RE Log Spring 2023

By Maggie Pearson ’80 It’s 9 p.m. in Asheville, North Carolina, on Saturday, September 17, 2022, and nine women are sitting around a firepit at the home of Bebe Ferrell McClain ’62 . They have traveled from as far as New Hampshire and as near as the other side of Asheville. They are alumnae from the original classes of the Everglades School for Girls. These women have gathered on this gorgeous autumn weekend to celebrate their 60th reunion. Some of them haven’t seen each other since they left Everglades in the early 1960s, yet they feel like they haven’t been apart any time at all. The friendships they forged as girls at Everglades haven’t faded. Sitting together around the firepit, they reminisce about their favorite teachers and the classmates they’ve lost. Memories that still sparkle in their minds like the lights strung above them on the outside deck. McClain and her husband, Bill McClain, are hosting the Everglades Classes of 1960-63 in their home in Asheville. McClain has worked tirelessly with Jourdan Moore Houston ’62 to ensure an incredible weekend is had by all. Several other husbands are here, and an impromptu “boys’ table” is set up where they return to eat and talk throughout the weekend. Gathered around the firepit are Mary Babcock ’61 , who attended Everglades through tenth grade; Andrea Lynch Cole ’61 , who attended for seventh and eighth grades along with her twin sister, Linda Lynch Smoak ’61 ; Bryan Hector Commander ’61 , who attended for seventh and eighth grades; Alice Hector ’63 , who attended for several years; Houston, the mastermind behind the Asheville reunion; Katherine “Kaki” Swenson Kahan ’61 , who was at Everglades the first year it opened in 1955 until graduation; McClain, who started at Everglades in the tenth grade and remained through graduation; and Linda Morris McKillop ’62 and Judy Golden Powers ’62 , who attended Everglades from the seventh grade on. Their reminiscences range from the school’s founding to their most memorable moments on campus. Jourdan : “A number of our parents who knew each other in the northeast moved to Miami in the late ’40s and there was a school called Ransom, but no school for The founding students of the Everglades School for Girls A Happy Reunion Hosts Bebe Ferrell McClain ’62 and Bill McClain L-R: Bryan Hector Commander ’61, Andrea Lynch Cole ’61, Katherine Swenson Kahan ’61, Alice Hector ’63, Judy Golden Powers ’62, Linda Morris McKillop ’62, Jourdan Moore Houston ’62, Bebe Ferrell McClain ’62 and Mary Babcock ’61. 22 Ransom Everglades LOG SPRING 2023