Wilma George Turns 100
May 26, 1999 Wilma George turns 100 on June 9, 1999. Her family is so excited they can't wait; so they are throwing a party on Sunday, June 6, at the Daniel Schmucker homestead in Union Township where Wilma has lived most of her life, although she was born and raised in neighboring Locke Township to the west. Wilma grew up in a farm family that went to the Presberteryn Church in Nappanee maybe a dozen Sundays a year; the other Sabbaths they took the horse and buggy the shorter route to the South Union Church, a nondenominational church built on the township's south cemetery grounds.
Wilma taught elementary public school in the Nappanee Community System for 25 years until mandatory retirement. She and another teacher who also reached retirement age before she was ready, commuted 30 miles to Edwardsburg, Michigan to teach for seven more years before retiring for the second time. Next Wilma became a docent at Historic Amish Acres in Nappanee. She interpreted the Amish way of life to a million visitors over the next 26 years. She retired from Amish Acres in 1997 at the age of 98. In preparation for her celebration, Donna Weaver, Wilma's supervisor at Amish Acres has been conducting a series of audio and video interviews of Wilma, creating an oral history spanning her ten decades of life in Nappanee, Indiana.
Wilma's oldest son and daughter both live in California. Vance is the conductor of the San Francisco Symphony Chorus Director and winner of two Grammy Awards. Julia, also musically inclined, lives in Los Angeles. Youngest son Noel continues to farm the family homestead and Wilma's house is nearby. She is a member of the United Methodist Church. In one of the recent interviews she recalled the early days of Nappanee, before U.S. Highway 6 was paved and State Road 19, the town's main intersection, existed. She remembers seeing vaudeville at the opera house before it was destroyed by fire.
She had her first beefsteak at the Nappanee House Hotel next to the livery stable south of the square. Wilma recalls with pride watching the night train on its way to Chicago, nicknamed the Milk Shake because it stopped at every farmers fence to pick up the milk cans to carry to Chicago. It was a major event at Wilma's house.
Wilma passed away December 11, 2002 and is buried in the Union Center Cemetery, Nappanee, Indiana
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