Quality quartet quaff, quip

L-R: Rosetta Blanton, Lonnie Thomas, Al Hunsicker, John Olesky

                            

A quality quartet showed up today for the monthly lunch of Beacon Journal retirees at Papa Joe's restaurant on Akron/Peninsula Road at Portage Trail Extension.

Hopkinsville, Kentucky native Rosetta Evelyn Sholdar Blanton, 87, widow of engraving’s Watson Blanton, was there with Lonnie Thomas.

Rosetta and Lonnie’s mothers were sisters who grew up in Kentucky before moving to Ohio. Rosetta and Lonnie live near each other in the Merriman Road and Palisades areas of Akron. 

Watson died in 2009 after 53 years of marriage to Rosetta and 23 years at the BJ.

Retired printer Al Hunsicker of Cuyahoga Falls was there.

So was Guild retiree John Olesky.

Rosetta and Lonnie and Lonnie’s wife Sharon go to Florida in the winter to visit Lonnie’s family in Miami, Orlando and Ocala, where Lonnie once worked.

Rosetta and Watson Blanton once owned 10 acres of land in Clearwater, Florida, where Watson was born, reared and attended his high school reunion every five years.

Retired printer Carl Nelson, a regular at the monthly lunches, is recuperating from hip replacement surgery.

Newsroom retiree Tom Moore, another regular, was on a toot – not the binge-drinking kind but the Cuyahoga Valley National Park Polar Express scenic railroad kind, where Tom is a conductor.

BJ retirees meet at 1 p.m. the second Wednesday of every month, in case you want to join in on the laughter and good memories of the ol’ days at the BJ.