Mary Sue shared some information about her life after Illinois Wesleyan:

“The summer before my senior year at IWU I worked as a lab tech in physiology at U of ILL. Champaign-Urbana. My boss and his wife, at a dinner for my date and me, warned me that if I truly loved the research lab life, I should not go on to grad school, that I would only price myself out of the job. I took their advice and got married (to the date) the following summer and worked for a year as a lab tech in nutritional biochemistry at U of ILL. until my husband John got a teaching position at U. of Georgia and we moved to Athens, Georgia.

I have a daughter Elizabeth and son Michael. After they got out of high school, I refreshed my skills by taking the second year of the research technology certificate program at the regional technical school and started work as a research tech III in the Textiles, Merchandising & Interiors Dept. at UGA. I was working for a chemist from EPA who was studying the fate of dyes used for signaling by the Army. Twenty years later I found out that it probably was the most important work I ever did at UGA, finding the bad actor in the bunch that turned out to have been used to call in the Medivac helicopters. That dye was removed from use and combat veterans from that era are now given more care for cancers. What is a biology major doing working in a textile dept.? I was hired because EPA was cracking down on the textile industry for their environmental impact. All the chemists and industry people didn’t have a clue as to the environmental impact of what they were doing. I got to make lots of field trips to monitor the effluent from manufacturing plants for color, pH and COD and analyze the muds for dyes resistant to biological degradation. When that project ended, there were many others. I am still working, currently on the transfer of Aspergillus niger from carpet to skin-like material using a robot we designed at UGA for safety to determine what carpet characteristics are safest for the nursery school environment.

How much longer I continue to work depends on my husband’s health. John is a full professor of biochemistry, still teaching. He has prostate cancer and the oncologist told him to start working on his bucket list five years ago. He hates travel, so he started writing historical romances, in longhand! I transcribe them and try to edit them and create covers late at night after rehearsals. He has published five and we are working on #6. Yes, it is exhausting work, especially the arguments on points of grammar at 2 am when my tact has evaporated.

When I graduated from IWU, I had accumulated enough credits to have a minor in voice. Oh, the Co-Choir memories! As much as I love performing, I can do without the touring. Once I settled in to Athens, I found a church choir conductor that lived up to my standards from IWU. He died last month, but I cherish the memories of 30+ years singing two anthems every Sunday and going on tour to the National Cathedral. I still sing but in a different church choir filling whatever slot that needs me most in the chancel choir or the hand bell choir. Summer of ’13, I fulfilled a long time dream of mine: playing the part of Mother Abbess in “The Sound Of Music” for seven performances in a local theater. It was quite the challenge for me as memorization and public speaking are not my thing.

But that is only part of my musical life. In middle school, my son started playing my father’s trombone. We had moved to a lake in the country and the rural school band director was sub-standard, so to keep Michael challenged beyond private lessons, I took him to Athens to join the youth symphony and the Classic City Band. Sitting knitting a Dr. Who scarf for Michael during rehearsal, I was approached by a desperate timpanist trying to hold down the percussion section by herself. “Here, you’re a musician, help me out by playing the bass drum!” as she handed me the big fuzzy mallet. Thus started my education into the intricacies of percussion notation. The bass drum is still my favorite, although I spend more time on mallets (bells, xylophone, chimes), because no one else wants to do it. I carry around a trunk-load of heavy metal in my car to be able to play in whatever group needs me. Athens is a very musical town. I play in a Civil War reenactment band, a polka band, a brass choir, Classic City Band (the oldest continuous community band in Georgia), and the Athens Symphony. Now my son is the conductor of the Classic City Band and you can see us on UTube or the band’s website.

As far as the reunion goes, I’m not sure. I don’t fly due to bad eardrums, they rupture every time I try. I was driven up to Arlington Heights, Ill., this fall for the internment of my 100 yr. old mother by my daughter-in-law. I don’t know what my husband’s health may be. I’m not enthused about such long rides any more as these old bones and muscles are getting grumpier.”