Carole Bendekgey Eaton - Class of 1970
There was a buzz on campus in 1967 about two new basketball players - Joe Eaton and Bill Polinsky -- coming from Kent to Walsh. All kinds of speculation that these great players were going to bolster our team and take it to a whole new level. That is how I first heard of Joe Eaton.
We met officially on the Walsh Bowling League. But it wasn't until January that we began dating. I remember that it was the first home game Joe and Bill played for Walsh - and it was against Malone. Walsh won and all of the students swarmed onto the basketball court. We were all congratulating the players and cheering - I went up to Joe and congratulated him. He was so tall and reached down to give me a kiss and I remember thinking "how dare he?" and stalked off.
After the game, as was customary, we all hit the Canton bars. Joe went to every bar that night looking for me! We finally met up at Strouble's in the back room which was known as the place that Walsh students hung out. Later he asked if he could give me a ride home. That's how we started dating. We were married the summer before our senior year in 1969-70, which made us the first married couple to graduate from Walsh. The Canton Repository did a big story about us when we graduated.
Joe and I have been married for over 50 years. We have had a very wonderful and a very blessed life together. We have never lived more than three miles from Walsh. Our first apartment was on East Maple, across from Clearmount Elementary School. Currently, we live just a stone's throw from campus. Both Joe and I had very rewarding careers in education but are now retired. We have two children and four grandchildren, all of whom live in Raleigh, so we make many trips south. Joe has served on the Walsh Alumni Board and Advisory Board and was honored with the Distinguished Service Award. I served on the Walsh Education Board and Walsh Women’s Committee. Joe goes to many Walsh basketball games, and we try to support most activities at Walsh. We are grateful every day that Walsh College brought us together.
Incidentally, I was also directly involved in bringing the Women's Movement of the 1960s to Walsh. We were just being silly, but for some reason, a group of girls decided we were going to join the Men's Rifle Club in 1968. There were three or four of us. It was either Celia McCann's or Susan Jacoby's idea. It was just something we thought we'd do as a joke - you know, getting into the feminist movement of breaking down male barriers, etc. Here we were at this predominantly male school and we decided this was a way to make our own statement in support of women's lib. The funny thing is I hate guns... HATE them. I'm a self-proclaimed pacifist and pro-gun control. My kids weren't even allowed to have toy guns. But I was on the Walsh Men's Rifle Club. We would shoot pellet guns at targets at the McKinley Range. Celia even became secretary of the club. I had never shot a gun before joining and I haven't shot one since, but that was my contribution to the feminist movement.