Evelyn Irene ‘Nanny’ Welty
February 22, 2018 at 5:49 p.m.
By -
Evelyn was born Aug. 11, 1925, to A.M. and Maude Hepler Hawley on the family farm in Millwood. Her father, a carpenter, had built their seven-room house with its water pump in the kitchen, washboard and outhouse (but no electricity). She shared a bed with two of her 11 siblings. They walked to a one-room schoolhouse with a stove and single water bucket when they got old enough, then rode a bus to the high school in Etna Green. Her favorite childhood memories were oranges and Jello-O at Christmas, an aunt in Wisconsin who would send a “real tree” in the mail, and the baby and paper dolls she sometimes received as gifts. “Oh I loved them,” she said. “I spent hours with them.”
Nanny would retain her love for dolls into her old age, when if prodded she would regale her great-grandchildren with memories of owning just three dresses – two for school and one for church – and one pair of shoes a year. Her family’s necessary frugality in those years of the Great Depression stuck with Evelyn her whole life, often drawing her family’s good-natured teasing when she would rinse out Ziplock bags or squirrel away leftovers in her purse.
As a young adult during World War II, Evelyn worked factory jobs and picked onions while waiting for her sweetheart, Harvey Orville Welty Jr., to return from the Navy. She married him on May 10, 1946, and their union lasted until his death in March 2006, just two months shy of their 60th anniversary. She was the shy to his outgoing, the quiet to his loud.
They had two daughters, Judith Annette, born Valentine’s Day 1947, and Kathleen Jo, born Valentine’s Day 1949. Evelyn, who had learned to embroider in childhood, loved nothing better than sewing for her two girls, dressing them in identical dresses she created. She also sewed for her granddaughter, great-granddaughters, nieces and many other special little girls, many of whom would tell her in subsequent years they had saved her little dresses as keepsakes. Her talents as a seamstress were put to further use at Central Dry Cleaners in Bourbon, which she and Harvey bought in 1949. Evelyn performed all the customer alterations.
After their daughters were grown and married, Evelyn and Harvey traveled for many years across the U.S. and Canada in their RV. Even more than the sights of the nation’s parks, Evelyn said she loved the nights around the campfire talking with new friends.
She was a devoted member of Camp Creek Church of the Brethren, which she had attended since she was an infant. Teaching children’s Sunday school for many years, she was known as the Candy Lady for her love of passing out treats to kids and adults alike. Her church family showered her with hundreds of cards after she moved from the home she and Harvey had built in Bourbon after the war to Lutheran Life Villages in Fort Wayne in 2014.
Nanny was a tiny lady who had struggled her whole life with frail health, yet outlived most of her contemporaries. She refused to smile for photos yet possessed a mischievous sense of humor (favorite joke: hiding a potato in one of the grandchildren’s presents each Christmas). She had known want during the Depression, yet rarely turned up at Sunday church or a family visit without a gift tucked into her purse. Moving her out of her home in 2014, her children found dozens of stockpiled gifts still awaiting opportunities to be given.
Even from her nursing home, she poured greeting cards into the mail for her friends and acquaintances, always with a personal message in her small, careful handwriting, as small and carefully arranged as her neatly coiffed self. She leaves an outsized hole in the lives of those she so actively cared for, which was everyone she met.
Evelyn was preceded in death by her husband, Harvey; five brothers: Warren Hawley, Forest Hawley, Dale Hawley, Marshall Hawley and Lowell Hawley; five sisters: Lois Hawley, Audrey Hawley, Marjorie Troup, Ruth Sponseller and Delores Gamble; and a grandson, Simon Daniel Ward. Another brother, Robert Hawley, Claypool, survives.
She is survived by her daughters, Judith Ward, Fishers, and Kathleen (husband Dennis) Sparrow, Fort Wayne; grandchildren: Shanna (husband Darren) Dutton, Tulsa, Okla.; Josh (wife Johanna) Ward, Carmel; Adam Ward, Fishers; Ryan Sparrow (wife Colleen), Muncie; and Job Ward (wife Jacki), Fishers; great-grandchildren: Mackennzie and Cassidy Dutton, Tulsa, Okla.; Zoe and Dasher Ward, Carmel; Caleb and Sydney Ward, Fishers; Tommy Sparrow, Muncie; and Jaeger Ward, Fishers. Also surviving are special friends and neighbors Don and Nettie Millington, Bourbon.
Services will be Saturday, Feb. 24 at 2 p.m. with visitation two hours before the service at Camp Creek Church of the Brethren, 7486 Ind. 19, Etna Green, with Pastor Roger Stuart officiating.
Deaton Clemens Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.
*****
Donations may be made to Camp Creek Church of the Brethren, 7486 St Rd 19, Etna Green, Ind. 46524.
Friends are invited to sign the online guest book and share memories with her family at www.deaton-clemensfuneralhome.com.
Evelyn was born Aug. 11, 1925, to A.M. and Maude Hepler Hawley on the family farm in Millwood. Her father, a carpenter, had built their seven-room house with its water pump in the kitchen, washboard and outhouse (but no electricity). She shared a bed with two of her 11 siblings. They walked to a one-room schoolhouse with a stove and single water bucket when they got old enough, then rode a bus to the high school in Etna Green. Her favorite childhood memories were oranges and Jello-O at Christmas, an aunt in Wisconsin who would send a “real tree” in the mail, and the baby and paper dolls she sometimes received as gifts. “Oh I loved them,” she said. “I spent hours with them.”
Nanny would retain her love for dolls into her old age, when if prodded she would regale her great-grandchildren with memories of owning just three dresses – two for school and one for church – and one pair of shoes a year. Her family’s necessary frugality in those years of the Great Depression stuck with Evelyn her whole life, often drawing her family’s good-natured teasing when she would rinse out Ziplock bags or squirrel away leftovers in her purse.
As a young adult during World War II, Evelyn worked factory jobs and picked onions while waiting for her sweetheart, Harvey Orville Welty Jr., to return from the Navy. She married him on May 10, 1946, and their union lasted until his death in March 2006, just two months shy of their 60th anniversary. She was the shy to his outgoing, the quiet to his loud.
They had two daughters, Judith Annette, born Valentine’s Day 1947, and Kathleen Jo, born Valentine’s Day 1949. Evelyn, who had learned to embroider in childhood, loved nothing better than sewing for her two girls, dressing them in identical dresses she created. She also sewed for her granddaughter, great-granddaughters, nieces and many other special little girls, many of whom would tell her in subsequent years they had saved her little dresses as keepsakes. Her talents as a seamstress were put to further use at Central Dry Cleaners in Bourbon, which she and Harvey bought in 1949. Evelyn performed all the customer alterations.
After their daughters were grown and married, Evelyn and Harvey traveled for many years across the U.S. and Canada in their RV. Even more than the sights of the nation’s parks, Evelyn said she loved the nights around the campfire talking with new friends.
She was a devoted member of Camp Creek Church of the Brethren, which she had attended since she was an infant. Teaching children’s Sunday school for many years, she was known as the Candy Lady for her love of passing out treats to kids and adults alike. Her church family showered her with hundreds of cards after she moved from the home she and Harvey had built in Bourbon after the war to Lutheran Life Villages in Fort Wayne in 2014.
Nanny was a tiny lady who had struggled her whole life with frail health, yet outlived most of her contemporaries. She refused to smile for photos yet possessed a mischievous sense of humor (favorite joke: hiding a potato in one of the grandchildren’s presents each Christmas). She had known want during the Depression, yet rarely turned up at Sunday church or a family visit without a gift tucked into her purse. Moving her out of her home in 2014, her children found dozens of stockpiled gifts still awaiting opportunities to be given.
Even from her nursing home, she poured greeting cards into the mail for her friends and acquaintances, always with a personal message in her small, careful handwriting, as small and carefully arranged as her neatly coiffed self. She leaves an outsized hole in the lives of those she so actively cared for, which was everyone she met.
Evelyn was preceded in death by her husband, Harvey; five brothers: Warren Hawley, Forest Hawley, Dale Hawley, Marshall Hawley and Lowell Hawley; five sisters: Lois Hawley, Audrey Hawley, Marjorie Troup, Ruth Sponseller and Delores Gamble; and a grandson, Simon Daniel Ward. Another brother, Robert Hawley, Claypool, survives.
She is survived by her daughters, Judith Ward, Fishers, and Kathleen (husband Dennis) Sparrow, Fort Wayne; grandchildren: Shanna (husband Darren) Dutton, Tulsa, Okla.; Josh (wife Johanna) Ward, Carmel; Adam Ward, Fishers; Ryan Sparrow (wife Colleen), Muncie; and Job Ward (wife Jacki), Fishers; great-grandchildren: Mackennzie and Cassidy Dutton, Tulsa, Okla.; Zoe and Dasher Ward, Carmel; Caleb and Sydney Ward, Fishers; Tommy Sparrow, Muncie; and Jaeger Ward, Fishers. Also surviving are special friends and neighbors Don and Nettie Millington, Bourbon.
Services will be Saturday, Feb. 24 at 2 p.m. with visitation two hours before the service at Camp Creek Church of the Brethren, 7486 Ind. 19, Etna Green, with Pastor Roger Stuart officiating.
Deaton Clemens Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.
*****
Donations may be made to Camp Creek Church of the Brethren, 7486 St Rd 19, Etna Green, Ind. 46524.
Friends are invited to sign the online guest book and share memories with her family at www.deaton-clemensfuneralhome.com.
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