Some Madison connections are in the blood

For most JMU folks, the Madison connection means a college degree, alumni status, steadfast school spirit and four years of memories in "the 'Burg." For a few alumni, however, the Madison connection stretches back to JMU's eponym - James Madison, the man.

Because James Madison had no children, direct descent from him is not possible. Six of his siblings, however, lived to adulthood and produced 42 offspring, assuring the pro-spect of Madison family progeny through future generations.

Drew Mills ('81) and his sister, Wendy Alison Mills Winingham ('87), trace their connection through their mother, Alice Maxine Coleman, back to James' brother, Ambrose. They say that their mom's genetic heritage dispels any doubt about the connection, since she shares a voice defect with her ancestral line. James Madison was sometimes criticized for his weak voice. Spasmodic disphonia is the modern diagnosis. According to Charles Runyan, Ph.D., of JMU's communication science and disorders department, the disease generates a spasm that tightens the vocal chords to cause unpredictable pitch breaks or freezes them open to produce a breathy under-sound in speaking. In a day before microphones and amplifiers, addressing a large audience could be a problem for public speakers so afflicted.

Drew Mills, who lives in Rockville, Md., heads Mills Marketing and Communication, a national sports marketing firm that negotiates ads for corporate clients and sends him traveling all over the country. The travels let him also keep in touch with old friends from JMU, which he says, "is a testament to how great the experience at JMU was, that about 10 close friends stay in touch." An avid golfer, he also manages to balance his work with responsibilities at home and charity work for Children's Hospital in Washington, D.C.

Wendy Mills Winingham and husband, David, live nearby in Germantown, Md., where she's a stay-at-home mom with toddler Alison. Wendy blends motherhood with various community service projects and bikes whenever and wherever she can.

Other Madison descendants with a JMU connection are Nancy Chappelear Baird ('40) and her sister, Georgina Chappelear Milliken ('43). Their descent, however, is on the distaff side, related to Dolley. Baird explains that a direct ancestor of her mother married Walter Coles, an uncle of Dolley Madison. And her great-great-grandmother, Maria Coles, attended the same Quaker school, Cedar Creek Meeting in Hanover County, which Dolley attended.

One family treasure that Baird donated to Colonial Williamsburg was a sampler Maria embroidered. This legacy is on display at a New York City antique show celebrating Colonial Williamsburg's antique collections.

Nancy and Georgina's father, George W. Chappelear, headed JMU's department of biology and agriculture and served as superintendent of building and grounds during the institution's earlier years. Baird is an avid supporter of historic preservation and is working on an autobiography for the Virginia Historic Society. She studied architectural engineering at Virginia Polytechnic and State University and was a naval architect in the U.S. Navy. She enjoys painting and is married to Alvin V. Baird Jr. The couple recently donated JMU largest gift ever, $1.5 million, to fund the university's Attention and Learning Disabilities Center.

Georgina Chappelear Milliken is a retired analyst for the U.S. Army at Fort Monroe. Now widowed, she resides in Williamsburg. She and her late husband had three children: a daughter, Nancy McAvoy of New Jersey; a son William S. Milliken Jr. of North Carolina, and a daughter Georgina Harris, who died in 1999 in Massachusetts.

Another Madison descendant is Donna Carol Nichols ('80M), director of the Texas Public Health Promotion Program. She traces her presidential connection through a distant maternal cousin.

Nichol's initial postgraduate position led her to Arkansas and the state's Department of Health. Then Texas recruited her in 1983 to develop its state program for diabetes control - an early assault against what has become a national epidemic. During the next 13 years, her career expanded in grand Texas fashion. She was appointed director of the public health promotion program in 1996. Two years later she was awarded the Health Promotion Medal of Excellence in honor of her contribution to the advancement of public knowledge of health issues.

Nichols also won the State Coalition Award for Excellence in Health Promotion from the Centers for Disease Control and the Lifeguard Award from the Texas American Cancer Society. Her work at the local, state and national levels led to her receiving the National Leadership Award from the CDC and Association of State and Territorial Directors of Health Promotion and Public Health Education. Like her illustrious forebear, Nichols loves the rural life. She lives with her four horses on her ranch, Pine Lane Farm, outside Smithville.

Two JMU alumni, who are also staff members, both trace connections to the Madison family. Michelle Hite ('88), assistant editor of Montpelier, is related to a James Madison in-law. Hite is a descendant of Jost Hite of Belle Grove Plantation in Frederick County, where James and Dolley frequently visited Madison's sister, Nelly, after she married Isaac Hite Jr.

Carolyn Mason Schellhorn Windmiller ('81), project director for university relations creative services, has two connections to the Madison legacy through her mother Adrienne Barry Schellhorn.

Schellhorn's great-great-grandfather is William Taylor Barry, to whom James Madison often wrote letters espousing his thoughts on education and politics. James Madison's famous quotation about liberty and learning comes from one of those letters: "What spectacle can be more edifying or more seasonable that that of liberty and learning, each leaning on the other for their mutual and surest support?" [Madison to W.T. Barry, Aug. 4, 1822].

Windmiller's second connection to Madison comes via Barry's marriage to Catherine Mason, whose great-uncle was George Mason, author of the Virginia Declaration of Rights. Mason worked with Madison for freedom of conscience and disestablishment of religion in Virginia.

These alumni share Madison family connections. Are there others? Share your Madison family connection by writing to Montpelier, 26 Medical Arts West, MSC 5718, Harrisonburg, VA 22807 or by e-mail at montpelier@jmu.edu.

By Nancy Bondurant Jones with Kara Carpenter ('00)