¹Melissa’s early memories are of her home on East Bannerville Road in Palatka, Florida. She lived there with her parents and older sister, Mary Joyce “Joy” Medders, until the age of eight. It was at that time her parents divorced and remarried within the next few years. Melissa and her sister Joy gained two older brothers, an older sister, and a younger sister with their father’s new marriage. Melissa excitedly welcomed a new baby brother on her mother’s side in September 1989. Melissa graduated high school with honors and attended community college and university on scholarship before she was accepted into a student work abroad in the UK. Melissa lived abroad in the North East of England from late August 2000 to late April 2007.

James "Jimmy" Earl Carter
39th President of the
United States of America

Juan Carlos Alfonso Víctor María de Borbón
King of Spain

Hirohito
Emperor Showa
of Japan

Pope John Paul II,
Karol Józef Wojtyła
Roman Catholic Leader

Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller 41st Vice President of the United States of American

Birth Year Events (1979):  
State of Ohio agrees to pay $675,000 to families of dead and injured in Kent State University shootings.
The Shah of Iran flees Iran with his family and relocate to Egypt after a year of turmoil.
Former US Attorney General John N. Mitchell released on parole after 19 months at a federal prison in Alabama
Convicted bank robber Patty Hearst is released from prison after her sentence was commuted by President Jimmy Carter
Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini returns to Tehran, Iran after nearly 15 years of exile.
Pluto moves inside Neptune's orbit for the first time since either planet was known to science.
The People's Republic of China invades northern Vietnam, launching the Sino-Vietnamese War.
Independence of Saint Lucia from the United Kingdom.
Voyager I passes Jupiter
The first fully functional space shuttle orbiter, Columbia, was delivered to the John F. Kennedy Space Center to be prepared for its first launch.
In a ceremony at the White House, President Anwar Sadat of Egypt and Prime Minister Menachem Begin of Israel sign a peace treaty.
Nuclear power plant accident at Three Mile Island, Pennsylvania, releases radiation.
Airey Neave, World War Two veteran and Conservative Northern Ireland spokesman, is killed by INLA bomb in British House of Commons car park.
A Tornado hits Wichita Falls Texas killing 42 people. It was the most notable tornado of the twenty-six that hit the area that day.
Conservatives win the British general election; Margaret Thatcher becomes the new prime minister.
American Airlines Flight 191: In Chicago, Illinois, a DC-10 crashes during takeoff at O'Hare International Airport killing 271 on board and two people on the ground.
Pope John Paul II visits his native Poland, becoming the first Pope to visit a Communist country.
The Susan B. Anthony one-dollar coin is introduced in the US.
Iraqi President Hasan al-Bakr resigns and Vice President Saddam Hussein replaces him.
The first British nudist beach is established in Brighton.
The American Pioneer 11 becomes the first spacecraft to visit Saturn when it passes the planet at a distance of 21,000 km.
Iran hostage crisis begins: 3000 Iranian radicals, mostly students, invade the United States embassy in Tehran and take 90 hostages (63 of whom are American). They demand that the United States send the former shah back to Iran to stand trial.
In Dublin, Ireland, Irish Republican Army member Thomas McMahon is sentenced to life in prison for the assassination of Lord Mountbatten.
Soviet Union invades Afghanistan.

Celebrity and other Births (1979):  
Jennifer Love Hewitt, actress and singer.
Heath Ledger, actor
Kate Hudson, actress

Celebrity and other Deaths (1979):  
Conrad Hilton, hotelier
Nelson Rockefeller, Governor of New York, 41st Vice President of the United States
Josef Mengele, Nazi war criminal
Mr. Ed, talking horse
Emmett Kelly, clown
Mary Pickford, Canadian actress and studio founder (b.1892)
John Wayne, American actor (b.1907)
Minnie Riperton, American singer (b.1947)
Mamie Eisenhower, First Lady of the United States (b.1896)
Zeppo Marx, American actor and comedian (b.1901)

World Leaders in (1979):
James Earl Carter - 39th President of the United States of America
Elizabeth II, Alexandra Mary Windsor - Queen of England “Queen, Elizabeth II,  Alexandra Mary WINDSOR and Melissa Kay MEDDERS are 23rd cousins. Their common ancestors are Alan La ZOUCHE and Eleanor SEGRAVE”.
Juan Carlos Alfonso Víctor María de Borbón y Borbón-Dos Sicilias - King of Spain “King Jaun Carlos and Melissa Kay MEDDERS are 23rd cousins 1 time removed. Their common ancestors are Alan La ZOUCHE and Eleanor SEGRAVE”.
Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev – First General Secretary of the Soviet Union
Hirohito – Emperor of Japan
Valéry Marie René Georges Giscard d'Estaing - President of France
Mohamed Anwar el-Sadat - President of Egypt
Karol Józef Wojtyła Pope John Paul II, Roman Catholic Leader

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Elizabeth II, 
Alexandra Mary Windsor
Queen of England

Leonid llyich Brezhnev
First Secretary General
of the Soviet Union
Valéry Marie René Georges Giscard d'Estaing
President of France

Mamie Geneva "Doud" Eisenhower - First Lady United States of America

Marion Mitchell Morrison "John Wayne"
American Actor,  Legend

All writing and concepts are copyright © 1999 with ownership belong to the original submitters and The Medders Family Life Foundation and Research Center and their appointees. All rights reserved