Atha Booher was the second of the six children of Joseph and Melcena Booher, of Armstrong, IL. Joe Booher was an entrepreneur. Cena was a housewife, mother, and midwife. The eldest child, Iza, died in the 1918 Spanish Flu epidemic, leaving Atha the eldest surviving child.
Joe and Cena stressed education above all. Four of the remaining five children obtained a college education, not an easy thing for the younger ones to do during the Depression. Atha attended the Moody Bible Institute, majoring in Social Work. After graduation, she worked at Chicago's Hull House as a social worker and traveled weekends as a visiting singer at churches in Illinois and Indiana. She had a remarkable voice; her teachers wanted her to go to school in New York City, but there was never any money for that. This disappointment sadly colored the rest of her life. As a little girl standing next to her in church when she was in her late fifties I was astonished by her voice, and that was untrained, thirty years on. Indeed, she had reasons for disappointment.
When she was twenty-three years old she married Bill Perteit, a farmer from Algonquin, IL, and they farmed for the next twenty-five-or-so years. They had just one child; childbirth was almost impossible for Atha, and she refused to risk having more children. When Bill's asthma finally required that they stop farming, they moved to Barrington, IL. Atha got a job at Jewel Tea Industries, a mail-order house. She worked there until she retired in about 1970 or 1971.
While they were living in Barrington, Atha volunteered as a Gray Lady at Great Lakes Naval Air Station Hospital. She went and talked with injured sailors, wrote letters for them, and generally helped where she could. This was in line with her training at Hull House, and she took great personal satisfaction in helping those who needed her.
Bill died in 1971, and in 1972, Atha moved to St. Petersburg, Florida, to a seniors mobile home park. She had a three-wheeled tricycle, with a big basket on the back, and she lived her dream of being in a very hot climate for seven years. Her youngest sister and her family lived in Tampa, so she was not alone in the area.
In 1979, Atha returned to Illinois to be closer to her daughter, as her health was failing. She had a nice apartment in a seniors building in DeKalb, IL until her health deteriorated to where she could not be alone. Then she moved into a house a few blocks away, and the younger sister of a family friend moved in to help her.
The last seven weeks of her life, Atha lived in the DeKalb County Nursing Home, and she died there. She was survived by her daughter Betsy Harfst and son-in-law Ernie of Sycamore, IL, and her grandchildren Sue Ann of Rochelle, IL, Michael (Pam) of Milwaukie, OR, and Patrick (Kathe) of Chandler, AZ. She was interred in East Dundee, IL, with her husband, his brother Bert and Bert's wife, Gail.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I lived with my grandparents during the summer of 1966, and worked with my grandmother at Jewel Tea, to earn money for college. It was an excellent opportunity to learn more about her, and I did.
One amusing thing is that Atha's actual birth date was April 1, but she was born just a little after midnight. Her mother Cena told the doctor that she absolutely REFUSED to have a child of hers have April Fool's Day as a birthday, and Cena ordered the doctor to put March 31 on the birth certificate. I do not think very many people ever crossed Melcena Booher; she was a force of nature; when I lived with her she was 93, deaf, and blind, and still no one to disobey. The doctor put March 31 on the certificate.
One sad thing was told to me by Momma. When she was a little girl it was the heighth of the Depression, and they lived on a rented farm near Algonquin, IL. This made them better off than a lot of people, because they had a garden and could eat their own crops and animals. However, they did not grow sugar or flour. Momma used to watch her mother make out the grocery list, and then go over it and cross out those items which they could not afford, or which were not absolutely necessary, before they could go to the store. Every list, for years and years, was done this way. Very depressing to the spirit, that is.
Bill and Atha took in family members to help on the farm during the Depression. Atha's brother Joe and Bill's brother Bert both worked as the "hired man" during those years for some time.
Atha was never really happy as a farm wife; she was sad about her lost musical career opportunity. She was a beautiful plump charming woman, always well-dressed and perfectly made-up, and she had beautiful red hair. She never looked her age, and she had the gift of making strangers comfortable, which was like her father's personality, and perhaps helped her make her choice to be a social worker.
She had breast cancer in the late 1940s and had a double radical mastectomy. She remained cancer-free for the rest of her life. While she developed glaucoma in later years, she never went blind as had her mother and her grandmother, who were also glaucoma victims. Her vision remained until death, due to modern medicine.
My grandmother had an amazing ability to skew facts to suit herself. As she was forbidden by the doctor to drink alcohol after she got glaucoma, she only drank vodka. As vodka is clear, she determined that this meant that it was not alcohol. And she actually believed that.
Atha was a fat child, and did not compare favorably with her prettier older sister or her (male) younger brother Joe. It is impossible to say why she felt unloved, whether it was true or not, but she was starved for affection. It was not possible her entire life to ever fill her emptiness, and make her feel loved, but we tried.
Anyone who has ever seen the British comedy Keeping Up Appearances will know what Atha looked and acted like, and how she dressed, and how well she kept up her person. She IS Hyacinth Bucket to the "N"th degree. Watching that program is a mixed pleasure for me; it is like a visit with my "Bomma", but it also makes me sad for both of them, Atha and Hyacinth.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In 1963, Atha and a friend of hers took the S.S. Lurline cruise to Hawaii, and spent a week there at the Illiki Hotel. She talked about it for the rest of her life. She framed the pictured covers of the menus and had them on the living room wall for the rest of her life.
Later, but I am not sure of the year, she and one or two of her sisters took a Caribbean cruise. She did love the luxury of the ocean liner.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Someone has added her place of birth as Montgomery, Indiana, to the database of Ancestry dot com. I do not know whether or not this is true. Her mother's family came from there, and most of them stayed there. It is very possible. I do not have her birth certificate, nor do I know who put that in.
Joe and Cena stressed education above all. Four of the remaining five children obtained a college education, not an easy thing for the younger ones to do during the Depression. Atha attended the Moody Bible Institute, majoring in Social Work. After graduation, she worked at Chicago's Hull House as a social worker and traveled weekends as a visiting singer at churches in Illinois and Indiana. She had a remarkable voice; her teachers wanted her to go to school in New York City, but there was never any money for that. This disappointment sadly colored the rest of her life. As a little girl standing next to her in church when she was in her late fifties I was astonished by her voice, and that was untrained, thirty years on. Indeed, she had reasons for disappointment.
When she was twenty-three years old she married Bill Perteit, a farmer from Algonquin, IL, and they farmed for the next twenty-five-or-so years. They had just one child; childbirth was almost impossible for Atha, and she refused to risk having more children. When Bill's asthma finally required that they stop farming, they moved to Barrington, IL. Atha got a job at Jewel Tea Industries, a mail-order house. She worked there until she retired in about 1970 or 1971.
While they were living in Barrington, Atha volunteered as a Gray Lady at Great Lakes Naval Air Station Hospital. She went and talked with injured sailors, wrote letters for them, and generally helped where she could. This was in line with her training at Hull House, and she took great personal satisfaction in helping those who needed her.
Bill died in 1971, and in 1972, Atha moved to St. Petersburg, Florida, to a seniors mobile home park. She had a three-wheeled tricycle, with a big basket on the back, and she lived her dream of being in a very hot climate for seven years. Her youngest sister and her family lived in Tampa, so she was not alone in the area.
In 1979, Atha returned to Illinois to be closer to her daughter, as her health was failing. She had a nice apartment in a seniors building in DeKalb, IL until her health deteriorated to where she could not be alone. Then she moved into a house a few blocks away, and the younger sister of a family friend moved in to help her.
The last seven weeks of her life, Atha lived in the DeKalb County Nursing Home, and she died there. She was survived by her daughter Betsy Harfst and son-in-law Ernie of Sycamore, IL, and her grandchildren Sue Ann of Rochelle, IL, Michael (Pam) of Milwaukie, OR, and Patrick (Kathe) of Chandler, AZ. She was interred in East Dundee, IL, with her husband, his brother Bert and Bert's wife, Gail.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I lived with my grandparents during the summer of 1966, and worked with my grandmother at Jewel Tea, to earn money for college. It was an excellent opportunity to learn more about her, and I did.
One amusing thing is that Atha's actual birth date was April 1, but she was born just a little after midnight. Her mother Cena told the doctor that she absolutely REFUSED to have a child of hers have April Fool's Day as a birthday, and Cena ordered the doctor to put March 31 on the birth certificate. I do not think very many people ever crossed Melcena Booher; she was a force of nature; when I lived with her she was 93, deaf, and blind, and still no one to disobey. The doctor put March 31 on the certificate.
One sad thing was told to me by Momma. When she was a little girl it was the heighth of the Depression, and they lived on a rented farm near Algonquin, IL. This made them better off than a lot of people, because they had a garden and could eat their own crops and animals. However, they did not grow sugar or flour. Momma used to watch her mother make out the grocery list, and then go over it and cross out those items which they could not afford, or which were not absolutely necessary, before they could go to the store. Every list, for years and years, was done this way. Very depressing to the spirit, that is.
Bill and Atha took in family members to help on the farm during the Depression. Atha's brother Joe and Bill's brother Bert both worked as the "hired man" during those years for some time.
Atha was never really happy as a farm wife; she was sad about her lost musical career opportunity. She was a beautiful plump charming woman, always well-dressed and perfectly made-up, and she had beautiful red hair. She never looked her age, and she had the gift of making strangers comfortable, which was like her father's personality, and perhaps helped her make her choice to be a social worker.
She had breast cancer in the late 1940s and had a double radical mastectomy. She remained cancer-free for the rest of her life. While she developed glaucoma in later years, she never went blind as had her mother and her grandmother, who were also glaucoma victims. Her vision remained until death, due to modern medicine.
My grandmother had an amazing ability to skew facts to suit herself. As she was forbidden by the doctor to drink alcohol after she got glaucoma, she only drank vodka. As vodka is clear, she determined that this meant that it was not alcohol. And she actually believed that.
Atha was a fat child, and did not compare favorably with her prettier older sister or her (male) younger brother Joe. It is impossible to say why she felt unloved, whether it was true or not, but she was starved for affection. It was not possible her entire life to ever fill her emptiness, and make her feel loved, but we tried.
Anyone who has ever seen the British comedy Keeping Up Appearances will know what Atha looked and acted like, and how she dressed, and how well she kept up her person. She IS Hyacinth Bucket to the "N"th degree. Watching that program is a mixed pleasure for me; it is like a visit with my "Bomma", but it also makes me sad for both of them, Atha and Hyacinth.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In 1963, Atha and a friend of hers took the S.S. Lurline cruise to Hawaii, and spent a week there at the Illiki Hotel. She talked about it for the rest of her life. She framed the pictured covers of the menus and had them on the living room wall for the rest of her life.
Later, but I am not sure of the year, she and one or two of her sisters took a Caribbean cruise. She did love the luxury of the ocean liner.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Someone has added her place of birth as Montgomery, Indiana, to the database of Ancestry dot com. I do not know whether or not this is true. Her mother's family came from there, and most of them stayed there. It is very possible. I do not have her birth certificate, nor do I know who put that in.
Atha Booher was the second of the six children of Joseph and Melcena Booher, of Armstrong, IL. Joe Booher was an entrepreneur. Cena was a housewife, mother, and midwife. The eldest child, Iza, died in the 1918 Spanish Flu epidemic, leaving Atha the eldest surviving child.
Joe and Cena stressed education above all. Four of the remaining five children obtained a college education, not an easy thing for the younger ones to do during the Depression. Atha attended the Moody Bible Institute, majoring in Social Work. After graduation, she worked at Chicago's Hull House as a social worker and traveled weekends as a visiting singer at churches in Illinois and Indiana. She had a remarkable voice; her teachers wanted her to go to school in New York City, but there was never any money for that. This disappointment sadly colored the rest of her life. As a little girl standing next to her in church when she was in her late fifties I was astonished by her voice, and that was untrained, thirty years on. Indeed, she had reasons for disappointment.
When she was twenty-three years old she married Bill Perteit, a farmer from Algonquin, IL, and they farmed for the next twenty-five-or-so years. They had just one child; childbirth was almost impossible for Atha, and she refused to risk having more children. When Bill's asthma finally required that they stop farming, they moved to Barrington, IL. Atha got a job at Jewel Tea Industries, a mail-order house. She worked there until she retired in about 1970 or 1971.
While they were living in Barrington, Atha volunteered as a Gray Lady at Great Lakes Naval Air Station Hospital. She went and talked with injured sailors, wrote letters for them, and generally helped where she could. This was in line with her training at Hull House, and she took great personal satisfaction in helping those who needed her.
Bill died in 1971, and in 1972, Atha moved to St. Petersburg, Florida, to a seniors mobile home park. She had a three-wheeled tricycle, with a big basket on the back, and she lived her dream of being in a very hot climate for seven years. Her youngest sister and her family lived in Tampa, so she was not alone in the area.
In 1979, Atha returned to Illinois to be closer to her daughter, as her health was failing. She had a nice apartment in a seniors building in DeKalb, IL until her health deteriorated to where she could not be alone. Then she moved into a house a few blocks away, and the younger sister of a family friend moved in to help her.
The last seven weeks of her life, Atha lived in the DeKalb County Nursing Home, and she died there. She was survived by her daughter Betsy Harfst and son-in-law Ernie of Sycamore, IL, and her grandchildren Sue Ann of Rochelle, IL, Michael (Pam) of Milwaukie, OR, and Patrick (Kathe) of Chandler, AZ. She was interred in East Dundee, IL, with her husband, his brother Bert and Bert's wife, Gail.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I lived with my grandparents during the summer of 1966, and worked with my grandmother at Jewel Tea, to earn money for college. It was an excellent opportunity to learn more about her, and I did.
One amusing thing is that Atha's actual birth date was April 1, but she was born just a little after midnight. Her mother Cena told the doctor that she absolutely REFUSED to have a child of hers have April Fool's Day as a birthday, and Cena ordered the doctor to put March 31 on the birth certificate. I do not think very many people ever crossed Melcena Booher; she was a force of nature; when I lived with her she was 93, deaf, and blind, and still no one to disobey. The doctor put March 31 on the certificate.
One sad thing was told to me by Momma. When she was a little girl it was the heighth of the Depression, and they lived on a rented farm near Algonquin, IL. This made them better off than a lot of people, because they had a garden and could eat their own crops and animals. However, they did not grow sugar or flour. Momma used to watch her mother make out the grocery list, and then go over it and cross out those items which they could not afford, or which were not absolutely necessary, before they could go to the store. Every list, for years and years, was done this way. Very depressing to the spirit, that is.
Bill and Atha took in family members to help on the farm during the Depression. Atha's brother Joe and Bill's brother Bert both worked as the "hired man" during those years for some time.
Atha was never really happy as a farm wife; she was sad about her lost musical career opportunity. She was a beautiful plump charming woman, always well-dressed and perfectly made-up, and she had beautiful red hair. She never looked her age, and she had the gift of making strangers comfortable, which was like her father's personality, and perhaps helped her make her choice to be a social worker.
She had breast cancer in the late 1940s and had a double radical mastectomy. She remained cancer-free for the rest of her life. While she developed glaucoma in later years, she never went blind as had her mother and her grandmother, who were also glaucoma victims. Her vision remained until death, due to modern medicine.
My grandmother had an amazing ability to skew facts to suit herself. As she was forbidden by the doctor to drink alcohol after she got glaucoma, she only drank vodka. As vodka is clear, she determined that this meant that it was not alcohol. And she actually believed that.
Atha was a fat child, and did not compare favorably with her prettier older sister or her (male) younger brother Joe. It is impossible to say why she felt unloved, whether it was true or not, but she was starved for affection. It was not possible her entire life to ever fill her emptiness, and make her feel loved, but we tried.
Anyone who has ever seen the British comedy Keeping Up Appearances will know what Atha looked and acted like, and how she dressed, and how well she kept up her person. She IS Hyacinth Bucket to the "N"th degree. Watching that program is a mixed pleasure for me; it is like a visit with my "Bomma", but it also makes me sad for both of them, Atha and Hyacinth.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In 1963, Atha and a friend of hers took the S.S. Lurline cruise to Hawaii, and spent a week there at the Illiki Hotel. She talked about it for the rest of her life. She framed the pictured covers of the menus and had them on the living room wall for the rest of her life.
Later, but I am not sure of the year, she and one or two of her sisters took a Caribbean cruise. She did love the luxury of the ocean liner.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Someone has added her place of birth as Montgomery, Indiana, to the database of Ancestry dot com. I do not know whether or not this is true. Her mother's family came from there, and most of them stayed there. It is very possible. I do not have her birth certificate, nor do I know who put that in.
Joe and Cena stressed education above all. Four of the remaining five children obtained a college education, not an easy thing for the younger ones to do during the Depression. Atha attended the Moody Bible Institute, majoring in Social Work. After graduation, she worked at Chicago's Hull House as a social worker and traveled weekends as a visiting singer at churches in Illinois and Indiana. She had a remarkable voice; her teachers wanted her to go to school in New York City, but there was never any money for that. This disappointment sadly colored the rest of her life. As a little girl standing next to her in church when she was in her late fifties I was astonished by her voice, and that was untrained, thirty years on. Indeed, she had reasons for disappointment.
When she was twenty-three years old she married Bill Perteit, a farmer from Algonquin, IL, and they farmed for the next twenty-five-or-so years. They had just one child; childbirth was almost impossible for Atha, and she refused to risk having more children. When Bill's asthma finally required that they stop farming, they moved to Barrington, IL. Atha got a job at Jewel Tea Industries, a mail-order house. She worked there until she retired in about 1970 or 1971.
While they were living in Barrington, Atha volunteered as a Gray Lady at Great Lakes Naval Air Station Hospital. She went and talked with injured sailors, wrote letters for them, and generally helped where she could. This was in line with her training at Hull House, and she took great personal satisfaction in helping those who needed her.
Bill died in 1971, and in 1972, Atha moved to St. Petersburg, Florida, to a seniors mobile home park. She had a three-wheeled tricycle, with a big basket on the back, and she lived her dream of being in a very hot climate for seven years. Her youngest sister and her family lived in Tampa, so she was not alone in the area.
In 1979, Atha returned to Illinois to be closer to her daughter, as her health was failing. She had a nice apartment in a seniors building in DeKalb, IL until her health deteriorated to where she could not be alone. Then she moved into a house a few blocks away, and the younger sister of a family friend moved in to help her.
The last seven weeks of her life, Atha lived in the DeKalb County Nursing Home, and she died there. She was survived by her daughter Betsy Harfst and son-in-law Ernie of Sycamore, IL, and her grandchildren Sue Ann of Rochelle, IL, Michael (Pam) of Milwaukie, OR, and Patrick (Kathe) of Chandler, AZ. She was interred in East Dundee, IL, with her husband, his brother Bert and Bert's wife, Gail.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I lived with my grandparents during the summer of 1966, and worked with my grandmother at Jewel Tea, to earn money for college. It was an excellent opportunity to learn more about her, and I did.
One amusing thing is that Atha's actual birth date was April 1, but she was born just a little after midnight. Her mother Cena told the doctor that she absolutely REFUSED to have a child of hers have April Fool's Day as a birthday, and Cena ordered the doctor to put March 31 on the birth certificate. I do not think very many people ever crossed Melcena Booher; she was a force of nature; when I lived with her she was 93, deaf, and blind, and still no one to disobey. The doctor put March 31 on the certificate.
One sad thing was told to me by Momma. When she was a little girl it was the heighth of the Depression, and they lived on a rented farm near Algonquin, IL. This made them better off than a lot of people, because they had a garden and could eat their own crops and animals. However, they did not grow sugar or flour. Momma used to watch her mother make out the grocery list, and then go over it and cross out those items which they could not afford, or which were not absolutely necessary, before they could go to the store. Every list, for years and years, was done this way. Very depressing to the spirit, that is.
Bill and Atha took in family members to help on the farm during the Depression. Atha's brother Joe and Bill's brother Bert both worked as the "hired man" during those years for some time.
Atha was never really happy as a farm wife; she was sad about her lost musical career opportunity. She was a beautiful plump charming woman, always well-dressed and perfectly made-up, and she had beautiful red hair. She never looked her age, and she had the gift of making strangers comfortable, which was like her father's personality, and perhaps helped her make her choice to be a social worker.
She had breast cancer in the late 1940s and had a double radical mastectomy. She remained cancer-free for the rest of her life. While she developed glaucoma in later years, she never went blind as had her mother and her grandmother, who were also glaucoma victims. Her vision remained until death, due to modern medicine.
My grandmother had an amazing ability to skew facts to suit herself. As she was forbidden by the doctor to drink alcohol after she got glaucoma, she only drank vodka. As vodka is clear, she determined that this meant that it was not alcohol. And she actually believed that.
Atha was a fat child, and did not compare favorably with her prettier older sister or her (male) younger brother Joe. It is impossible to say why she felt unloved, whether it was true or not, but she was starved for affection. It was not possible her entire life to ever fill her emptiness, and make her feel loved, but we tried.
Anyone who has ever seen the British comedy Keeping Up Appearances will know what Atha looked and acted like, and how she dressed, and how well she kept up her person. She IS Hyacinth Bucket to the "N"th degree. Watching that program is a mixed pleasure for me; it is like a visit with my "Bomma", but it also makes me sad for both of them, Atha and Hyacinth.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In 1963, Atha and a friend of hers took the S.S. Lurline cruise to Hawaii, and spent a week there at the Illiki Hotel. She talked about it for the rest of her life. She framed the pictured covers of the menus and had them on the living room wall for the rest of her life.
Later, but I am not sure of the year, she and one or two of her sisters took a Caribbean cruise. She did love the luxury of the ocean liner.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Someone has added her place of birth as Montgomery, Indiana, to the database of Ancestry dot com. I do not know whether or not this is true. Her mother's family came from there, and most of them stayed there. It is very possible. I do not have her birth certificate, nor do I know who put that in.
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