Halfway, Oregon
Martha Ackerman Warhol, 102, died Feb. 13, 2002, at her home in Halfway.
Her funeral will at 2 p.m. Saturday, March 2, at the Pine Valley Presbyterian Church in Halfway.
Born in South Dakota in 1899, Martha was the oldest of nine children. She grew up in the small German community of Herried, S. D., where her father was a farmer, owned the local bank, and ran a general store.
She didn’t learn to speak English until she was in the first grade. The whole family worked part time in the bank and in the store, and Martha told tales of balancing the books in the bank each day by hand, because there were no adding machines.
Martha lived in three centuries, and in her lifetime saw the advent of electrification, the radio, television, and computers, not to mention the first automobiles, airplanes, rockets, and a man walking on the moon.
After high school graduation she did what very few South Dakota farm girls had done before her: She decided to go to away to college.
After a year at a local college, she went on her own to the University of Minnesota, where she received a bachelor of science degree in home economics in 1921. She was at the time, she said, a flapper-or at least, dressed like one, and it was there she met Peter Warhol.
She was very interested in hospital dietetics, and after graduation she moved to California where she began an extremely successful career as a hospital dietician. Her career ended rather abruptly when Peter came to California to ask her to marry him, and she said yes.
They were married in 1930 in Martha’s hometown of Herried. As was the custom in those days, Martha left her job to become a full-time housewife.
At the depth of the Depression, Martha was asked to run a program called the “Organized Unemployed.” A large church basement was turned into a canning factory. Farmers brought in the produce, and women brought their canning jars and their labor. Scrip was used to pay the workers, and to buy the canned goods. The program was a great success, and Martha was modest about what she had been able to do for the community.
As the wife of a mining engineer, Martha lived in a great many towns and cities, ending up in Minneapolis, where she was, as always, active in her community and in her church. She had always loved California, and in 1983 she and Peter left Minneapolis and moved to Laguna Hills, a retirement community south of Los Angeles.
She enjoyed their years there, and kept very busy with new friends and activities. While she was at it, at the age of 86 she fulfilled a lifelong desire to learn to swim.
She and Peter moved to Halfway 12 years ago to live with their daughter, Patricia, and son-in-law Tony Sowers. As she had always done in a new place, she became involved in the church and in the community.
Local women welcomed her and helped to make her feel at home. She joined the local bridge club and the Carson Club, where she remained active until only two weeks ago. She became Grandma Martha, a title she loved having, by coming to the school twice a week to read to a group of Head Start children, and then to numerous kindergarten classes.
Survivors include her husband, Peter; daughter, Patricia; sons, Warren and Dick; 10 grandchildren; five great-grandchildren; two sisters; a son-in-law, two daughters-in-law, and many nieces and nephews.
The family requests donations in lieu of flowers, to be made to the Pine Valley Presbyterian Church through Tami’s Pine Valley Funeral Home, P.O. Box 543, Halfway, OR 97834.
Used with permission from: Baker City Herald, Baker City, Oregon, February 15, 2002
Transcribed by: Belva Ticknor