Comments:
I was married to Bill Payne from 1967 to 1975, during which time we lived in VA, SC, and Chattanooga, and Bill worked mostly in audio equipment sales. In 1975, Bill and I split up and I married Forrest Martin; we’re still together (44 years now). Kimberly (aka Renée) is from my first marriage. Brent, Craig, and Dawn were Forrest's by a previous marriage and he/we had full custody. Suzi is Forrest's and mine.
Bill has passed on, but for his last few years, he lived in Chattanooga, playing his guitar at clubs, coffeehouses, festivals (including the Riverbend festival) and other sorts of “gigs.” Bill's brother Bob lives in the Chatt. area and has been involved in the management of Riverbend for years.
Forrest and I have lived in Chattanooga, Knoxville, Houston, TX, Milwaukee, WI, Albany, NY, and now back to the Milwaukee area. I have had many jobs, but my only career has been raising children. Forrest's career has been in computers. He started out in programming (back in the late '60s) and has just retired from management with the company that handles the Medicare/Medicaid processing for the state of NY. Our children live too far away to suit us. Kimberly is in TX, Craig in SC, Dawn in FL, and Brent in NC. Only Suzi lives nearby, about 6 miles from our condo.
Forrest is from Jackson, MI. I met him when he was working for Hamilton Nat'l. Bank in Chatt. When we got married, I went from having one 7-year-old to four children aged 1, 3, 5, and 7. Suzi came along 3 years later, so she is 4 years younger than Dawn.
When Hamilton Bank closed down, we moved to Knoxville and Forrest worked for the company that did data processing for Jake Butcher's bank. When that bank went under, we moved to Houston, where he worked for the bank that Ross Perot took over when it went under. Banks weren’t working out for us.
Somehow, I got in 2 years of college at UTK while we lived in Knoxville.
I hated the heat and humidity in Houston, and I complained daily, so we moved to Milwaukee, WI in 1990. I moved to Signal Mtn. that year, to care for my father after my mother died. During that time, I attended UTC and completed my BS in Psychology. I will always treasure those 2 years I had with my father, as I really got to know him -- much better than I did as a child. He passed in January 2000.
In 1991, Brent married Connie on May 17, and Kimberly married Kirk on May 18. (What a weekend that was!) Thankfully, the weddings took place close to each other, in Kingwood, TX.
Kimberly and Kirk have a daughter named Maddie who is 20 years old. Kirk is a Texas Game Warden, and Kimberly taught 5th and 6th-grade math and English at Full Armor Christian Academy until she retired. They live in Henderson, TX.
Brent and Connie have 3 children: Carissa, 27; Julian, 23; and Lucian, 16. Carissa lives near us in WI. The rest live in the Highlands area in NC. Brent works at home for a computer-programming group based in Houston; he is the COBOL expert. Connie is a chef.
Craig and Beth and her sons Steven, 20 and Christopher, 18, live in SC. Craig also has a son, Zachary, 23, who lives with his mother in California.
Dawn and Brian live in Orlando, FL, with her son Isaiah, 26 in November. Dawn’s daughter, Calliope, 18, lives in Las Vegas with her daddy during the school year, and with Dawn for the summers.
Suzi and Kenny live here in Waukesha, WI, just west of Milwaukee. They have 2 children: Kitty is 15 and "little" Forrest is 13. Molly, Kenny's daughter by a previous relationship, is 18. Kenny works for General Mills and Suzi works at La Petite Academy Day Care and in the church nursery.
I think we’re done having grandchildren, with a total of 12.
As for Forrest and me, when we lived in NY State, we enjoyed going into NYC on occasion to see a Broadway show. I guess now we'll drive down to Chicago for the big city experience. We have a condo now, so no yard to tend to, and no snow-shoveling! We’ve enjoyed just being together. Our granddaughter Carissa lived with us for several years after graduating from SUNY College in Plattsburgh, NY. She's managing a PetSmart now, and just recently moved out and into her own apartment.
