Doris’ grandparents were Lithuanian immigrants. In 1940, Doris and her three siblings were living with their parents in Irondequoit, Monroe County, New York. Doris was an elementary scholar and had completed the third grade. The 1950 census located the Tellex family still residing in Irondequoit; Doris’ grandfather, Peter Tellex Sr., was living with the family, and Doris was working as a telephone operator for the public telephone utility. Doris was married later in 1950 to Kenneth Brown Chase, also a native of Rochester, New York. Kenneth had served with the United States Navy during World War II. He was at the Naval Training Station in Sampson, New York, and at the Fleet Sonar School in Key West, Florida. The Chases moved to Michigan, likely becau...
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Helen Kilgore “Helen Stough Kilgore passed away on January 20, 2014. She was born in Detroit, Michigan on December 10, 1927. She was educated in the Detroit school system and graduated from Cooley High School in February of 1944. She was an athlete in high school and lettered in several sports. After high school she enrolled in the University of Michigan where she met her husband, James. They were married while they were both still in school. She was a member of Kappa Delta Sorority. She eventually graduated from Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti with a degree in elementary school teaching. Her first job as a second-grade teacher was in the Rawsonville, Michigan school system. Later, she taught in the Pleasant Ridge school system before retiring to raise her family. She returned to teaching in 1964 in the Avondale, Michigan school system until retirement in 1991. She and her husband James were avid sailors and enjoyed many years cruising the great lakes on their live-aboard sloo...
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