Rantoul Township High School Alumni
Rantoul, Illinois (IL)
Jennifer Delacruz (Miller)
Rantoul Township High School
Class of 1964
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JENNIFER'S PROFILE
| First Name | Jennifer |
| Last Name | Delacruz (miller) |
| Graduation Year | Class of 1964 |
| Gender | Female |
| Current Location | Las Vegas, NM, USA |
| Hometown | Rantoul, IL & Bangor Maine |
| Relationship Status | Married |
| About Me | Connecting with everyone after “58” years seems like I’m in a “Startrek time-travel fantasy where all we have to is press some buttons and we’re connected to each other! Thanks for your visits and remembrances. I only joined this site in Aug 2022 and it’s thrilling to see all the classmates who supported each other in “making it through another day” of classes until Graduation Day at RTHS! Sweet success! I was first married later in college to a very awesome and talented guy until ‘73 when we agreed splitting up would be best for both of our careers and remained friends. I’m now married again with no children but have had a family of 10 doggies since 1889 when I bought a 3 month, female Rottweiler, in Chicago, naming her Ana-Mare’ and kept our favorite naming him “Kai”, from her only litter of 12 puppies she had after we moved to NM in ‘91. FAVORITES: FOOD: Green-chili cheeseburgers, tacos, lasagne, snow crab legs, water with lemon, Gatorade Lime-Cucumber sport drink & margaritas, ATHLETES: Megan Rapino Simon Biles & Tiger Wood. TEAMS: Greenbay Packers & The Cowboy team from the 70s. (A Dallas firm I worked for gave every one of its employees season tickets to the Cowboy games & stadium!) wow! BOOKS: “Outlander” series by Diane Galbadon; “Hamilton” ( book & broadway play that made it to tv; Cook Books; Biographies; & the 1964 yearbook. If you have one to sell, let me know. Really, Ha! MOVIES: “”Pay it Forward” (a life changing movie); “”Fifty First Dates”; “Count of Monte Christo”; “Shawshank Redemption”; “Bohemian Rhapsody”; “Angel Eyes”; “High Crimes”; the original “Terminator”. & “Michael” with John Travolta…..is that TV: Outlander series (1-7) by Diana Gabaldon: Jack Reacher series; Survivor Series (all seasons except the last one); Servant of the People series (starring V. Zelensky before he became President of Ukraine)! WOW! Watch it on You Tube or Netflix or other network; America’s Got Talent; So You Think You Can Dance (all seasons); Colosseum, a new series; History Channel, Forensic File,& I’m a “news junkie”! MUSIC: Freddy Mercury and Queen; Vangelis’ 1492 Conquest of Paradise; “Izzy”, the state treasure of Hawaii singing his version of “Somewhere Over The Rainbow, wow! Listen to or see him him on You Tube; David Draiman and his metal group “Disturbed” who covered Simon & Garfunkel’s’ classic “Sound of Silence” so brilliantly that S&G told DD that their song now belongs to him! It’s awesome, Listen to or watch video on You Tube! And of course there are the Beatles & Rolling Stones, forever! SPORTS: MARATHON running: Ran in every marathon I could in AZ along with 10Ks and just running for fun everyday! BICYCLING : Riding with group of friends & coworkers taking frequent 100+mile rides around AZ. (I never had to use “Sag Wagon”)! CANOEING and RAFTING AZ, CO and NM rivers. MOTORCYCLING: joined a group of friends & coworkers to ride all around AZ after buying a Honda 400 when I moved to Scottsdale, AZ. JEEPING: with coworkers & friends in every nook & cranny of Az. SKIING: Downhill & Cross Country Az, NM. HORSEBACK RIDING: started riding horses with my first AZ roommate (Betts) on her Arabian horses into the AZ desert that was behind her home & also got to ride cutting horses. GOLFING: Joined a ladies golf group in “B” level, but with my handicap could sometimes take 1st place; mostly just love to putt! TARGET SHOOTING: target and competitive shooting. In a competition in AZ I won a competition competing against two legendary national champions that I won & got to take home the $$! Ha, PEAK-BAGGING, ie, hiking up 10,000+ mountains to reach the top. Hiked up Mount Fuji in Japan 3 times starting at night to be at the top to see the sun rise. Also carried a piece of lava from the top of Mt. Fuji to take home. It’s fun to look at every day along with my pic of the sun rising on the mountain in the early morning. DANCING: just about everything…country line, salsa…. And Please don’t judge me! Ha! But “Disco” became my all time favorite! It was everywhere when I moved to Scottsdale and was in every great club so you couldn’t avoid it! Great exercise! PUZZLES: during the 2 year Covid shelter in place, I started a 150 piece puzzle. Then I graduated to 500 piece puzzles and now I’m putting 2000+ piece puzzles together. My goal is a 5,000 piece. LIFE: I’ve been married to Dave since 1986. No children but have had a family of 10 doggies since Chicago in 1989. I’m a true rescue dog lover & have adopted 8 of our family of 10 doggies since we started rescuing them in 2013. I joined the Department of Defense (DoD) as a middle school teacher in Yakota, Japan until I returned to Dallas temporarily and rejoined the DoD to work in Bremerhaven, Germany as teacher and PREP Coordinator for the Adult Education Program. My favorite part of them job was being flown in a helicopter to the main headquarters in southern Germany for quarterly meetings! And yes it’s true, helicopter pilots can get “lost” Ha! Before leaving I took a military “troop train” crossing into East Berlin and train was stopped by German military police to check our IDs. It was an “eerie feeling as we waited.. I did get to cross “Checkpoint Charlie”, shopped and lunched along the street cafes in the city of Berlin, Stood next to “the Wall”, and also the site of Hitler’s suicide bunker. and saw much of devastated parts of Berlin that were left as a memorial. I returned home to Rantoul and bought my first US car there, A Chevette Chevrolet (because it had a hatchback) and after a brief visit home, I packed up the Chevette to relocate to Scottsdale, AZ in August 1976. On my first day in AZ I stopped at ASU to look at bulletin boards to find a roommate and a job. I answered an ad saying “Wanted. Grandmotherly type to share home with owner and daughter”. That’s where I met my still best friend & “spirit sister”, Betts Kiwak. When she opened the door, we both laughed because we were both only 30yr and I wasn’t a “grandmotherly” type. She turned out to be the Secretary-Treasurer of the “Horsemen’s Benevolent Protective Association” working at the Az Paradise Valley’s race track.. We’re still taking turns visiting each other, texting & phone calls, One of our first adventures was a May 1992 hike with Betts and friends to Phantom Ranch at the bottom of the canyon and in April 2022 we celebrated our 30th reunion going back to visit the Canyon again! On my 1st day in Az, I also answered one of the ads for a job & 2 weeks later was working for the ASU Testing Services Department in Tempe as Coordinator for the National Testing Program. One of my favorite jobs.! I left to attend the ASU School Social Work graduate program and completed MSW in 1980. In my first year of the program in 1978 I completed an internship at the CYFD with the Child Protective Services Program and met a supervisor of another department that would take my cases to court to be resolved. I spent my second year of internship working at the Gila Indian Reservation Mental Health services in Arizona! When it was hot I learned to to what the Gila Native Americans did… I learned to sleep outside at nite covered with a wet sheet! After finishing this internship I returned to my former job with the ASU Testing Services in 1982. AND this is where it gets interesting…… One day I was looking thru the glass doors and windows of my office and thought I saw someone walking down the hall. Within a minute, without turning around and walking backward, he returned, opened the door, and said,”Hey, I know you!”. It was the same CPS supervisor I’d met in 1978 as an intern! We “eloped” Ha! in 1986 to Las Vegas, NV; and stayed at the MGM Hotel/Casino where we saw “Siegfried and Roy” and the next day MGM provided a limo and champagne & drove us to one of the little wedding chapels we chose to be married in. We celebrated our 36 anniversary July 2022! We moved to Chicago in 1989 where Dave got a job at the Michael Reese Hospital after he finished Psych PhD at ASU. I got a job with The Arthur Anderson Firm as Computer Specialist and commuted into the center of Chicago on the train from Oak Park, IL. So much fun, so much to do and so many great restaurants. Our favorites were Thai Restaurants that were on every street! We moved to Las Vegas NM in 1993 to be closer to Dave’s Dad who was losing his health. Dave got a job with the City of Las Vegas City School system psych department that he loved. I found a job with the Behavioral Health Institute in Las Vegas where I worked until I retired from the Behavioral Health Institute (in Las VeOctober 31, 2014 on Halloween day) as a mental health clinician Social Worker. I loved every day of working with my clients,families, & treatment team members. I Lived & worked for 2 years with a dx of fibromyalgia that was successfully treated. Had rotator-cuff surgery on both shoulders I’d injured from backpacking, that were, happily, repaired! Now I enjoy spending my time reading, TV, music, movies, gardening, & xerixoscaping (since watering is now restricted), Tai Chi, daily stretching exercises, cooking, taking care of husband, Dave (a golf nut! Ha! & our 3 rescue Still get together with longtime friends from work & 3 couples who we like to travel with & take turns cooking something special every few months & on our birthdays & holidays. Favorite vacation was a 14 day cruise we took on the “Windstar” sailing yacht thru the Caribbean. There were 128 passengers & twice as many staff who were calling us by our names on the 2nd day of the cruise!!! Had the opportunity of living and traveling thru so many countries and having so many adventures. traveling thru European and Asian countries: While working in Germany I took a military “troop train”crossing border from west Germany into East Germany, being stopped by German military police to check our IDs. Was a bit “eerie” feeling. Shopped & ate on the main street of Berlin, touched “the Wall”, crossed thru “Checkpoint Charlie” & saw all the devastation still left as a memorial to the city. Looking back since 1964, I feel blessed to have been able to do all that I’ve done… traveling, hiking, backpacking & touring thru Europe and Asia: Germany (including East Berlin), England, France, Holland, Amsterdam, Denmark, Spain, Japan, Taiwan, Philippines, Okinawa, Hong Kong & vacationing in Mexico and my many adventures in AZ and NM! But RTHS was my first great memory! If given a chance for one “do-over”, I’d like to spend 1 week of my Senior Year saying hi to everyone, finding out your name & something about you as we’d be walking down the hallways, sitting in study hall, changing classes and looking around through out the day to see every one. I appreciate the support given to each other as we “made it thru another day”at RTHS ‘til we made it to Graduation Day! Wishing you, your family, friends, AND pets all the best! PS: If anyone has a 1964 yearbook you want to sell or donate, Let me know! Really. I can use it to make copies for other classmates who&rsq...(read more) |
Class of 1964 Alumni
→ Reunite with 38 class of 1964 alumni that have joined.
Teddy Mcguire
Class of 1973
William Phillips
Class of 1965
Parker (barnett)
Class of 1989
Linda Newville
Class of 1963
Ken Szafranski
Class of 1980
Marcellus Wilkins
Class of 1989
Marcia Swayze
Class of 1960
Dustin Kaster
Class of 1996
Helen Cheek
Class of 1961
Jim Keys
Class of 1960
Kathleen Skamel
Class of 1989
Bet Brown
Class of 1985
Shane Allen
Class of 1990
Leigh Ann Webster
Class of 1988
Clarence Outlaw
Class of 2008
Virginia (ginger) Lemieux
Class of 1964
Michelle Bergman
Class of 1990
Nathan Harden
Class of 1998
Recent Class of 1964 Reunions
Plan a Class of 1964 Reunion for Free
Class of 1984 - 30th Reunion
Invited Classes: All Classes
Date: Jul 25, 2014
Description: Friday night get together at TNT Bar in Rantoul at 6pm. No charge. Saturday night at Hardee's Reindeer Ranch from 6pm ...(read more)
RTHS Baseball & Softball Alumni Reunion
Invited Classes: All Classes
Date: Jun 28, 2014
Description: All RTHS alumni are welcome to join the baseball/softball alumni reunion June 28th. We will have lots of food, adults b...(read more)
The Class of '58 "Group Cruise" to the Western Caribbean
Invited Classes: All Classes
Description: The Class of '58 is having a "Group Cruise" to the Western Caribbean, leaving New Orleans for 5 days on April ...(read more)