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Obituary:
Lohman, Mrs. Alice S.
Route 1, Montague
Alice, age 103 died Tuesday in Whitehall. The former Alice Longnecker was born December 11, 1878 in Lockport, New York. Married Paul Lohman and lived her life as a homemaker in the Claybanks area. She was a member of Claybanks Methodist Church and a charter member of the W.S.C.S. Women's Society at the Church.
SURVIVORS
Seven daughters, Mrs. George (Irene) Morris of Whitehall, Mrs. Paul (Beryle) Hepworth of Montague, Mrs. Laura Parker of Montague, Mrs. Leslie (Leota) Munson of Montague, Mrs. Hazel Buttleman of Montague, Mrs. Edith Decker of Kalamazoo, Mrs. Le Roy (Ruth) Mudge of Muskegon. One son, Frank of Montague, 20 grandchildren and 30 great-grandchildren. Paul preceded her in death in 1961.
SERVICE
Thursday, February 11, at 1:00 p.m. at Clock Capel Whitehall. Rev. Edward H. Slate officiateing. Internment in Oak Grove Cemetery, Montague.
VISITATION
This evening 7:00-9:00 p.m. at Clock Funeral Home, Whitehall. MEMORIAL: Claybanks Methodist Church Memorial Fund.
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Newspaper article December 7, 1977 Society page:
To celebrate her 99th
Christmas -- the most cherished day of the year
by Helen Panzl observer-News Staffwriter
Christmas isn't what it used to be.
How often have we heard older people make that remark as though the Chrismases of yester-years were magical events so resplendent with their special joy that today's efforts to celebrate the great day seem drab and mundane in comparison?
But Mrs. Alice Lohman of Claybanks, who has seen more Christmases than most other people, says this is nonsense. Christmas is always Christmas -- the most cherished day of the year -- a day so interwoven with nostalgia that people travel from near and far to come home again and be with their families.
The Christmas spirit will always prevail and children will always be bright-eyed and awed by its significance.
Surely Alice Lohman should know. This year will mark her 99th Christmas and she fullly expects the entire family will meet at her home to share Christmas dinner as they always have done.
Last year 49 of them gathered at her old fam house, one of them coming from as far as Iowa. It's unthinkable that they shouldn't be home for Christmas.
"It'll be a pot-luck dinner," she says, " and everyone always pitches in for the clean-up. I just furnish the coffee and potatoes."
As the season advances the old Lohman house seems to stand ready and waiting for another invasion of the families of 8 children, 21 grandchildren and 28 great-grandchildren which fill it to capacity. Tables will be set up to extend through the dining room and living room and in every available corner.
"We always have several turkeys, chickens and food galore," Mrs. Lohman smiles in remembrance, "and as they eat, the older members start reminiscing about other Christmases when they were young and about the early years of their marriages when they packed their families into the old, unreliable cars or hors-drawn sleighs and fought snow and ice to reach this isolated farm house.
But no matter what the mode of transportation was -- they aways came.
"And why shouldn't they?" she adds. "All of my children were born in this house. This is where they belong on Christmas."
After the big dinner someone plays the piano and the familiar carols resound through the house, stronger each year with added voices.
Born on Dec. 11th, 1878, the former Alice Longnecker married Paul Lohman in 1908 and the couple set up housekeeping in a two-room house.
She had made her own wedding dress, and elaborate cration of many tucks and lace insertions, using the sewing machine she brought with her into her marriage whic is still performing pefectly to this day.
There was a reception after the wedding for which she had baked all the cakes.
But the Lohmans didn't content themselves with a two-room house for long. It was gradually added to until the present structure provided ample room for their growing family.
A big red barn and tool shed soon completed the picture of a well-run farm. There was plenty of wood right on the place for these projects. All that was needed was someone to cut it an take the logs to the mill to be made into lumber, and this Mr. Lohman proceeded to do without delay.
Having lived alone since the death of her husband twenty years ago until a grandson, Terry Lohman and his wife, Lois, came to stay with her this fall, it is surprising that the noise and merry-making at Christmas doesn't bother this 99 year old lady.
"Oh, she's used to that," her dauther-in-law, Phyllis Lohman explains. "Throughout her life she's cooked for thrashers, silo fillers, barn raisings -- it was all a part of her life."
Phyllis is the wife of Alice Lohman's only son, Frank, who now lives on adjoining property and runs the farm.
Different members of the family who live nearby check in at the old farm house frequently so there is little occasion for loneliness.
It's not as it used to be when wintry weather often confined the woman of the house and she would sometimes not get to town to see other faces fo two or three months at a time. But there was always work to be done -- clothes to sew for the children on the ever-ready sewing machine, butter to churn, bread to bake and quilts to make. There was really never a dull moment.
"I;ve made so many crazy quilts that I've given one to every member of the family," Alice Lohman says with pride. "They were all made from scraps left over from making their clothes and now they often remind them of the dresses they once wore. They were good, warm quilts, filled with lamb's wool from our own sheep."
Alice Lohman feels she is fortunate to still be able to live on the farm which holds so many memories for her and which prospered through their combined efforts.
"We worked hard to pay for the place," she remembers. "I had a little inheritance and our milk checks kept up the payments."
A life member and oldest member of Claybanks Methodist Church, Mrs. Lohman still attends church services almost every Sunday. She is blessed with an active, alert mind and althought her eye-sight isn't what it used to be, she appears to be hale and hearty in every respect. Her eight children are all still living and keep in close touch with her.
She remembers all of the grandchildren -- but the great-grandchildren -- well, that's another matter.
"I've lost track," she admits. "I can't bring to mind all 28 of them."
Each Christmas this remarkable, much loved lady declares it will be her last to gather her family about her, but when the great day arrives there they all are again, often coming from great distances to share in the family tradition.
Christmas wouldn't be the same anhywhere else.
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