Opal Anglemyer, Wakarusa, was married to her husband, Levi, in October, 1938, but they did not have a honeymoon.
“We were married on Saturday and got up Sunday morning and milked the cows before going to church,” she explained.
“We knew each other our whole lives,” she said, as she was born in Wakarusa at the present site of J & N Stone.
Her mother died when she was just 10 days old and she was raised by Elmer and Muriel (McDaniel) Anglemyer. Muriel died eight years later, Opal explained, and Elmer married again, to a woman named Elsie with children and they had a blended family.
Levi was raised by a family that were cousins to Opal, so they saw each other at family get-togethers, but were not related by blood.
They were married in 1938 and were together nearly 65 years when he passed away in 2003.
The couple raised two sons, Bob and Bud, who were born 15 months apart in the 1940s. But both passed away at age 63, Opal explained. She has no grandchildren.
But she has cared for and loved children across the community her whole life.
“I worked in the church nursery since I was 17,” Opal said. “I love children.” She explained that she sometimes cared for nieces and nephews for weeks at a time.
The couple worked an 80-acre farm of their own on C.R. 11, between C.R.s 28 and 30.
“I milked seven cows by hand when we got married, while Levi did other chores,” Opal explained. She appreciated when the farm got mechanical milkers, as the herd increased, too.
Just last April Opal downsized and moved from her rural home to an apartment at Miller’s Merry Manor assisted living. She was well known there, as she visited a sister there several times a week over the years. Another sister is living at Valley View Nursing Home, she explained.
Besides farming, Levi later worked as a carpenter with Homer Martin. Opal worked outside the home, too, at Wolfberg Dime Store and also at McCrory at Concord Mall.
Opal is a long-time member of the Elkhart Valley Church of the Brethren.
“I still drive my van, but I won’t drive to church in the winter if it is snowy or rainy,” she said. Instead, she explained, she will stay at Miller’s and attend the services there.
Opal helped organize the Wakarusa Farmers Market more than 25 years ago. “I’m the craft lady,” she said, while others bring in produce and food items for sale.
Opal and Levi had a camper van and enjoyed traveling to Florida, where they bought a home in Sebring in 1975. They would stay up to half the year in Florida, until selling the property in the 1990s. She once had to drive the van all the way home from Florida, as Levi had injured his shoulder in a fall.
Some of her other volunteer work involved visiting and feeding hospital patients to help them recover. At least two patients of Dr. Robert Abel were cared for by Opal, who then reported back to the doctor on their progress, she explained.
Also about 25 years ago, Opal began baking cakes and cookies to give away to those around the town as a way of saying “thank you.” While her apartment has a microwave oven, Opal has special permission to use an oven in the manor’s kitchen to bake her creations.
“I like it here,”Opal said of life at the manor. “They do my laundry and make up my bed.” She said if she doesn’t like what is on the menu, she will fix a meal for herself in her apartment.
But before she enjoys a meal, she often may be seen helping roll five to 10 other people into the dining room in their wheelchairs. She explained she has a walker, if she needs it, and goes downtown in a scooter.
Opal said she has read The Goshen News her whole life and still gets it delivered at the manor. Plus, for abut 50 years she has written a “Kurtz News” column and the Miller Merry Manor news column for the Wakarusa Tribune.
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Related Photos
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Rod Rowe
Opal Angleymer of Wakarusa has helped many people
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