Stringfield/Sloan/Love 1999 Family Reunion notes - or - THE LOVE CONNECTION ... CONNECTS
August 1999
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More than 85 individuals from 14 or more states met in Waynesville, North Carolina, July 2nd-3rd for our third family reunion.
Dr. Jim Stringfield did a superb job coordinating the myriad of tasks for such an event.
Friday Night Ice Cream Social
An ice-cream social brought the family together on Friday night for set-up and fellowship. Ann Stringfield provided the promised ice cream and beverages while Dot Stringfield made a surprise appearance with home-baked cookies. LOTS of folks showed up to do a some prep-work and a great deal of catching up. Sarah Welch Murray directed the decoration crew. A July 4th red, white, and blue color scheme was punctuated with fresh green ferns and American flags. Seen "planting" the Stars and Stripes on tables were Linda Cagle, Kathleen Stringfield, Betty Lewis, Nancy Williams (whose ancestor fought with our ancestors in the famed Thomas Legion), Mary Jo Sloan Perkins, Linda Sloan Guernsey, and friend-of-the-family Lucille Phillips among others. It seemed appropriate, given the 4th of July theme, that General Carl Mundy and Major Tim Mundy, our own personal Marines, provided such "911 services" as loading and unloading equipment and running after young children. (We only recruit the very best.) Other military families including Lt. Jeffrey Baumgarten, US Navy; Lt. Col. Carl Mundy, Jr., US Marine Corps; Sgt. Major Bill Sloan, US Army; were on duty elsewhere and were very much missed.
Saturday Reunion
Saturday morning began with registration, thanks to Linda Guernsey and Nancy Williams. Ann Stringfield updated names and addresses in our reunion database. Emily Carter and Louise Sloan set up the EIGHT genealogy tables with enough information, pictures, and artifacts to keep a host of genealogists busy. Those who provided the reams of materials in addition to Emily and Louise were Welch-family-expert Betty Lewis, Texas-Stringfield connector Tom Hatfield, Ann Stringfield, Betty Lewis, and Mary Love Stringfield Sloan. Our Tennessee cousins, the Kennedys, gave wonderful testimony with stories of missionaries to South America. (Dr.) Barry Stringfield and family joined us for the first time to begin sorting out family ties.
(Dr.) Keith Kreutziger was the official photographer. Each family grouping took their turn trying to keep small bodies still, while managing straight postures and happy smiles. (Look for your picture in the mail.) Keith, along with Dr. Jim Stringfield, Sr. and Drs. Judy and John Stringfield, Dr. Barry Stringfield, and nurses Mary Jo Sloan Perkins and Linda Sloan Guernsey were on hand for on-the-spot medical care. Fortunately, the worst emergency was a bruised forehead sustained by the youngest Mundy, 17 months old, when he accidentally made contact with a hard floor. Enough children were there to make sure every cousin had a similar-aged playmate; sometimes two or three. Fortunately, (Drs.) Jennifer (Wayne) and Forrest Sloan planned plenty of children's activities.
Another friend-of-the-family, the Rev. Kathy Wilson, Associate Minister at Waynesville's First United Methodist Church, gave a beautiful welcome and blessed the occasion for us. After a hardy barbeque meal, family members helped themselves to a superfluity of desserts home-baked by Dot Stringfield, Mary Jo Sloan Perkins, Susan Perkins, and Louise Sloan. These generous women were in charge of the kitchen and everything sustenance-related!
The program was MC'ed by Jim Stringfield. It began with a memorial moment honoring those who were no longer with us. Remembered with prayer and many kind words were Marietta "Babbie" Campbell, Anne Hall, Marvin Hatfield, Fred Love, Henrietta Love, Dorothy Sloan, Dr. William Sloan, and John Woltz. Those who gave testimony to their lives were (Dr.) Sarah Sloan Kreutziger, (Dr.) Tom Hatfield, Louise Stringfield Jones, Linda Sloan Guernsey and (Dr.) Hugh Sloan.
Next, came the talkin'. A "Love Feast" commenced where we told stories about our loved ones and family history. Tom Hatfield traced the influence of Methodism, education, similar names, and fondness for cemetery tours in our family; (Dr.) Sam Stringfield provided a humorous journey through the Richard Stringfield family line; Owen and Betty Lewis discussed Moravian influence on Methodism and the Welches; Juel Morrow reminded us of the North Carolina Regiment at the Battle of Gettysburg; and Carter Baker described their conservation efforts with the Strawberry Plains cemetery where so many Stringfields are buried. Profits from the book, Hiking Along the Holston Trail, helps maintain this old cemetery.
Not forgotten were the poor, beleagered spouses and friends of our family who have listened for eternities to family stories. Forest Sloan and Hugh Sloan grinned while reminding us that other families have histories too, while Louise Sloan and Kathleen Stringfield told of their fond marital connection with ours, despite our faults! Emily Baker reminded us of the great debt we owe our ancestors for handing down so many stories.
We recognized David Stringfield from Fresno, California, for having traveled the farthest. A quick "quantitative analysis" found that Carl and Linda Sloan Mundy have seven grandchildren, topped only by Forest and Bobby Sloans' eleven grandchildren. Louise Sloan then reminded us that she has five GREAT grandchildren. Betty and Lewis Owen had the most children (four). The youngest member there was Kayla Perkins, daughter of Brian and Wendy Perkins, who is four months old. We demured from identifying the oldest person there, although inside information discloses we had several folks in their eighties.
We remembered absent ailing members: Bobby Sloan who is recovering from an infection in the hospital, Jill Stringfield recovering with a heart-lung transplant in Utah, and Virgil Stringfield who is facing knee surgery and could not travel from Florida. We sent them cards and are asking everyone to remember them in prayer.
Lastly, David Stringfield, Kathleen Stringfield, J.D. Jones, Keith Kreutziger, Ann Stringfield, Bob Darby, Jim and Donna Stringfield, Louise Sloan, and many others helped with clean-up, tucking away our family reunion for a few more years. A very special thanks to Louise Sloan whose name appears so many times throughout this newsletter because she did some of everythingto bring this reunion to fruition -- cooking, caterer- arranging, photocopying, name and address gathering, "genealogizing," etc.!
a very nurturing day …
As Chris Jones, one of our first-time-to-come cousins remarked, "I came with anticipation and dread, but I will come back next time only with eager anticipation.... This was a well-rounded tapestry of events, a very nurturing day."
The reunion was warm, friendly, and full of the things we take for granted, and yearn for today. We are so fortunate to have a familial village in which to raise our children, honor our elders, and care for each other. We owe much to those who held the connection tightly enough to pass on to us.
Celebrations and Transitions
Please send your news for future editions of a family reunion newsletter to Dr. Jim Stringfield. Here are a few items overheard at the 1999 reunion, but we're always listening for more!
Jena Barker, daughter of Katherine Sloan, won the very coveted Morehead Scholarship. Jena is a rising senior in Wilmington, North Carolina.
Dr. Katherine Kreutziger Baumgarten, daughter of Drs. Keith and Sarah Sloan Kreutziger, successfully passed her Internal Medicine Boards. She is in her second year of an Infectious Disease Fellowship at Ochsner Foundation Hospital and Clinics in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Joey Kreutziger, brother of Katherine, successfully pasted his preliminary examination in preparation for a PhD in English at Washington University in St. Louis. He married Jana Mestecky, a former classmate at the University of the South, last year.
Dr. Sarah Kreutziger, mother of Katherine and Joey, was appointed to the Board of Trustees of the School of Divinity at Duke University and has been elected as a lay delegate to the General Conference of the United Methodist Church from Louisiana. Sarah is on the faculty of Tulane University in New Orleans.
Linda Sloan Mundy, daughter of Eleanor Sloan, christened a ship commissioned by the US Navy at a ceremony that honored her and her daughter Betsy and daughter-in-laws, Wendi and Jenny. Linda also started a foundation to help Marine Corps families undergoing difficulties.
Rita Perkins Oldham, daughter of Bill and Mary Jo Sloan Perkins, graduated from Andrews College (North Carolina). Two months later, she gave birth to Bill and Mary Jo's only grandson, Daniel MacKenzie.
Master Sgt. Bill Sloan has retired from the military and has relocated to Indiana, his wife's home.
Eleanor Sloan celebrated her 92nd birthday the day before our family reunion.
Dr. Hugh Johnston Sloan received promotion and tenure at the University of Mississippi, where he teaches marketing in the business school.
Dr. Sam Stringfield has been appointed to the Baltimore, Maryland, School Board. Sam is a researcher at Johns Hopkins University. His research and many publications are in the area of school effectiveness.
Sarah Love Stringfield, daughter of Dr. Jim and Donna Stringfield, just got her driver's license. For those who want to know, she will be travelling the roads around Salisbury, North Carolina, where her father is head of the Department of Education at Catawba College.
Anna Stringfield, daughter of Drs. John and Judy Stringfield, celebrated her 10th birthday on reunion day. And Anna was born on the same day we had our first reunion!
Contributions:
We have a small amount of money left over from the 1999 reunion. We received an unexpected break on the food price and several members donated extra contributions. The money will be used for newsletter mailings and for the next reunion. If you would like to contribute, please contact Dr. Jim Stringfield at 704-636-2012. An accounting of our family reunion income and expense is included below for your review.
We are also considering a scholarship fund for members living on fixed incomes who would like to come to our reunions, but are unable. We had someone in that situation this time, but we learned about it too late.
Carter and Emily Baker kindly donate profits from a reprinted book, Hiking Along the Holston Trail (which discusses many family members) to maintain the Stringfield cemetery at Strawberry Plains, Tennessee. If you would like to contribute to Stringfield cemetery upkeep, please contact the Bakers at 615-297-1818. We owe them a great deal of thanks for their generosity.
Questions? Comments! Considerations for the next family reunion …
This was our third large family reunion. The first was held in 1989, the second in 1995. Would you like to have the reunions more often? Please contact Jim Stringfield at 704-636-2012 or email him at with your opinion. Jim has graciously agreed to coordinate the next reunion, currently scheduled for 2004.
Do you have other suggestions for reunion activities? For example, Mary Love Sloan Stringfield wants to have a diagram made of our family tree. We are still trying to figure out how to do it with the participants at the reunion. What do you do at other reunions? Please share your ideas with Jim Stringfield.
Hugh Sloan is willing to seek out a few "lost" or inactive relatives, those that you've tried to locate without success. Are there any "long lost relatives" you want us to find? If so, contact Hugh Sloan at 662-234-1185.
That's all the news from the 1999 Stringfield/Sloan/Love/etc. family reunion. Do keep in touch!
--- Dr. Sarah Sloan Kreutziger
Reunion Income and Expenses:we're in the black by $ 201.27, to be used toward the next reunion.
IncomeExpense
Registrations$ 1005.0080 lunches at $8/lunch plus tax$ 678.40
Donation (Virgil Stringfield)$ 25.00First two mailings and printings $ 197.43
Donation (Pat Woltz) $ 100.00This third mailing and printing$ 172.90
From last reunion$ 120.00
Total Income$ 1250.00Total Expense$ 1048.73
Additional donations included an ice cream social (Ann Stringfield and Dot Stringfield), all of the photographic film, film processing, and even postage to mail family photos taken during the reunion (Keith Kreutziger), an abundance of calorific desserts (Mary Jo Perkins, Susan Perkins, Dot Stringfield, Louise Sloan), and the use of the Waynesville Armory at no cost (Louise Sloan). Many folks took on extra responsibilities and lead teams of volunteers: Owen & Betty Lewis (Archives/Genealogy), Carter and Emily Baker (Archives/Genealogy), James and Sara Murray (Decorations/Archives/Genealogy), Nancy Williams and Linda Guernsey (Registration), Jennifer and Forrest Sloan (Children's activities), and a gracious many of you helped with final clean-up. So here's a final thanks to all who contributed, each in his or her own way!
Information in this newsletter is as accurate as our observations and recollections of a busy reunion day can be.
Please excuse any unintended inaccuracies or omissions!
Ann Stringfield
1005 N. Eugene Street
Greensboro, NC 27401-1612
Newsletter from the 1999 Stringfield/Sloan/Love Family Reunion Stamp Here
If the addressed person is no longer at this address, kindly return this flyer to:
Ann Stringfield
1005 North Eugene Street
Greensboro, NC 27401-1612
Address label goes here
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Enclosed is your Stringfield/Sloan/Love Family Reunion Newsletter, to wrap up our 1999 family reunion.
Thanks to all who participated, be you Atkins, Kennedy, King, Love, Sloan, Stringfield, Thomas, Way, Welch, Williams, or any "kin" from far and wide!
If you have address changes or additions, please send them to
Ann Stringfield at the return address.
If you have questions or suggestions, please contact Jim Stringfield using contact information inside.
Until our 2004 family reunion, take gentle care!