Minster native to celebrate 100th birthday

January 25, 2012

DAYTON — A long-time Minster resident will soon become part of a select group that few will be lucky enough join in their lifetime — she will become a centenarian.
Irma Feldman, who will turn 100 on Feb. 6, lived in Minster for more than 60 years before residing at Brighton Gardens in Centerville. Her eldest son, Bob Woehrmyer, also of Centerville, shared his mother's story along with some of her experiences through the years.
Feldman was born on Feb. 6, 1912, in Fort Loramie, the youngest of five children from her mother's first marriage.
"Her father passed away when she was two and a half years old," Woehrmyer said. "Her mother re-married several years later, and at that time, they moved to a farm west of Fort Loramie on (State Route) 705."
For her eight years of grade schooling, Feldman attended Walkup School, which was located about a half-mile from the family's farm, he said.
"The building is still there, and I think it's now called the Walkup School Recreation Center," Woehrmyer said. They have senior citizens' dancing and things like that out there on Saturday nights, I believe."
After completing grade school, Feldman attended Minster High School for roughly a year and a half, he said, where she met a young man from Minster named Russell (Russ) Woehrmyer. At age 16, Feldman's formal schooling ended, which was common for the time, Woehrmyer said.
"She was sent on her way to Dayton with $5 in her pocket to find a job and join her sister, Marie, who was already working in Dayton at the NCR," he said.
"So she got to Dayton, got a job at the NCR, worked there, I think, for about a year and half, and with the (Great) Depression setting in at that point in time, NCR was cutting back, laying people off. They had a policy that if there was more than one person in a family working at NCR, the oldest one would continue to work and the youngest one would be laid off."
Feldman and her sister were rooming with others in Dayton at the time, Woehrmyer said, one who happened to be an executive with Standard Oil.
"After she was laid off at the NCR, he got her a job at Standard Oil in Dayton," he said. "And that was as a comptometer operator ... that was long before computers."
Feldman worked at Standard Oil for slightly more than a year before the Dayton office was closed, again, because of depression-inspired cutbacks.
"The gentleman that she was working for and living with moved to Cleveland, and he found a job for her at Standard Oil in Cleveland," he said. "So she lived and worked in Cleveland for several years."
At this point in time, Feldman had re-established her relationship with Russ Woehrmyer, returning to Minster every weekend by train.
"I believe that almost every Friday night, she would leave the Standard Oil and the train station was in the same building down below," Woehrmyer said.
"She would get on the train and come home, and I believe she came into Sidney. She would spend the weekend in the Minster area, get on the train Sunday night, go back to Cleveland on the train and get off the train early enough on Monday morning to go right back to work. So it was an interesting life at that point in time."
Feldman married Russ in 1937, and the couple resided in New Bremen when Bob Woehrmyer was born in 1938.
"(Russ) was involved with a grocery store in New Bremen that eventually closed," Woehrmyer said. "At that time, he got a job at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton. So they moved to Dayton in about 1940. And during that period of time, he contracted cancer, and in the spring of 1944, they moved back to Minster."
Russ lost his battle with cancer in May of 1944.
"After his death, she raised me — I'm the only child of that marriage," he said. "She's always been a very matter-of-fact, businesslike person ... once Russ died, she immediately went to work in St. Marys. And she drove back and forth there until (she) and Henry got married in 1948."
In 1948, she married Henry Feldman, and from that marriage, she had three more children: Carol Ragalie of Sharonville, John Feldman of West Chester and Mary Swett of Ridgefield Conn.
After struggling with a heart condition, Henry died in 1983. From 1983 to 1986, Feldman continued to live on the family farm located on State Route 66 between Minster and Fort Loramie.
"In fact, if you're familiar with it, I think Freytags own the farm buildings at this point," Woehrmyer said.
In 1986, Feldman left the farm and moved to Fifth Street in Minster, where she lived independently until the age of 95. In 2008, Feldman was moved to Brighton Gardens in Centerville, about 10 minutes away from where Woehrmyer currently resides.
Feldman spent most of her years as a homemaker, Woehrmyer said, also noting some of her favorite past times.
"One of the things that she did for entertainment was to crochet afghans," he said. "She has crochet afghans for everybody in her family. She made little baby afghans for the newborns as they arrived."
Feldman also enjoys playing cards — anything from 500 to sheepshead to pinochle to rummy, Woehrmyer noted.
"She still plays rummy today when she can find somebody to do it with her," he said.
An avid churchgoer, Feldman also belonged to St. Augustine Catholic Church in Minster.
Longevity seems to run on his mother's side of the family, Woehrmyer said, with one if Feldman's sisters living until 98 and another reaching 99. His grandmother — Feldman's mother — even lived to 92.
"It's only been within the last couple of years that she actually recognized her mortality, or even actually recognized the fact that she may not be here for the next hundred years," he said.
"Let's put it this way — if she worried about it, she sure never said anything about it ... she lived day-to-day — took care of today's business and we'll take care of tomorrow's business when tomorrow comes."
Blessed or not with his mother's longevity, Woehrmyer said he hasn't decided whether he'd like to become a centenarian himself.
"It's something I've given a lot of thought to," he said.
"I've got very mixed emotions about it ... there was a time when I said I wish I could live to be 120, and I'm getting older and I'm saying, I don't know. It may get to the point where you say, 'Eh, I may be better off if He just punches that time card and we get together.'"
Feldman will celebrate her 100th birthday with her children in early February. The residents and staff of Brighton Gardens will also have a party for her on Feb. 6.
Along with her four children, Feldman has 11 grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren, with twin great-grandchildren on the way.
For those who would like to help celebrate Feldman's big day, congratulations may be sent to: 6800 Paragon Road. Apt. 303, Dayton, Ohio 45459.