Ah! 50 years since we left M.G.H.S. Life has been more about what we didn't know than what we did.
I started a career in 1960 with Brown Shoe Factory working my way up to Department Supervisor. I worked in Union, Mo.
In 1965 I went to work for Sho-Me Power Corp. and worked for the next 34 years in various areas. I retired in 1999. After retirement, a friend of mine, Dan Clemens, was elected to the State Senate from the 20th District. I became his Chief of Staff...a very different job that anything that I had ever done but very enjoyable. I was called back to Sho-Me Power in 2005 to a new adventure for the next 18 months. My job was to buy right-a-way for a new 345 KV line from Thayer, Mo. to Popular Bluff, Mo.
In January of 2009, I was asked by Associated Electric to go to southeast Missouri and be their inspector on the rebuild of lines after a massive ice storm, which took 4 months. As of date...I am retired.
I was married in August of 1962. I have three children, Dr. Janice Palmer, Professor of Nursing in St. Louis, Douglas Scott Hopkins, owner of Marvel Pipeline and McAlester Welding Supply in McAlester, Ok., and Daryl Ray Hopkins, who has a trucking business in Springfield, Mo.
After the passing of their mother, I remarried a wonderful lady in 1993. Katherine has 2 grown children. Between us, we have 5 children and 12 grandchildren and a great life.
All in all it has been a great 50 years!
Dolen Hopkins
(Picture taken at our 40 year reunion)
