Elaine Sue Honegger

I am sad that I could not be in Denver to celebrate Elaine’s life with her family at her funeral.  

I met Elaine Sue Honegger in high school . She was new to Jacksonville having just moved here from Rocky Mount, North Carolina. We were both looking for a new best friend and that is what we became.  We had a lot in common and we were both in the high school band. Our favorite songs were “The Letter” by the Box Tops and “Shake a Tail Feather” by Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels. We hung around together after school and talked a lot on the phone until our parents decided we had talked enough.  Elaine's mother,  Janet,  was the Personnel Manager at the new Montgomery Ward where I was fortunate enough to work during Christmas vacation and summer break thanks to Janet and Elaine. Elaine worked there too. Janet had us working in every department of the store. Imagine two seventeen year old girls selling perfume, cutting fabric, selling sheets and pillows during the Annual Blanket Sale. I was happiest when selling records and Elaine was probably the best Christmas gift wrapper in the history of the store. It didn’t get any better than that for the two of us.

A few boys in the high school band were in big trouble for throwing eggs at a band member's house and Elaine and I along with two other girls and one Volkswagen Beetle decided to seek revenge for our friends getting  in so much trouble over throwing eggs. We went to the local Pantry Pride and bought an industrial church supper sized can of peanut butter using my babysitting money. By the light of a full moon, we drove out to the 'scene of the crime' house to commit what we found out later was a federal offense. We stole our Mother’s kitchen spatulas and drove right up to this big rural mailbox, rolled down the passenger window and began filling the mailbox with gobs of peanut butter. When the dogs began barking and the flood lights came on, the four of us, ourselves covered with peanut butter, sped away scared to death. We returned to see what the mailbox looked like early the next morning to find that the mailbox was completely covered with ants. The Constable was spraying the mailbox with bug spray as he ;loaded the evidence into the back of his official constable station wagon. 

At the next band parents meeting, the crime victim, addressed the group of parents expressing her disgust with kids vandalizing her house. She also announced that she had evidence in the form of two spatulas left behind in the mailbox.  One of the spatulas was missing the handle. Elaine's mother sat with my Mother at the band parent's meetings. According to Elaine’s mother,  my mother whispered that her spatula was missing and I believe Janet whispered the same thing back. Neither mother ever said a word to us, They knew that their daughters were the peanut butter vandals. I didn't find out that my mother knew until 10 years later when I visited Elaine in Denver where her family relocated after her father's death. I have often though that our mothers would have happily participated in our night of crime if they could have.

I managed to keep up with Elaine through the years. She was a successful Loan Originator in the mortgage business and had worked in Phoenix, Hilton Head Island and Columbia, SC. I happened to be in Columbia working for a month and caught up with Elaine for dinner. We just picked up where we left off as if no time had passed since our last meeting. Her final residence was a yacht she lived on in Seattle, WA.

In my seventy years, I have never heard of anyone else committing a federal offence using our method. I always loved Elaine’s adventuresome nature which carried her through life in her travels and the many cities she worked in. In each town I am sure she easily found a new best friend to share her life and shake a tail feather with. I loved her so much.