Several of Kathleen Tyson Heslop’s high school classmates were surprised at her decision to run for president.
“I was just amazed when I first heard about it,” Linda (Decker) Isch says now. “I had known she had a successful business and she was always outgoing. But president — that’s a whole different matter.”
Jeanne (Gerber) Rinkenberger remembers that at first she had thought it was “out of character for Kathy — that’s what we called her. But I then remembered that she was not afraid of trying something new.”
Rinkenberger had kept in touch with her friend, once visiting her when she lived in South Carolina. She remembers their circle of friends having overnight parties at each other’s homes, and describes her classmate as “vivacious, always with a ready smile.
“And smart. Very intelligent,” she continued. “And what an artist. She had created this cartoon figure. It was a little sailor. That and a dachshund.”
Isch also mentioned her intelligence, and Wann says she often got mad at her younger sister — whom she called “Shorty” — because she never had to study.
“She’d get on the bus in the morning and quiz her classmates about a test they had that day, and then she’d go in and ace it,” Wann says. “I could never keep up with her.”
Bill McBride and Kathleen Tyson are pictured together in the 1963 yearbook under a heading of “Active Students.”
“Well, I was in about everything — basketball and baseball, and band,” McBride says. “I don’t remember what all she was into, we weren’t that good of friends. I just remember how smart she was.”
“Oh yes, we were in band and choir together,” Isch recalls. She and Rinkenberger both believe she was on either the newspaper or yearbook staff. A perusal through that yearbook finds her in several groups, including the “Quill and Scroll,” a national honor for high school journalism students, the National Honor Society, the yearbook staff and several musical groups.
Heslop had also written a letter to classmate Gerald Dennis, who is now deceased. Dated July 18, 1987, and written on her campaign stationery, Dennis was helping her organize a fundraising dinner at the Dutch Mill, scheduled for Aug. 3, 1987. The effort, however, apparently never came to fruition, as none of her former classmates contacted for this story nor her sister has any recollection of it. A search through News-Banner archives around that date also found no mention.
Rinkenberger was grateful for The News-Banner’s inquiry about her high school friend. It caused her to find her diary and two entries by Tyson in her high school autograph books.
“If Kenny H. lived across the sea, what a good swimmer Jeanne would be,” is written in one corner, a reference to a Kenn Honegger, whom Rinkenberger admits she “had a crush on” during their school years, which brought a hearty chuckle from her.
“That’s a good example of her wit,” she said. “Kathy was such a good friend.”
— Mark Miller
