Classmates remember, honor Flemings

January 9, 2017 at 12:05a.m.

BOARDMAN

Fourteen-degree temperatures accompanied by a bitter wind failed to deter Mary Jo Mahood and Mary Jo Rimmel from expressing the warmth they feel for a lost couple and fellow classmates.

“I’ll always remember that they were wonderful, kind and friendly. They were very generous,” recalled Rimmel, of Pittsburgh, referring to John T. Fleming and his wife, Suzanne Armeni Fleming of Dublin, Ohio, who were among the six people aboard a private Columbus-bound Cessna 525 Citation plane when it went missing from radar Dec. 29 over Lake Erie after having taken off from Cleveland’s Burke Lakefront Airport.

Mahood, Rimmel and the Flemings are Boardman High School Class of 1989 graduates, which is one reason the two women joined those who braved the weather to tie blue ribbons to several trees in front of Boardman High during a somber ceremony Sunday afternoon to remember and honor the couple.

Also on the plane that disappeared shortly after the family had attended a Cleveland Cavaliers game were John and Suzanne’s teenage sons, John, who went by “Jack” and Andrew, along with the Flemings’ neighbor Brian Casey and his 19-year-old daughter, Megan Casey.

Last Friday, the Cleveland mayor’s office of communications said in a statement that the medical examiner collected debris for analysis to determine if human remains had been found. Search-and-recovery operations were to resume today.

John was president and chief executive officer of Columbus-based Superior Beverage Co., a business that originated in Youngstown. Among other things, Suzanne was known for her devotion to type I diabetes research.

“They were wonderful and caring and would go out of their way for anyone,” added Mahood, of Rootstown. “They were very smart.”

Neither Mahood nor Rimmel had any specific recollection or fond memory of John and Suzanne that made the couple stand out in positive ways for them. Instead, it is the Flemings’ overall kindness, compassion and personalities that will stay in their hearts, they explained.

Offering similar sentiments was Cheryl Tarantino, the Boardman High School Alumni Association’s president and a 1982 Boardman grad.

“We knew they would be together for a lifetime,” she said of John and Suzanne, who moved to the Columbus area about 17 years ago and were high-school sweethearts. “This is a very tragic situation and sad for the whole Boardman community. They will be deeply missed by their classmates.”

The loss also has reverberated throughout the alumni association, which has thousands of members, Tarantino continued, adding that prayers are being said for the Fleming and Armeni families.

Vicky Babyak-Davis, a 1984 Boardman High grad who has served four years on the Boardman Board of Education, said she didn’t know Suzanne but lived near the Armeni family and remembered Suzanne’s brother. Nevertheless, she and others are more than willing to offer any support they can to the two families, she said.

“They are part of our Spartan family,” she added.

At the beginning of the somber gathering, Babyak-Davis and three others held hands next to a tree for a moment of silence before affixing a blue ribbon and while holding back tears.

A memorial service is set for 11 a.m. today at Canfield Presbyterian Church, 140 W. Main St., Canfield.