Best Friends Forever | Town&Gown

Regina Housel Knepp, Karen Dillon-Ballock, and Tracy Dorman met at Port Matilda Elementary School. 

“Over fifty years ago, I met Karen in kindergarten at the ripe old age of four,” says Gina. “I met Tracy in elementary school, too, but we were in different classrooms throughout elementary school. So it wasn’t until later that she and I developed our incredible friendship.”

The women have been through it all together—coping with the loss of parents, divorces, big moves. They’ve also celebrated marriages, births, graduations, and birthdays. There have been dinners, vacations, “endless parties,” tailgates, reunions, and, as Tracy puts it, “the shenanigans of teenage and adult children.” 

“Though we have had big events in our lives, it’s the small, everyday situations that we long to get together and vent, cry, talk through life about,” says Karen. “I still remember being on one of our yearly vacations. … I was going through a terrible divorce; as we walked along the beach and discussed my situation, the ladies helped me with some major decisions. As we currently refer to not just that situation but many, we say, ‘We’re solving the world’s problems’—from jobs to family to kids, etc. Gina and Tracy have been my sanity in my adult life for sure. I would be lost without them.”

The friends agree that Karen and Tracy are the “crazy ones.”

“Gina is the sweet, kind, loving one, so she makes Trac and me look good,” jokes Karen. 

“Gina is usually the responsible one and will make sure we have our coats, purses, phones, and tickets for whatever we’re doing,” says Tracy. “I’ve said that God has sent her to be our angel to look after us! Typically, I’m more of ‘the planner.’ I always planned the girls’ getaway trip or girls’ night out, birthday get-togethers, but at times I’m just too busy so Gina picked up the slack and makes it happen. 

“Karen …” Tracy adds with a laugh, “she just shows up.”

The women also have a large friend group who graduated from high school together and do things together regularly. But the trio are especially close, referring to each other as sisters. They have spent time at Raystown Lake on Tracy and her husband Mike’s boat and at Pine Creek in Karen’s camper. They also once traveled to the British Virgin Islands and cruised for ten days on a catamaran, captained by Mike, and make a habit of taking beach trips together.  

“Through it all, they have been my rocks,” Gina says of Karen and Tracy. “They accept and love me despite all my shortcomings. They will always be there for me and know that I will always be there for them. What more could anyone hope for? I am truly blessed and a better person for having them in my life!”

“I cannot explain in words what an amazing friendship we have,” Karen says. “My life would not be whole without these ladies. We have so many great times and memories. Every year for Christmas, Tracy has given each of us a calendar with memories for that year. We get together each year and look at them for the first time together. We laugh and relive those calendar memories as we go through each month. I can’t wait to get mine this year. It’s always a blast!”

“We make time for each other,” Tracy says. “We text throughout the week to see what’s going on, make plans for the weekend or to send a ‘funny’ that will make their day or to just check in to say, ‘I love you girls and I’m thankful for you.’ We also connect on another level as we pray for each other and our kids. Any time we have a ‘life event,’ good or bad, I can always count on these girls to pray for me. God brought these women in my life for a reason. I’m so thankful that they put up with me and love me for who I am. Other friends/people have come and gone in our lives, and they say you’ll have a friend for a reason, a season, or a lifetime. We are ‘the lifetime’ kinda friends.”

Katie & Kristin 

Katie Myers and Kristin Darr have been friends since they were four years old (some twenty-eight years ago). The women became friends when Kristin’s family moved to Katie’s neighborhood in Centre Hall. 

“I think my parents set up a little playdate since we were both the same age,” Katie says. Her first impression of Kristin is vivid. 

“I remember she caught a bullfrog with her bare hands,” Katie recalls with a laugh. “That’s just the kind of girl she is. I had never seen anybody do that before!”

Kristin remembers playing dress-up with Katie in the basement and swimming a lot as kids. She remembers Katie “always had really cute Halloween costumes and was allowed to wear makeup, and I was kind of the scrawny best friend.”

The girls attended school together all the way from elementary to high school and rode the bus together. They were roommates in college, where, says Kristin, they had “a lot of fun—some wild times.” Katie adds that Kristin has “been there for me for every breakup. We lived together in college, and I went through a lot of breakups in college!”

The friends were in one another’s weddings and have been a part of each other’s growing families. 

“I remember crying to Kristin that my husband and I were trying to have another baby,” Katie reminisces. “Then, on the night of her wedding, I got pregnant, and that’s the joke now—I finally got my baby the night of her wedding.”

Kristin says meeting Katie’s daughters has been “so special” and that Katie helped her cope with postpartum anxiety after the birth of her son. 

“Katie could really resonate with a lot of that and justify what I was going through,” says Kristin. “It’s wild to see our kids at about the same age we were whenever we met, and now here we are.”

Kristin’s husband is in the military, and they lived in Japan for a while before being stationed in South Carolina.

“Even through all the distance, if I call Kristin with some kind of crisis, she’s doing anything she can to help,” says Katie. “She would hop on a plane if I asked her to. She’s the most loyal person I know.”

Kristin describes Katie as a “very welcoming” friend.

“She makes you feel at home, like no time has passed. She’s a little bit of a goofball—she jokes around a lot, and she’s very, very creative and talented in what she does.”

“[Kristin has] taught me to be more patient,” says Katie. “She’s more level-headed than I am. That’s one of her qualities that I don’t necessarily have. She’s very calm. When she went through a bout of postpartum anxiety, since I had kids before her, I was able to give back to her in that sense.”

As busy moms, the girls don’t talk every day, but they do make their friendship a priority. 

“At this stage, since we’ve been friends for so long, it’s just come so easily to us,” says Katie. “If we go a couple weeks without hearing from each other, nobody’s mad. There’s a mutual understanding that life gets busy. But if we pick up the phone, it’s like no time has passed.”

“We just kind of check in with each other now and then or if something reminds us of one another, we’ll send a little message,” Kristin adds. “Katie shares news from back home with me. We only see each other once a year now anymore, but we pick up right where we left off.”

Kristin says she is able to talk to Katie “about literally anything and not be judged. She’ll be blunt with me and always tell me exactly what she thinks—and it’s a good thing. She’ll tell you how it is. We tell each other exactly what we feel, always for the benefit of the other person.”

Katie says she “just knows that Kristin is going to be there, and Kristin knows I’m going to be there for her. It’s really just a sense of comfort, especially as we get older and keeping friends is not as easy.”

Kristin says by growing up with Katie and and doing so much together, Katie is “like a sister” who “brings out the central Pennsylvania in me.

“I can stop by for dinner last minute, and it’s just nice to feel the door is always open. When I think back, Katie has been there for all of [my life’s biggest moments], which is kind of amazing, because not many people have that. I feel very, very lucky to have her as part of my life.”

Katie’s grandmother (see Clara Rimmey, below) has maintained a 76-year-long (and counting!) friendship. Katie says having that relationship as an example growing up made it easier for her to relate to long-term friendships, and she thinks, “Wow, I have that too now. That is amazing.”

Clara & Joan

Clara Rimmey’s 76-year friendship began in Milesburg. She and Joan (Confer) Vowler met when they were about six. 

“Joan lived a half-a-block down the street from me in Milesburg, which is a very small town,” says Clara. “We played together probably every day, climbing the tree in the backyard, sled riding, and ice-skating at Brick Pond. We used to go swimming in Bald Eagle Creek every afternoon in the summer, and we would stay at each other’s place overnight. On Memorial Day, we were always in the parade.” 

Clara met another longtime friend—Maxine—as a freshman in high school, around 1946. Clara recalls during World War II how she and her friends would take ten cents to school to put toward war bonds. They’d peel foil off chewing wrappers and hand it in for aircraft production, and they had to have coupons to buy things, such as shoes. She also remembers when companies stopped making silk stockings so the materials could be used for parachutes instead. 

As they’ve gotten older, the friends have stayed in touch by talking about once a month, at least. 

“When Maxine was at home, she liked homemade food, and she didn’t cook a whole lot,” says Clara. “When her health wasn’t good, I would make soup and take it over, and she would always have something for me. I do that for other people too, and other people are very good to us now. It comes naturally to me to do that.

“Joan is very caring person, a very loveable person, and the same with Maxine,” Clara says.

Amber & Heather

Amber Smack and Heather Moore have been friends just over thirty years (since kindergarten at Port Matilda Elementary). They remember their friendship taking hold the time they missed their school bus. 

“One of my fondest early memories was when we sat coloring by the school fountain waiting for the bus,” says Amber. “We were so engrossed in coloring that we never heard our bus called and we missed it! Still laugh about that today. I can still picture the fountain there even though it has long since been removed.”  

Heather says she has treasured memories of bonding with Amber on the bus rides home, and Amber adds that their friendship really became cemented after Heather attended her sixth birthday party. “We started spending much more time together after that, walking or riding bikes halfway between our houses to meet at ‘the old apple tree,’” she says. 

The girls attended school together through graduation at Bald Eagle High School. 

“We actually rarely had any classes together even in elementary school,” says Heather. “We would only get to talk really on the bus.”

Regarding their complementary personalities, Heather says with a laugh, “Amber is definitely the crazier one of the two of us. She’s down-to-earth, caring, passionate about what she believes in. She’s just an all-around good person. I was kind of the quiet one, and she definitely brought me out of my shell.”

“When I think of Heather, I feel grateful for having someone who has been such a stable and supportive person throughout my life,” says Amber. 

The girls got married within two years of each other, and Heather even photographed part of Amber’s wedding. They also had their first babies early on, although, Amber shares, “All did not stay roses and sunshine. We both experienced painful and short first marriages for reasons beyond our control.”

Those first marriages both ended in divorce, and Amber remembers it being “sort of hard at the time to relate to each other at first because of being in completely different stages of our own relationships. Now, we are able to discuss the realities of how those events affected us and our friendship at the time.” 

“We’ve been through pretty much everything together,” Heather says. 

Amber now has five children, and Heather has two, along with a soon-to-be stepson. 

“We live close together, but we don’t get to see each other much, though we do still talk regularly,” says Heather. “We text a lot, and [our daughters] go to the same gym for different sports, so we see each other there.” 

“We were able to go on a girls’ trip to Fenwick Island Beach in Delaware this September,” Amber says. “It was a wonderful bestie getaway that was much needed and super relaxing. We went parasailing for my first time and Heather’s second. That’s a pretty amazing memory for us to keep! We are going to try to make it a yearly tradition, though it may end up being every few years with our busy lives.” 

Heather says she and Amber “never let the little things get in the way. We’ve seen everything, been through everything, experienced heartache and happiness. When big things happen, we’re always there for each other. It means a lot to know someone who’s been there almost since the beginning, honestly.” 

“Being friends for 30 years is such a wonderful blessing!” says Amber. “It’s having that person there for you no matter what. … If our friendship hadn’t been kept after and nurtured, we wouldn’t be where we are now.”

Amber says the key to a lifelong friendship is to “make time,” whether it’s a quick text, a card, anything to say “Hey, I’m thinking of you.” 

“Just check in,” Amber says. “I think that can even reopen communication if you have been maybe going through a hard time or just super stressed out. Then that person knows, ‘I’m not really alone in this.’”

Connie & Jean

Connie Wilkinson Corl Cousins and Jean Rogers Gerber have been best friends since Connie moved to Bellefonte when she was about six. That was soon after Connie’s father had passed away and her mother brought the family to Bellefonte, where Connie’s father had many relatives. 

“I remember it very clearly,” says Jean. “My mother said there was a new family moving in at the end of our block, and they had a little girl and I was to be nice to her. I still remember seeing this little curly-haired girl coming to the Nittany Country Club swimming pool with her mother, and my mother telling me that this was the new girl in town and that I was to be nice to her. Sixty years later, and I’m still nice to her!” 

Connie “basically lived at our house,” Jean continues. “Because her siblings were a bit older than Connie, she really did become ‘the sixth Rogers kid.’ My mother would usually plan on making extra lunch because she figured Connie would be at our house. And when my father made us do fire drills in the house, he made Connie participate because he knew she would most likely be there.”

The girls recall having lemonade stands and sleepovers together. “We were the generation that played kick the can,” Connie says. “We were always outside playing—that’s why we don’t have any pictures of ourselves as kids!”

Jean remembers Connie as “always very active as a kid,” and Connie remembers her mother forbidding her from heading to the Rogers’ house before 7 a.m. 

Connie became such a part of the Rogers family that she often answered their phone for them. Jean’s father was the town doctor in Bellefonte, and patients often called the house. The friends remember the time Connie took a message from a man who called to tell Dr. Rogers his wife was going into labor, and Connie, about 10 years old, started yelling. 

“I was a nervous wreck!” she says. 

“Poor Connie!” Jean adds with a laugh. 

The girls went to different colleges and didn’t have much contact during those years, but when Connie moved back to Bellefonte in 1991, she called Jean and told her she was going to chair the children’s fair and asked if Jean would be her co-chair. She accepted. 

“Connie is such a doer, and I’m not,” says Jean. “Connie’s always got a project going. She’s a ball of fire. She’s going, going, going. She has an idea, and she puts it into action.”

“But I always need help doing those things,” Connie interjects. “And that’s why I have Jean!” 

“Because of Connie’s encouragement—or should I say persistence—I’ve been involved in a number of community projects with her,” Jean continues, “most recently working with Centre Care Volunteers to help provide programs and services that enrich the lives of the residents there.”

Connie says she and Jean have “lots of common interests. Throughout the years, we’ve just really been intertwined in daily life.”

The friends even spent time employed together. 

“Jean was my boss,” says Connie. 

The company needed an events coordinator, and Connie was interested, but a little concerned and nervous. The women didn’t want the new dynamic to harm their friendship. 

“We worked together great,” says Connie. “We complemented each other. We always have had each other’s back.” 

The friends are now literally back to where they started—as neighbors. 

“Most of our lives we’ve been neighbors,” says Connie. “We were a block apart when we were kids, and now we live a quarter of a mile apart in the same little village of Mingoville.”

They each “blame” the other for ending up where they happily live now. 

“Jean was a Realtor,” recalls Connie. “Jean was the one who sold me the land to build the house we built here.”

“The only way I got out to Mingoville was that Connie insisted I move,” says Jean. 

According to Jean, Connie alerted her that a house she liked was on the market. “We ended up buying it; it’s all Connie’s fault.”

Now, Jean can see the country club “where I first laid eyes on Connie” out her home’s window. 

“I feel very fortunate to have a lifelong friend, especially one like Connie,” Jean reflects. “And it’s not just Connie and me. Our families have known each other for so long—Connie’s uncle and my father were roommates in college. When my mother died in 1970, Connie was right there to help us through that trauma.”

“We are intertwined in each other’s extended families,” says Connie. “Jean is extremely articulate, she is very much concerned about people, she is very giving and also very honest and down-to-earth. Jean also is a doer—she doesn’t give herself enough credit on that end. Jean will have your back anytime and stand by you through thick and thin.”

“Connie is the most caring, giving, and unselfish person I know,” says Jean. “She always puts others before herself. When she sets her mind to something, there’s no stopping her! She inspires me to be a better person. She’s truly one of a kind. And she has the same curly hair she had as a kid.” T&G

Teresa Mull is a freelance writer who lives in Philipsburg.