Their Cruise Will Be a Class Act

--Thirty-five years ago, Delbert Dunmire was known as a “swell kid,” according to inscriptions in his Pennsylvania high school yearbook. Now fellow members of Punxsutawney High School’s class of 1952 are looking for even more glowing adjectives to describe the man who is footing the bill to send the 192 members of his graduating class and their spouses on a Bahamas cruise. “At first I anticipated it’d cost $100,000, then $200,000, now I’m thinking it might be closer to $300,000,” Dunmire said. He is also paying the way for friends, entertainers and executives of Growth Industries Inc., Dunmire’s airplane parts business in Grandview, Mo., for a total party of 348. The Pennsylvania town, famed for its Groundhog Day events, is abuzz with plans for the August trip. Jacque Lukehart, a member of the reunion committee, said all surviving members of the class have been located.

--It was a short reign. Two days after she won the title, Miss Alabama gave it up. Julie Hitt, 25, a student at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, did not attend a news conference when the announcement was made. But a letter from her was read by Nora Chapman, executive director of the pageant. Hitt said that although it had been her dream to be Miss Alabama, “I need to get on with my career and my life and feel that the title would cause a year’s delay in these plans.” The winner is required to make public appearances, model clothes and attend charity functions. Chapman said she knew of no other motive for Hitt’s decision. The title passed to runner-up Kym Williams, 21, of Slidell, La., a student at Birmingham-Southern College.

--Four members of Britain’s royal family provided the crowning touch to a fund-raising event in Staffordshire. Prince Edward, Princess Anne and the Duke and Duchess of York (Prince Andrew and his wife, Sarah Ferguson) were cheerleaders for four teams of celebrities who dressed in medieval costumes to compete in a specially built arena that included a mock Tudor castle. Actor John Travolta, singers Meatloaf, Tom Jones and Cliff Richard and comic John Cleese were among 48 celebrities who joined in the party-style games. The World Wildlife Fund, the Save the Children Fund, the International Year of Shelter for the Homeless and one of the Award Schemes of the Duke of Edinburgh, the queen’s husband, will benefit from the return to the days “when real gentlemen were gallant knights and damsels were forever in distress,” Edward said. The spectacle was watched on video screens by 4,500 people.