HAVE YOU EVER WONDERED...


.... WHAT HAPPENED TO ROBERT DOWNS, band director and instrumental music teacher?

In 1961 the Downs family moved from Ohio to Santa Clarita Valley, California, in a town then called Newhall (in 1987 was merged to become Santa Clarita). There Bob Downs took a position as music director at the Hart Valley High School. During his tenure there he grew the 40 person band to an almost 200 member band.

A very nice article of appreciation from a writer in the area can be found by clicking here.

In 1969 he retired and joined the College of the Canyons as head of their music department. He retired from there in 1984.

Bob passed away in 1996.

Click here for an obituary for his wife, Lois, who passed away in 2010.

.... WHAT HAPPENED TO MOE ANKNEY?

Moe left Xenia after our Junior year because his dad (Ben Ankney) got a new coaching job at Fairmont High School. That meant that Moe became the starting quarterback for Fairmont and the Dayton area's most outstanding athlete in 1959 .... grrrrr. But that's all right, we wished him well.

After high school Moe went to Bowling Green State University where he was quarterback on two Mid-American Conference championship teams. After graduation he went into coaching in the high school ranks until 1970 when he jumped into college coaching at Ball State University in Indiana.

His coaching career took him through Tulane, Arizona, Bowling Green, Purdue, Missouri and finally at Minnesota where he retired after the 2006 season. After retirement he went to Bologna, Italy to coach an American rules football team, the Warriors of Bologna. He said that he "learned to admire these Italian kids who played football only because they loved the game."

Moe was at the 2010 Reunion with his wife Jane.

.... WHAT HAPPENED TO TED MURRAY?

After being in the Xenia school system since the first grade at Spring Hill, Ted's family decided to leave Xenia for colorful Colorado after our Sophomore year. He claims he hated living there and came back to Ohio after high school to work at Chrysler.

He currently lives near Wilmington, Ohio, where he is now retired.

Ted came to the 2010 reunion with his wife Sherrie. It was great catching up on what he has been doing.

.... WHAT HAPPENED TO LYNNE WOGAN?

Lynne lived in Shawnee Village on Lucas Drive. We knew her from Mrs Kingsbury's kindergarten through the fifth grade at Shawnee grade school (Mrs Barber's class). Catherine Jones LeSourd has said she liked Lynne because, "she was the only other girl in school that was as tall as me."

After Xenia she attended schools in Maryland, Tennessee, Mississippi and graduated from high school in Florida. Her father was in the Air Force.

She attended Loyola University in New Orleans and acquired a degree in journalism from the University of Florida in Gainesville.

She now lives in North Carolina where she sometimes entertains her Facebook friends from Xenia.

Picture of Lynne Wogan (left below) with Mary Lou Baker Holland (XHS'61) . April, 2010

.... WHAT HAPPENED TO CLAUDE LYONS?

Had you ever noticed that Claude wasn't in our Annual? What the heck happened? Didn't we see him at school at the start of school the Senior year?

Well, he left school and joined the US Navy. He visited Hawaii, Japan, Hong Kong, Philippines, Formosa ...... these places were a lot different than Xenia.

He was discharged in 1963 and returned to become a Xenia police officer. He retired as Chief of Police in 1995 and is currently working as Office Administrator for the Greene County Coroner's Office (2010).