The 92nd annual McNamee Reunion was held at Dysart at the United Methodist Church on Sunday, June 9th. Forty-one descendents of the original McNamees who came from Ohio in the late 1900’s were in attendance. There were 33 from the George McNamee family and eight from the Amor McNamee family.

A delicious potluck was enjoyed by all, followed by the business meeting. The meeting was opened by the singing of “America” and Acting President John Krug presided. The secretary’s report was given by secretary, Colleen Foss, and Treasurer Pam Whitmore gave the treasurer’s report. The meeting was closed by singing “God Be With You Till We Meet Again.”

After the meeting the guests enjoyed home-made ice cream which was brought by Kenny Bahr. They reminisced, took pictures, told stories, and looked at picture albums and records from previous reunions.

Entertainment was provided by Joshua Beebe who told of his adventures on the ‘World Race’ as a missionary, visiting eleven countries on four continents in eleven months. He had just returned the week before and lots of interesting stories to tell of teaching English, helping with construction and restoration, working with Hospice patients, and of course, preaching the word of God.

After Joshua finished, John and Judy Krug who have done extensive research on the McNamee Family (as well as the Morris Family), told of visiting a McNamee Cemetery in Thurston, Ohio, just east of Columbus with the name of Hite-McNamee Cemetery. The cemetery was not fenced and had been heavily damaged by vandals, much like the Dysart Cemetery was in the past. While there, they along with Cousin Roland McNamee helped dig up and replant some six-foot hand-carved head stones. They said there are three McNamee cemeteries, and the accompanying churches were all built by McNamees. The surrounding 640 acres also once belonged to McNamee Families.

Next, Betty Lincoln shared a book that she had found with a list of the names of those who had perished on the Titanic in 1912. Among the third-class passengers were a husband and wife with the name of McNamee.

The next year’s reunion will be back at the Dysart Community Building on the first Sunday in June which will be June 5th.

Those attending were from Independence, Buckingham, Mt. Auburn, Hudson, Dysart, Parkersburg, Toledo, Tama, Vinton, Waterloo, La Porte City, Shellsburg, Cedar Falls, Marshalltown, North English, El Cajon, CA, Rochester, MN, and Barrington, Ill.