Barbara Heinen, along with her daughters, Deanne Heinen Brown, Donna Heinen Sanders and Denise Heinen Harris, pose in front of the Chateau Vaux-le-Vicomte in Maincy, France on Sept. 6. The chateau was actually the inspiration for a much larger project, the palace and gardens of Versailles. The Heinen family traveled to France Aug. 25-Sept. 7, and also visited the beaches of Normandy where Omaha and Utah troops landed on D-Day, and the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial. Heinen’s father, Henry Schmidt, began managing the Nimitz Hotel in 1926 for a group of local businessmen, and Heinen, her mother, Emily Keidel Schmidt and father lived in the hotel. The Schmidts then purchased the hotel in 1947 and operated it until 1963 when they sold it to the nonprofit Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz Naval Museum. Heinen served for many years as a board member of the Admiral Nimitz Foundation. — Submitted photo