Endless Waves… Remembrances of Sayville Alumni. “Jennifer B. Kost”, Class of 1967

Jennifer Kost, a SHS classmate, died fifty years ago today.

Jennifer was born on April 1, 1949 and lived in Sayville until she went to college at Oneonta.

She attended St. Lawrence School through eighth grade and Sayville High School after that, graduating in 1967.

She was funny, athletic, mischievous, witty, and smart.

Had there been sports teams for girls at SHS at that time she would have been a star herself, in addition to being a cheerleader.

She was in the Honor Society and loved books. Inspired by Renald Curlew, her SHS English teacher, she wanted to teach English. Her stated goal in the 1967 SHS yearbook was to one day “sit in Mr. Curlew’s chair.”

She was on her way, having completed her teacher training before graduating from Oneonta in 1971. Then crap happened.

After graduation, she visited relatives in California. She died there in a car crash on September 5, 1971. She was only twenty-two.

She was a good friend to me and many others. I am glad I knew her in Sayville. I wish I had known her as an adult too.

Howard Berger, SHS 1967

Jennifer and I lived in nearby neighborhoods.    She and her sister Laura would ride their bikes down to the small creek that fed off of the small pond that was located at the bottom of the hill – Macon Street (Fran lived there when she raised her family).

In the winter months, we all went sledding down that hill when there was snow. Jennifer was always challenging the boys (my brother Tom and Dwight and Brian Denton) to feats of daring.

When we raced small homemade “go-carts” that the guys built down that hill Jennifer learned to steer her way past those who had a better kid pushing them at the start.  She could outride and race them and of course me!

While we were headed to high school I remember Jennifer and I trying out for both field hockey and soccer (our pictures from these teams are in the yearbook).

We both made the teams and had significant results playing both intramural and extramural games.  But, girls sports were limited and Jennifer chose to try cheerleading, at which she excelled.  I was often her practice dummy for doing cartwheels over the back of what would be another cheerleader when she did this at the football games.

We were in Mr. Curlew’s English class together, as well as many others,

Howard is so correct that she found her love both of literature and a desire to teach others in his class.

Jennifer was bright and when she applied herself, quite accomplished at all of her endeavors (that I witnessed).

Sadly, I only saw Jennifer once after the summer following graduation, as my folks had moved to Florida when my Dad retired from the Sayville school system.

She was at Oneonta and we met there in 1968 at a Fall soccer game between them and Potsdam where my then boyfriend, Anthony Cardamone from Bluepoint was attending college.  I was going to Plattsburgh and we shared college stories during that short time together. Never had the chance to connect with her again as she moved to CA and I moved to Florida in 1971.

Always fun to be around, Jennifer’s shortened life was a great loss for her family and many more people.

Peace and love, Kathy Risley, SHS Class of 1967.

Jennifer and I both graduated from Oneonta.  She was an English education major, myself elementary Education in 1971.

She went out to California to visit with family and sadly died in a car accident.

The thing that stands out in my memory of that time is this:

I received word one day that she died…  the next day I received a notecard from Jennifer in the mail telling me about her California adventure!

I read her card over and over thinking there must be some mistake

Jennifer was one of the first people in our class to pass away. Since that time, sadly there were many more from our class to die at a young age.

I hope these memories give a little insight into the amazing girl Jennifer was and what she meant to all of us.

Fran Zinna,  SHS class of 1967.