Finding Room for Two Passions

As a high school senior, Donna (Sarantakes) Meaney ’69 [pictured, third from left] had a tough decision to make. “I wanted to dance, and I wanted to become a teacher,” she says. She had been taking dancing lessons since age 7 and had an audition lined up with the Rockettes. And she had been accepted into Stonehill, so she was ready to start her journey toward a teaching career.

When she passed her audition, she got good news—she could dance for the Rockettes part-time. “It was the best of both worlds,” Meaney says. “At the beginning of every summer, I would get a telegram telling me to report to Radio City Music Hall. I danced in four shows a day all summer long. Then in the fall, I would come back to Stonehill to study to be a teacher.” She majored in sociology and minored in education, since education wasn’t a major at the time.

After graduation, Meaney taught second grade in Stoughton until she started her family, when she switched to substitute teaching. She continued dancing, too—joining a group of Rockette alumnae living in New England who performed at charity events.

Meaney’s Stonehill roots run deep. She met her late husband, James Meaney ’67, at Orientation. Their two daughters are also graduates—Jennifer (Meaney) Tieri ’96 and Kimberly (Meaney) Carlozzi ’99, and she still lives less than two miles from campus, in Brockton.

Now a grandmother of four, Meaney says three of her grandchildren love dancing. Perhaps they will follow in her footsteps on the stage and at Stonehill.