’77 Hawk Profile
Maggie Nelson Morgan
Morgang5@cablelynx.com
I am the Spruce Creek graduate formerly known as
Margaret, Margie, or Maggie Nelson, depending on when you went to school with
me. For the past 24 years, however, I’ve been Maggie Morgan.
After our years at the Creek, I went on to earn my
bachelor’s degree in journalism at Abilene Christian University. Dee Dee Shave (now Dee Dee Wise) and
my brother, Larry (SC class of ‘79), both joined me there and we had a great
time in West Texas
together. During my senior year my older brother, Bill (Mainland class of ‘73),
died which was a pretty sad event for my family. It was also in college that I
met my best friend, Rand Morgan, and we married in 1982. After we graduated we set out for New
Orleans and lived there for three
years (actually chosen because it was half-way between our parents in Florida and in Texas). I
taught school during that three year period and Rand began a career with the
Red Cross in disaster services (two decades before Katrina, but we well
remember fearing “the big one” hitting N.O. way back then).
After my dad passed away in ’84 we moved to South
Florida to live closer to my mom. We
lived in West Palm Beach where I
worked in marketing for Barnett Bank and Rand
continued with the Red Cross. Our daughter, Shannon, was born in ’87 and we
moved back to Texas a year
later so I could be a stay-at-home mom. Rand became
the Executive Director for an East
Texas chapter of the American Red Cross
and remained in that position for 16 years. We had sons, Will and Jesse, in ’89
and ’92. I was fortunate to be able to stay home until Jess went to school and
have worked part-time doing publication design work for our church for about 4
years now. After 20 years with the Red Cross Rand changed gears and is now a
hospital administrator.
My mom passed away in ‘93 and we no longer have our
home place in the Daytona area, but we try to get back to Volusia County as much
as possible. We have now been in the Piney Woods of East Texas in Longview, TX (one hour
west of Shreveport, LA), for
about 18 years now. We love the seasons and the trees and if you “have” to live
in Texas, it’s a
very nice place. We have an awesome church family where my faith has grown through
the years, great schools and neighbors and I truly feel at home here. There is
no beach, Disney World, or other attractions nearby, however, so if someone
comes here to visit you here, you know they must really love you!
Shannon is a
sophomore at Abilene Christian, studying speech pathology. Will is a junior in
high school and Jesse is in the eighth grade. Our kids are all “band nerds” and
love playing trumpet, piano, guitar, drums, or just listening to music so there
is always lots of noise in our house! We enjoy camping together as a family and
have traveled to all of the lower 48 states together on vacations. I am crazy
about this family of ours and thank God for blessing me with each of them.
My husband says I haven’t changed much since high
school: I talked too much then and I talk too much now and that the most
important thing I’ve done since Spruce Creek is marry him and becoming a
“naturalized” Texan. My middle son, Will, says my greatest accomplishment is
giving birth to him, etc… You can see I get no respect around here! J But, I
do feel blessed with the path God has led me down and try to acknowledge Him
for every good thing because I don’t deserve all He’s done for me.
I am really looking forward to our 30th class
reunion and meeting up with all my old classmates. I have fond memories of
those years at Spruce Creek…rides to school each day with Kim Milholen -- singing with the radio and learning to drive a
stick shift in her Gremlin; hanging out after games at Mr. Tee’s Pizza; making
a cape for “Hawk the Dog” to wear at pep rallies and games; the huge ‘hay
fight’ that occurred after the hayride during homecoming week; the amazing
Spruce Creek SWAT team sticking it to our opponents before a game; the senior
cruise to the Bahamas; senior skip day to River Country; watching all our
school athletes continually set new sports records from day one, making a whole
new set of friends from ‘across the river’ and all the other “firsts” we
experienced at our brand new school.
I have great memories of teachers who really cared
about us: Lou Ann Meisch, Elaine Attick,
Lucille West, Coach Jimmy Kirton, Charles Allen,
Connie Helms and many, many more. I can still see Howard Gold dressed up like a
gunslinger at a pep rally. It was a great time and I look forward to reading
more about what all the rest of you have been up to, what you remember about
our years at Spruce Creek and seeing you next July!
Maggie Nelson Morgan
Morgang5@cablelynx.com
(Posted 11-28-2006)
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