KEN POORMAN lock haven pa

Dad & Mom

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Kenneth J. & Pearl Hall Poorman
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Married 16 June 1941

 

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Kenneth John Poorman . . . 1914 - 1972 . . . our Dad

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Kenneth John Poorman (1941)
This is very difficult for me, creating this page.  Going through Dad's "Abiding Memories" book.  Recalling all of the wonderful people who came to pay their respects, sent flowers, cards, and food.  I hope Dad knows how much I love him.  Kenny Dick, 2010

Yost Funeral Home
Lock Haven, Pa.
December 7, 1972

Rev. Art Collier, Officiating
First Church of Christ

Bearers
Calvin Galbraith
Chalmer Temple
Clyde Poorman, Jr.
Billy Lee Yost
Harry Gruver
Charles Hanes

Interment
Hall-Wertz Cemetery
Halls Run, Pa.

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I don’t know where to begin.  I haven’t planned this out.  I guess it’s going to be like a very late eulogy, and probably not one worthy of Dad.  Dad liked being a fire fighter in his younger days.  He talked about it a little when I was very young.  He used to take me to the Citizens Hose Company occasionally, where he would talk with the driver who lived there, and let me climb on the fire truck, and play with the pool tables upstairs.  Every year he took me there to help set up for the annual festival.  I liked the fish pond, and the cake wheel best.  Then we would go back to tear down after the festival was over.  He used to take me to the Hope Hose and Handies festivals too.

He stopped at his Mom’s nearly every day, so I was very close with my Grammy Maude.  And when I became a teenager, and could walk over town, I stayed at Gram’s a lot.  I liked talking with her, and helping her make noodles and pot pie, and getting stuff out of the garden for her.  I remember the first time I drove over town to her house when I was 12 years old.  She was surprised when I walked in without Dad.  I remember Dad telling me to drive up the “Crik Road”, and to pull over if the cops spotted me.  Over the years, Dad turned the inside of Gram's house into a nice clean modern environment.  Can almost say completely rebuilt.  New kitchen, new baths, all hardwood floors, new porch, new furnace, etc . . .

 

From as early as I can remember, Dad and Mom took me to Brickley’s Ice Cream Plant every week.  When I was old enough, we used to sing harmony to down by the old mill stream.  I stood on the front seat between them.  Seat belts – not even invented.  That’s all for now.  This is too difficult.  I'll come back and add stuff later . . .

 
Dad was a Boy Scout
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It looks like Dad was in scouting three years.  He was in Troop #1 Lock Haven, and made it to First Class Scout, and Scribe.  According to the records, he had three merit badges, i.e. First Aid, Athletics and Life Saving.  As Grammy told me, he saved a kid who was drowning in the canal.  Not sure about the Scoutmaster's handwriting, but it looks like W. Miller.

 

OK . . . here I am again . . . found some pix from The Gazette of 1931.  I guess that was the LHHS yearbook.  I have no idea what it was called when I went there 30 years later, maybe it was still The Gazette.  Who knows . . . I didn't pay much attention to high school . . .

LHHS Football Team 1930
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1930 LHHS football team, back row left: Head Coach Ralph Ricker, Captain-elect Ken Poorman, Bill Sayres, Captain Harry Smith, Ted Yost, George Frank, John Poorman, Burret Mervine, Ken Sohmers, Manager Carl Laird; front row: Byron Gorham, Steve Cresswell, Bob Myers, Charlie Lee, Jim Bacon, Harry Hockman, Bob Henzi, Carl McCloskey, John Renninger, Manager Carl Laird.  Not sure names are all spelled correctly.

Lock Haven High Basketball Team 1931
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1931 Basketball team, back row left: Coach Chester "Chet" Viechnicki, Ken Sohmers (I think), Ken Poorman, not sure of the rest - but some of the other names are Bus Mervine, Earl Snyder, Frank Smith, Captain Henzi, Lucas, Bagley, Passel, Sykes, Bacon, Heinly and McCloskey.  Got more names than people in the photo.  ???

On 1/28/2014 my bro Steve sent me this old pic of Dad in his football gear that a relative gave him recently . . . I never saw this pic before . . . I agree Steve . . . Dad was great, and we were lucky to have him !!!

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Dad was on The Gazette staff too, and and graduated in 1932 with a football scholarship to Temple U.  However my bro and I did not inherit Dad's jock genes.  We played the piano instead - Ha!

OK, the paper mill.  Here's a photo that Dad first showed me when I was a teenager, maybe around 1955?  He said the photographer at the local paper brought him a couple copies after a photo shoot at the Castanea mill.  He said he hung a copy in the office, and I found a copy in his papers after he died.  He wrote the names on the reverse.  I think Bill Holland was on this crew too for a while before he became a teacher.

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Dad used to take me to the paper mill when I was little.  I remember the first time the guys he worked with threw me down the broke hole to the basement below, and I thought I was going to die, trying to dig my way out of about 15 or 20 feet of broke on top of me.  After that first or second time though, it was sort of fun.  He took me deer hunting out the Coudersport Pike, and over in Centre County near the Rockview Pennitentiary.  I wouldn't do that again now.  I take my granddaughters through Valley Forge Park to see and enjoy the deer.  He also took me fishing occasioally, up Pine Creek, but I didn't really like fishing much.  We went deep sea fishing a couple times with Fred Graff out of Stone Harbour.  That was enjoyable, smelling the chum bait laying in the hot sun, everyone puking over the side - just to catch a few porgies and sea bass.  Ha.  I'm surprised that after that I even went into the Navy.  Dad belonged to a gun club, and he took me along to shoot a lot.  We enjoyed that.  I qualified M1 easily at the Navy rifle range when I went to boot camp.  Mom was a good shot too.  I remember when Dad wrecked my motorcycle when I was in the Navy, down on the Youngdale Road, the "back road" we called it.  He got banged up a little, but by the time I got home from wherever I was, he had the bike all fixed up, new gas tank, windshield, etc.  I remember him waiting to die after his frst heart attack at age 55.  Now that I've had a heart attack and a few surgeries, I think I know how he must have felt.  Especially when you have kids to raise, I guess you're just you're just not ready to go.  He drove for a lot of funerals in those 3 years he waited - and now I find myself going to a lot of funerals.  Problem now is that since I live in the Philadelphia area, I usually don't get to hear about funerals in Lock Haven until after they occur . . . and many times not at all.  1/20/2011.

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Dad's First Marriage to Ina Mae Swartz . . .

Dad married Ina Mae Swartz on 6 November 1934 when he was 21 and Mae was 20.  I think I remember Gram or Great Aunt Mary telling me that Mae was a waitress at Uncle Bill Stoddart's Town Tavern in Lock Haven at the time.  I never met Mae, but wish I had.  I think she remarried but I never knew her new married name.

Dad and Mae divorced on 29 June 1938 after nearly four years of marriage.  Then he met my Mom at the Lock Haven train station and married Mom in 1941.

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Dad's Second Marriage to Pearl Madeline Hall . . .

Dad married our Mom 16 June 1941.  Rev. Homer W. Heisley performed the ceremony.  I think it was at the EUB (Evengelical United Brethern) Church at 44 West Main Street in Lock Haven (which I think merged into the United Methodist Church, or the Covenant United Methodist Church, in 1968).  I think that because that is where I was baptized a year later.

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Pearl Madeline Hall Poorman . . . 1913 - 1976 . . . our Mom

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Well, I'm back.  About Mom.  I think about her a lot.  She died about 35 years ago, and I think of her daily.  I have photos of Mom and Dad upstairs and down - I pray for them a lot.  (If you're not Catholic, you may not get that.)

Here's a little motto our Mom lived by, and recommended to us . . .

Don't look for the flaws,
as you go through life . . .
And even tho you find them,

Be wise and kind,
and somewhat blind . . .
And look for the virtues behind them.

Mom (right) & Friend on South Beach
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Mom in 1939

Essex House South Beach
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Mom worked at the Essex House

Shopping at South Beach
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Mom's Great Granddaughters 2010
Diana Pam Crystal Steve
No Crystal . . .
You may not spend $1,400 on a pair of jeans !!! 

Mom loved South Beach.  I heard about it many times when I was young.  She worked at the Essex House. Aunt Pam & Unk Steve took Crystal & Diana on a tour of South Beach in 2010.  We visited the Essex House in honor of Mom.  Diane and I have been there before.  No Crystal . . . you may not spend $1,400 on a pair of jeans !!!  Miss you Mom 11/11/2013 kp

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This photo of me with Mom & Dad hangs in our foyer . . . and I still thank God for them every evening in my prayers!  (and hey, I'm 70+ now!)  They were great parents! (added this 3/5/2013)  Mom gave this to me for Christmas in early 1970's.  The frame was her Mother's.

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Pearl Hall Poorman, Kenny Dick & Ken Poorman

Jesse Hall State Park Map
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Pa Route 144

Jesse Hall Park - Renovo PA
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Steve Poorman & Ken Poorman

Hall-Wertz Cemetery Map
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Barney's Run Road

   

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