Bernie and Virginia Plus 13

Bernie and Virginia Schalther lived most of their respective 90 years together, producing 13 offspring during the first 18 years of their marriage.

Eyes turned when the couple took their kids on Sunday drives in their 9-passenger station wagon in the 1950s and '60s.

“When we’d come to a red light, you could see the people next to us counting us in the car,” said Jeanne Frey, their 4th-born child said.

A special "Double Dash Between" was published in the July 11, 2010, edition of the Elyria Chronicle-Telegram for Bernie, who died May 21, 2010, and Virginia, who passed a few weeks later on June 26, 2010.

Both were born in Olmsted Falls, Ohio, and lived in Elyria, Ohio, since 1948.

Click here to read their "Dash Between" and view 20 photos of them at various phases in life, including this family portrait from 1961:

Mae Pulaski Dillworth's "Dash Between"

The story of the "Dash Between" July 16, 1922, when Mae Dillworth was born Maria Agnes Pulaski in the North Hill section of Akron, Ohio, and June 20, 2010, when the grandmother and longtime resident of Granger Township, Ohio, died at Hospice of Medina County at the Inn, appears in the July 5, 2010, edition of the Medina County Gazette.

The daughter of Polish immigrants worked for many years as a teller at First National Bank of Akron.

Mae married Verne Dillworth, who served in the Army Infantry in Europe during World War II, on Oct. 17, 1942, at St. Hedwig Catholic Church in Akron.

She once served as president of the Polish Legion of American Veterans Ladies Auxiliary Chapter in Summit County. Her husband, who is of Irish descent, is a past president of PLAV Post 32 of Akron.

Mae and Verne raised two children, Jerry Dillworth and Veronica Hayes, on a farm in rural Medina County.

Click here to read the full story in The Gazette.

At the top, Mae is pictured with her parents and older siblings at her First Holy Communion. Below is a photo of Mae, center, with other PLAV Auxiliary officers.

Rose and Fred Ketchum married in a furniture store window 100 years ago

Rose Herman, a resident of Litchfield, Ohio, in 1910, married Fred Ketchum, who lived all his life in Elyria, Ohio, were married in the display window of the Harry H. Smith Co. furniture and home furnishings store in Elyria on July 4, 1910.

Storeowner Harry H. Smith devised the wedding-in-a-window as a promotional gimmick. The Ketchums, both in their 20s, were chosen for the holiday event after answering an ad that promised free furniture to a couple who would get married at the store in front of thousands of folks who spent part of Independence Day in downtown Elyria following a parade.

The couple also had to ride in the parade on the furniture store's float -- a horse-drawn wagon, specially decorated for the occasion.

Fred Ketchum died Nov. 10, 1964. Rose followed on Jan. 15, 1967.

A fuller account of this unusual holiday story appears in the July 4, 2010, edition of the Elyria Chronicle-Telegram. Click here to read all about it.

D.C. Patel: Elyria physician, world traveler, loyal to friends and sports teams

Dr. D.C. Patel, who settled in Elyria, Ohio, more than 30 years ago, was born in Uganda, but was of Indian heritage.

He was comfortable wherever he traveled in the world. He spent time in China, France, New Zealand, Mumbai, Tanzania, Italy, Bahamas, Egypt and Australia.

Patel also traveled domestically. He took his family to Disneyworld, Hawaii, Alaska, Washington, D.C., and Ruby Falls in Chattanooga, Tenn. He golfed in Arizona and other states with a group of physician friends.

He was proud of his Indian heritage, professional sports teams in Cleveland, Ohio, and his wife, Minal, daughters, Rachna and Rakhee, grandson, Eli, and the rest of his extended family.

Click here to read more about the "Dash Between" May 1, 1946, when Patel was born in Wobulenzi, Uganda, and May 18, 2010, when the Elyria physician died of complications from prostate cancer at age 64, in the June 27, 2010, edition of the Elyria Chronicle-Telegram.


In this photo, D.C. Patel and his wife, Minal, standing, participate in the Hindu wedding ceremony of their daughter, Rachna, and her husband, David Fruchbom, as daughter, Rakhee, right, observes.

John Kenley cast TV stars in Kenley Players summer stock productions

The only things I remember from paging through Pittsburgh newspapers as a kid in the 1960s are the comic strips “Nancy” and “Brenda Starr” and the ads for the Kenley Players.

Kenley Players ads caught my eye because they prominently displayed photos of celebrities, who starred in summer stock theater productions that were presented just a couple of hours away in Warren, Ohio, and later Akron, Ohio.

Teen idols Bobby Rydell and James Darren, pop singers Brenda Lee and Lesley Gore, TV stars Robert Stack and Bill Bixby and aging movie stars Van Johnson and Ray Milland were among the dozens of big names that graced the newspaper ads and the stages at Warren's Packard Music Hall, Akron's E. J. Thomas Hall and other venues.

John H. Kenley, who produced the shows, drew scores of people from Ohio and adjacent states with stars they knew from television, plays and musicals whose titles were familiar and affordable ticket prices.

Critics, however, panned Kenley for putting on lightweight shows which sometimes featured celebrities, who were known more for carrying on conversations with talk-show hosts than for their acting, singing or dancing talents.

I never met John Kenley, but I felt as though I had. I got to know about him - through old newspaper stories - several years ago when I prepared his obituary for the Cleveland Plain Dealer. No, he wasn’t dead yet. I wrote his obit to be kept in the files until his time came.

Major newspapers routinely have obits “in the can” for prominent people, who have reached an advanced age or have been rumored to be in poor health. These “advance obits” provide the background information and an outline from which the eventual obit can be written quickly.

Kenley, who was in his mid-90s at the time, became eligible for an advance obit by virtue of his age.

The impresario had reached the age of 103 by the time he died Oct. 23, 2009.

I didn’t know he had passed until I read his name in a segment on the Tony Awards Show on June 13, 2010, when Broadway paid tribute to theater folk who had died in the last year.

I missed Kenley's obit. I no longer work for the Plain Dealer. I don’t read the paper every day and, when I do, it's usually the online version.

Tony Brown, the Plain Dealer theater critic who had interviewed Kenley in recent years, ended up writing the theater icon’s published obit. It was posted on Brown's "On Stage" blog on Oct. 29, 2009.

Brown had the wisdom to write the obit from his own knowledge of Kenley and inserted some elements from the advance as needed. Only a few sentences from my advance remained intact. Or perhaps Brown never saw the advance and happened to choose the same wording.

Read Brown's excellent obit for Kenley and view photos here.

Tippie Moon had an appetite for food, fashion, friendship and dancing.

The diminutive Tippie Moon, who weighed 102 pounds and wore a size 0 or 1 dress, amazed family and friends with her ability to pack away food without gaining weight.

At Tippie's post-funeral reception, one friend suggested that anyone looking for more food should look in the trunk of Tippie's car. That's where the lifelong resident of Lorain, Ohio, who died of complications from cancer on May 29, 2010, at age 49, usually stashed plates full of food during group gatherings.

One of her favorite annual events was the Taste of the South festival staged by Second Baptist Church of Elyria, Ohio. (Tippie worshipped at Second Baptist of Lorain.)

Coincidentally, pictures from the June 12, 2010, Taste of the South appeared on the front page of the Elyria Chronicle-Telegram on June 13, 2010 -- the day on which the "Dash Between" obituary feature on Tippie was published.

Click here to read Tippie's "Dash" and view photos taken of her throughout her life.

Amos Campbell: Taffy puller, ice cream maker, Karmel Korn franchisee

Amos Campbell of Brunswick, Ohio, traveled throughout Ohio and adjacent states, to New England and western states and to Washington, D.C., reminding older adults of and introducing children and younger adults to an old-fashioned American tradition called the taffy pull.

Amos spent most of his 82 years serving or teaching about sweets and treats.

He started serving skyscraper ice cream cones at the Isaly's dairy store in Butler, Pa., in the 1940s. After several years of owning a dry cleaners and Laundromat in Columbiana, Ohio, he acquired Karmel Korn franchises at malls in Cuyahoga County, Ohio.

Later, Amos ran an ice cream parlor at Mapleside Farms in Brunswick.

Around 10 years ago, he began taking taffy to senior centers, libraries and schools to offer hands-on training in the art of taffy pulling.

Visit the Medina County Gazette online to read more about Amos' "Dash Between" Nov. 18, 1927, when he was born in Greenville, Pa., and May 23, 2010, when he died at age 82.

You also can click here to watch a video of one of his taffy-pull demonstrations and view a slideshow of pictures depicting him at various stages of life.