Memories of Donna Keath by Laurie Taggart Odlum

Donna was my back yard neighbor and best friend from the age of 5.  She and I spent some of the best years of our lives sharing the joys and sorrows of growing up back when being “blood sisters” was popular and playing Annie Oakley the cowgirl was considered kool. We skinned every joint we could by falling from homemade stilts and roller skates on the back driveway; but we had fun.  We shared her family’s experiences as she had 2 brothers and a sister, a collection of dogs and trees to climb in her yard.  We could run from each others back door to the other before the respective doors slammed.  She was a creative playmate in the fact that we had to create a third playmate from the garage door divider to be able to do double-dutch jump rope.  Her family had a 1956 Aqua Mercury convertible that she drove to SHS during our senior year; back when gas was $.12/gal at the Shamrock station on US 1 and 14 Street.  Donna was always a sharing and caring individual with a gentle heart. It was the best of the good times when we cried and laughed over the new and ending relationships we muddled throught at SHS; then there were Cheerleader and swim team tryouts we survived them together.  After Stranahan, "DJ" (Donna Jeanne) attended UNCG and received her teaching degree.  In June 1970 she was my Maid of Honor.  Donna married her high school sweetheart Mike Hall in December of 1970 (he went to St Thomas and lived at the end of the street); they eventually moved to Denver where she taught elementary school and had 2 children.  Her artistic abilities live on as her son Jason is currently working as an illustrator for a comic series.  Donna died on Mother's Day, 1998.

Submitted by Laurie Taggart Odlum 12/20/05