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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) |
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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
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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 . . .
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| 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.
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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 . . .
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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.
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| 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. ???
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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!
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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.
 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.
 Dad's First Marriage to Ina Mae Swartz . .
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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.
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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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 & Friend on South Beach)
