3 Young visitors 'all growed up'

Audrey Hoiles Naprie Kimbrough Denise Warner

By Harry Liggett

My three young visitors of a decade ago are “all growed up.”

I used to get three little visitors to my desk many afternoons. There names were Audrey, Naprie and Denise. I had an old cigar box where I kept all kinds of pencils, pens, markers, highlighters, erasers and other stuff which really interested them. In my drawer were seals from the kids' magazine Highlights I always brought from home. And, of course, I would dole them out.

They would often bug me or tease me and we got a few scowls from the copy desk when we made too much noise. Naprie liked to play Ring Around the Rosie so I joined in and made a fool of myself as we danced around the newsroom. I always suspected that my boss wished I would show a little more decorum and get on with the business of laying out pages. But back then nobody crossed me without thinking twice–except for the girls, of course.

I look at the three photos above and try to determine whether they were cuter kids than the beautiful young women above. Somebody should have taken some photos of us years ago.

All three of their mothers are still in the news business and one of their fathers.

Audrey Hoiles, daughter of BJ attorney Karen (Chuparkoff) Lefton, is now 15 years old.
Audrey is doing very well at Walsh Jesuit High School, where she is a sophomore. She loves sports and lettered her freshman year on the softball team, where she started at shortstop. The team won the state championship last spring in Ashland, and she now has a huge patch on her letter jacket documenting the victory. Audrey's played softball for traveling teams for many years, but this was her first experience at the high school level. Audrey took up tennis at the start of her freshman year and is improving mightily. “We gave her tennis lessons for Christmas this year and she hopes they'll help her make the varsity team this fall,” her mother said. Tennis has offered her the advantage of improved speed, allowing her to become the lead-off hitter on her softball team and a champion base-stealer. She's excelling academically as well, and carries a GPA that is hovering over 4.0. Her favorite subjects are French (she's at the fourth-year level now) and math. She's taking extra math that she hopes will accelerate her to AP calculus. (Her mom can't figure out why she wants to learn AP calculus, but she does. Must have been her dad's influence.) The most important news in Audrey's life is that she just got her temporary driver's license. She's been practicing with her stepdad, who has an iron gut and tremendous patience, and she's very much looking forward to emancipation in May when she turns 16 and can drive alone. She's also hoping to pick up more babysitting jobs. She has very fond memories of Denise Warner babysitting her over the summer breaks. Audrey also has many fond memories of the newsroom, where she took naps and raided candy jars for much of the first eight years of her life. Her father is veteran BJ reporter Bob Hoiles who retired via a buyout July 31, 2001.

Naprie Kimbrough, daughter of BJ TV editor Yuvonne Bruce Webb, is 17 and a junior at Our Lady of the Elms High School. She has danced all her life and still attends the Martrell School of Dance. She was a volunteer for Amigas de las Americas and lived for two months in a rural village in Panama. Amigas (AMIGOS), founded in 1965, creates opportunities for young people to excel in leadership roles promoting public health, education and community development. Naprie spent her time in Panama working with children, teaching them English, on small building projects throughout the village and maintaining a garden for the villagers. There was no contact home for the two months because volunteers were not allowed to take cell phones or computers and electricity is a luxury in the village.. “On her mid-term break (a weekend) she called me about five times and e-mailed me twice,” her mother said. “We wrote to each other often. It was a wonderful experience for her and her Spanish is just great now.” She and Naprie spent Christmas morning delivering Mobile Meals in Barberton and Akron when the condition of side streets made it a very interesting experience. They got stuck on ice and had to be pushed up a hill. They had to be rescued when they had car trouble. Naprie is active in Spanish Club, social actions committee, bowling and back stage crew for plays at Elms. Outside of school she still takes tap, jazz and hip-hop dancing lessons, bowls, volunteers at Stan Hywet as a Vintage Explorer, babysits and recently started belly-dance lessons. Her father, John Kimbrough, is a sales manager at Enterprise Car Rental in Wooster.

Denise Warner, daughter of Plain Dealer Business Editor Debbie Van Tassel, is halfway through her junior year at Columbia, where she's majoring in history, doing sportscasting for the college TV station and making good grades. She also works part-time as an assistant in the college's economics department. During her first two years she did the 6 p.m. newscast on the Columbia radio station. After graduation, she'd like to do sports for ESPN. Then, she figures she'll return to school for a graduate degree, possibly to study law. She had an illustrious high school career at Western Reserve Academy. She was an all-star shortstop and pitcher on the softball team, and its captain during junior and senior years. Plus, every summer she played short and third on a traveling softball team. She was the first soprano in the school choir and was the featured mezzo-soprano as a senior for Aaron Copland's "In the Beginning," an a capella chorale piece. She performed in the school musical every year, landing a feature role as a senior as the Duchess of Plaza Toro in Gilbert & Sullivan's "The Gondoliers." She graduated in 2002 with honors. She loves New York City and says she's never returning to Ohio to live! “Needless to say, we go there as frequently as possible to visit,” her mother said.
Her father, Stuart, is deputy features editor/writing coach at the PD. He works with the top writers at the paper. He edited Connie Schultz's series on Michael Green, a Cleveland man wrongfully imprisoned for rape for 13 years, freed on DNA evidence. It was a Putlizer finalist in 2002, winning the RFK award for social justice and Best-in-Show in the National Headliners contest. Both he and Debbie were BJ editors.