Mabel I. Cain Ganshorn
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
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She was born July 8, 1914, in Kosciusko County near Etna Green, to Chris and Edith Arick Cain. On April 24, 1938, she married Elbert D. Ganshorn, who survives.
She grew up on the farm and often told stories of her childhood as the youngest of five siblings, of feeding the animals, working in the garden and helping her mother cook for threshers.
She and Elbert were married at the home of her parents on the farm near Etna Green. They moved to Nappanee a year later, bought a house at, what was then, the north edge of town on John Street and resided there for 73 years until moving to ‘assisted living’ with Bert in December 2011. They had 75 ‘mostly good’ years together, spending many summer days at their cottage on Dewart Lake and 20 winters in Bradenton, Fla. She and Bert were longtime active members of Grace EUB/Nappanee United Methodist Church, and hosted many summer Sunday School class parties at their lake cottage during the 1950s. She grew up in the Mt. Tabor Church of God.
She graduated from Etna Green High School in 1932, and kept in touch with many of her childhood friends and classmates throughout her life. After high school she worked as a live-in maid and nanny for several families in the northern Indiana area, including Howard and Ruth Pricket of Nappanee, mother and father to ‘little Tommy Pricket’, Syracuse, one of her favorites!
Mabel was a homemaker who enjoyed sewing, quilting, gardening and cooking good Sunday dinners of fried chicken or swiss steak and homemade pie for dessert. On more than one occasion she provided a plate of food on the back step for a ‘hobo’ who was passing through town and needed a good meal, because she had plenty. After raising her family she spent several years working for her son Jerry, in his Syracuse print shop. Her mind remained clear through her 99th year.
She is also survived by her son, Jerry (and spouse Sue) Ganshorn and daughter, JoAnn (and spouse Allen) Barrett, both of Syracuse; four grandchildren: Chris and Tony Ganshorn and Alex Barrett, all of Syracuse; and Elizabeth (and spouse Spencer) Lerch, Indianapolis; three great-grandchildren: Brady and Bennett Ganshorn, and Griffin Lerch; and nephew, Larry George, New York City and Vermont. She was preceded in death by brothers, Melvin, Emerson and Landis Cain, and a sister, Marjory Cain George.
Services will be at 2:30 p.m. Sunday at Waterford Crossing Apartments, 1212 Waterford Circle, Goshen, with the Rev. Bob Wyman officiating. Burial is in Stony Point Cemetery, Kosciusko County.
Arrangements are with Thompson-Lengacher & Yoder Funeral Home, Nappanee.
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Memorials to Goshen Home Care and Hospice.
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She was born July 8, 1914, in Kosciusko County near Etna Green, to Chris and Edith Arick Cain. On April 24, 1938, she married Elbert D. Ganshorn, who survives.
She grew up on the farm and often told stories of her childhood as the youngest of five siblings, of feeding the animals, working in the garden and helping her mother cook for threshers.
She and Elbert were married at the home of her parents on the farm near Etna Green. They moved to Nappanee a year later, bought a house at, what was then, the north edge of town on John Street and resided there for 73 years until moving to ‘assisted living’ with Bert in December 2011. They had 75 ‘mostly good’ years together, spending many summer days at their cottage on Dewart Lake and 20 winters in Bradenton, Fla. She and Bert were longtime active members of Grace EUB/Nappanee United Methodist Church, and hosted many summer Sunday School class parties at their lake cottage during the 1950s. She grew up in the Mt. Tabor Church of God.
She graduated from Etna Green High School in 1932, and kept in touch with many of her childhood friends and classmates throughout her life. After high school she worked as a live-in maid and nanny for several families in the northern Indiana area, including Howard and Ruth Pricket of Nappanee, mother and father to ‘little Tommy Pricket’, Syracuse, one of her favorites!
Mabel was a homemaker who enjoyed sewing, quilting, gardening and cooking good Sunday dinners of fried chicken or swiss steak and homemade pie for dessert. On more than one occasion she provided a plate of food on the back step for a ‘hobo’ who was passing through town and needed a good meal, because she had plenty. After raising her family she spent several years working for her son Jerry, in his Syracuse print shop. Her mind remained clear through her 99th year.
She is also survived by her son, Jerry (and spouse Sue) Ganshorn and daughter, JoAnn (and spouse Allen) Barrett, both of Syracuse; four grandchildren: Chris and Tony Ganshorn and Alex Barrett, all of Syracuse; and Elizabeth (and spouse Spencer) Lerch, Indianapolis; three great-grandchildren: Brady and Bennett Ganshorn, and Griffin Lerch; and nephew, Larry George, New York City and Vermont. She was preceded in death by brothers, Melvin, Emerson and Landis Cain, and a sister, Marjory Cain George.
Services will be at 2:30 p.m. Sunday at Waterford Crossing Apartments, 1212 Waterford Circle, Goshen, with the Rev. Bob Wyman officiating. Burial is in Stony Point Cemetery, Kosciusko County.
Arrangements are with Thompson-Lengacher & Yoder Funeral Home, Nappanee.
*****
Memorials to Goshen Home Care and Hospice.
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