Bonnie [Briggs] Ragsdale

and grandchildren

Cody............Sierra............ Tiffany

An update from Bonnie [Briggs] Ragsdale

I moved to San Antonio, Texas in November 1962. I got married in March 1964 and divorced in September, 1971 and had a son named Daniel F. Ragsdale.

I was the first woman Supervisor of the Receiving Department at Datapoint Corporation.

I had back surgery in August 1982 and in 1988 had L5 S1 fused in my lower back.

I moved to Rock Hill, South Carolina in November, 1983 and went to work for a construction company who had a Digital Pro 350 computer they didn't know how to use it, plus couldn't install the software. Up to this time I had been working with computers but had not installed any software but I knew I could read so I took the job and installed the software. I entered all the data

to make the computer operational and trained the employees.

In February 1985, I moved back to Tavares to spend time with my mother. She died in August of 1987.

I moved back to San Antonio in June 1986, but there were no jobs so I moved to Austin, Texas and took a job as a Computer Operator.

In 1989 I moved to Columbia, South Carolina and took a position as Data Entry Manager, but was laid off September 1992.

In November 1992, I moved back to San Antonio, Texas, just before Thanksgiving, which is normally not a good time of the year to find a job. Within two weeks I had found a position at Trinity University Building Maintenance. I was over qualified for the position, but I was hired by Larron Barron, who probably saved my life. I would not have gone to the doctor if I hadn't gotten this job and my health insurance went into effect two days before I was diagnosed with breast cancer. I had surgery in January of 1993 and did not have to take radiation or chemo. It was caught in the first stages and had not gone into my lymph nodes. I am cancer free to this day and very thankful. The two women who work with me both had sisters who died of breast cancer. I bet many of you know of one or more women who have died of breast cancer.

In September 1995, I moved to Lubbock, Texas and took a job working for the State Of Texas at Texas Tech University Systems. Texas Tech is in the Big

12. I work at the Physical Plant for Building Maintenance and Construction.

I started out taking service calls for campus maintenance. A year later I started doing the billing for all the service calls.

My youngest sister, Kay and oldest sister, Sylvia live in Huntsville, AL. They both recently retired from Nasa and Kay's husband, John still works for

Nasa on the Shuttle booster.

I write poetry and have had several published and I am an amateur photographer.

I brought a house December 1998 and I love working outside in my yard.