Lynne Fay Brez……Biography

Graduation from Jones was my cue to start packing. Mother moved us all to Dallas to be close to her family again. Daddy had died just before junior year, and mother, bless her, remembered how it had been for her, being moved in the middle of her high school years. She waited to move until I could finish Jones (and my brother could finish junior high). I've always been grateful to her that I graduated with friends.

Spent two amazing years in college on the east coast, near Philadelphia. Gave up a full scholarship after 2 years - lots of reasons which I won't try to explain. Being something of a hard head, no one could talk me out of it (nor do I claim it as one of my better decisions!) Actually my mistake wasn't leaving Bryn Mawr College, but in not finishing SOMEWHERE. Took me years to figure out what I should have majored in .. business… which was not an option at Bryn Mawr. Ah well, so I matured very slowly and got my education in the working world.

Moved to southern California and found out you can live at the beach without air conditioning; none, nada. And your hairstyle doesn't automatically wilt if you go out in the night air. Who knew?

First husband . ..married 10 yrs… picked someone older, an ocean loving marine engineer (sailor), just like the man mom married. She picked a blue-eyed Massachusetts Yankee. Mine was a blonde from Copenhagen, Denmark. Divorced in 1982

Single for many years. Interesting career of my own with a construction loan REIT (real estate investment trust). Many such trusts were formed in the 1970's. Seemed an easy opportunity for large pools of money to earn high rates of return on slightly risky ventures. However, too few experienced loan managers resulted in too many risky loans, which resulted in way too many foreclosed properties My REIT went thru a Chapter XI reorganization creating a new company that worked through distressed projects and also built new homes. Got my real estate broker's license, moved to sales and marketing management, sold several hundred new homes in Southern California. Company was bought by Centex Homes of Texas. Business was great until 1990 when California's real estate market crashed. Laid off . . at a time when 60% of the builders in our area were closing down. Moved over to residential resales. Landed with a respected relocation real estate company, helping transferred employees buy or sell homes in Orange County. One of the first of many interesting clients I worked with was Marilynn Dean Kline (and husband Bob).

In the mid '80s I met the love of my life, Ray Brez, an aerospace engineer with Northrop Grumman, and life became a lot more fun. Ray had a young daughter (Wendy) from his first marriage. And Wendy has become the other love of my life. Ray and I married on New Year's eve 1989. Wendy is now 27, living in New York City, managing public affairs for the New York Hall of Science. She was supposed to have been in Manhattan at City Hall adjacent to the WTC when the planes hit. But as good fortune would have it, she and her boss were running a little late and missed their early train

Before we married, I discovered Ray had a love of old cars . . . old V-12 Lincolns, in particular. He found a "semi-restored" 1948 Lincoln Continental Cabriolet for sale . . and just about hyperventilated as he talked about it. Well, needless to say we bought the car. She now has her own garage out behind the main house. Her name is Carlotta (because she's a lotta car) and she's still "in process " of being restored. We've acquired another older but driveable car since then, a 1941 Lincoln limousine . . which we drove from Los Angeles to Detroit and back in July 1995. Yes, we had a few parts give out, and no, we had NO IDEA what we were getting into. Lots of car stories and lots of good friends. While neither of us is able to retire just yet, the car club events give us several small opportunities a year to get away together Ray is coming with me to the reunion in April, and for those of you who like old cars, he speaks fluent Lincoln, Packard, Cadillac, Buick, Pierce Arrow, Chevrolet, Ford V-8 (possibly several languages I've overlooked).

My mother still lives in Dallas (Rockwall actually); she's still driving, sewing and has the stamina to babysit her great grand children, very active 2 and 3 year olds. The small children belong to my nephew Sean Fay, my brother John's son.

Mrs. Copeland would say I still haven't learned how to write a cohesive narrative (and she'd be right). However, thanks to Lasik, I can now see without contact lens, and I look forward to seeing everyone at the reunion!