Carol Lynn Bransetter Dunn

I went to Armstrong Business College in Berkeley where I met and married a Cal physics student, Robert Dunn. I worked 8 years for Pacific Bell, eventually becoming a supervisor, and resigned when I had my first child, Tracy. My second child, Cassie, was born a year and a half later. I stayed at home with the children when they were small, supplementing our income by starting a daycare for school teacher's children in our home. Eventually my children's father and I divorced.

Allen Jaeger, my second husband, and I met through Sweet Adelines where he was a chorus director and I was one of the singers. He had two children from his previous marriage, Marc & Sarah, pretty much the same ages as my children. We made a home together in El Cerrito, where we raised our children to college age, which coincided nicely with our eventual move to the foothills. I worked as the Office Manager of a small corporation in Berkeley for 7 years before our move. All four children graduated from college and three of them have advanced degrees.

Allen and I moved from El Cerrito in the Bay Area to the foothills in 1990 after the Loma Prieta earthquake (he worked in the data center of a large bank in Daly City, and they decided they needed to get far away from the fault they were on). His bank set up a new data center in Folsom where he worked until he retired. Out of four children, we expected at least two of them to eventually have to move back home after college, but none of them ever did. They each got work right away after graduating, and established their own lives separate from us in the Bay Area where they were raised. I'm so very excited for my daughter, Cassie (http://www.cassandradunn.com/), whose first novel is being published July 29, 2014.

I worked for the Public Health Department of the County of El Dorado in Placerville for 15 years, the last few writing contracts and processing grants through the County system. I retired on Thanksgiving Day in 2005. Allen died suddenly and unexpectedly of a heart attack a year later. I now live alone. All my children live in the Bay Area, and are now having children of their own. I have 6 grandchildren/stepgrandchildren.

I spend a great deal of time at our family cabin in Central Camp, near Bass Lake, but only have access from May 1 through October 31. My children and their friends come up frequently to fish, hike, swim and party. In the winter, I enjoy playing bridge and other games on the computer, watch quite a bit of evening news, stock market reports, etc., like to read books (especially out on my deck on nice days), take trips to the Bay Area to see my children and grandchildren, entertain them and other friends here, take occasional vacations (Grand Canyon, etc.) and exercise regularly at a local gym.

My favorite memory of my freshman year was when the band won first place at the Annual Band Competition in Long Beach, which was held over Thanksgiving weekend. We had such a good time (and got into some minor trouble) on the bus, at the hotel, and were so very proud of ourselves to actually have won against all those other bands from California, after all that hard work. Part of the fun was in preparation - marching through the streets of Madera in the early hours of the morning each weekend and during regular band period, practicing our moves and music while Madera citizens looked on and clapped.