Page 52 - Senior Link Magazine Winter 2022 - Online Magazine

Ann and Mike The Applegate girls - a little older

instead,” she recounts. Working
in Ft. Worth, the young RN was
engaged to Van, but it just didn’t feel
quite right. Larry, now a principal in
Cloudcroft, New Mexico, had stayed
in touch and often spent holidays
with the Applegates. She wrote to
Larry, asking for advice. He said he
Larry Skylstad Lubbock Scrabble Club
was not the one to advise her, as he
had been in love with her all these
They rushed in and huddled around the radio in
saddened shock. Her dad served in England during the years. She wrote back and admitted she had always had a
war and came home depleted. At barely forty, he knew crush on him. What a dilemma! She agonized for weeks.
he could no longer do the grueling country doctor duties. Doing the right thing has always been important to Ann.
He moved the family to New York, where he studied This decision would affect her whole life. She finally
ophthalmology. They were living in a trailer when Dr. chose Larry, and they were married in 1954. They moved
Applegate met one of the Proctor and Gamble heiresses, to Ft. Stockton, where he taught, and she nursed. They
who offered him her home on Long Island Sound for a were blessed with children, Pete and Julie.
year. The luxurious setting and the beauty of the seashore Larry encouraged Ann to get a teaching degree. Nursing
is a treasured memory. was stressful, with long hours. She personally delivered
at least twenty babies and worked in all departments,
Ann’s father had fallen in love with West Texas when he
had been stationed at Ft. Bliss in El Paso. So, the family from the ER to the ICU. Teaching turned out to be a
moved again, this time to Monahans, Texas, after he wonderful second career. She taught sixth grade, helped
completed his studies. To this day, Ann misses the hills, start the ISS program in Ft. Stockton, and still worked
trees, and rivers of Indiana. When she was a senior in at the hospital on weekends. In her late forties, Ann
high school, Ann heard some girls talking about the new was diagnosed with MS. One year she taught from
teacher, a Norwegian immigrant, who had become a U.S. a wheelchair. “It was good for the kids to see that. It
citizen by serving in the war. She had to agree, Laurits showed them you don’t give up.” She doesn’t.
(Larry) Skylstad was a dreamboat. Awhile later, Larry got In 2007, the Skylstads moved to Lubbock for better
something in his eye and went to see Dr. Applegate, and medical care and to be closer to family. Daughter Julie
the rest, as they say, is history. The teacher had a horse; works for Texas Tech. Son Pete is a professor in Maryland.
the eye doctor had land. The doctor had five daughters Her granddaughter Kendra gave her the nickname Kaki,
and needed a son. Larry and Ann became fast friends, as she is now known to most of the world. She would
despite the age difference of twelve years. tell you KAKI is a Scrabble word, a Japanese tree. After
Larry’s death, Kaki found love again with Mike Cambon,
Then our girl was off to TCU to study medicine. “Pre-
med interfered with my social life, so I went into nursing an engineer, educated at MIT, who had served in WWII
as a navigator. Is there a theme here? They danced their

52 Lubbock Senior Link