Ohio couple dies hours apart - holding hands after 70
years of marriage
Helen and Kenneth Felumlee, seen in a 1940s
picture, passed away within 24 hours of each other this weekend after being
married for 70 years. The couple were a well-known fixture of life in
Nashport, and left behind and extensive family.
Couple's love story spans decades
Wife
and husband could not be parted by death
(April 15, 2014)
NASHPORT — When Helen Felumlee passed away at the age of 92
Saturday morning, her family knew her husband Kenneth Felumlee, 91,
wouldn’t be slow to follow her. The couple couldn’t bear to be apart very
long, and Kenneth passed away only 15½ hours after his wife of 70 years.
“We knew when one went, the other was going to go,” said daughter
Linda Cody. “We wanted them to go together, and they did.”
After
Kenneth had his leg amputated 2½ years ago because of circulation
problems, Helen became his main caretaker, making sure he got everything
he needed. She continued this up until three weeks before their deaths,
when she became too frail to care for him.
“She was so weak, she
could hardly do it,” Cody said. “But she was still pushing his chair; she
was still filling his water cup.”
When Kenneth’s health started to
fail, Helen began sleeping on the couch to be near him. The two hadn’t
slept apart in 70 years, the family said. Years ago, when the two took an
overnight ferry equipped with bunk-beds, they chose to both sleep on the
bottom bunk rather than be separated for even a night.
Soon after
Kenneth, Helen’s health also started to go downhill, and she was confined
to a hospital bed near the end of her life. Kenneth took this particularly
hard.
“He would just reach out and grab her hand, but he would keep
his head down because he couldn’t stand to see her hurting,” Cody said.
Upon his wife’s death, Kenneth was ready to join her, family said.
“She was staying strong for Dad and he was staying strong for her,” Cody
said. “That’s what kept them going.”
Helen and Kenneth’s love story
began when they were just 18 and 19 after Kenneth’s ex-girlfriend, a
friend to Helen, introduced the two. They immediately hit it off, dating
for three years before deciding to elope.
Lying to their parents,
the two said they were taking a day trip to Kentucky to visit Kenneth’s
old basketball coach. Heading to the courthouse with only $5 in their
pockets, Kenneth and Helen arrived with barely enough to pay the $2 fee.
The couple were wed Feb. 20, 1944, two days before Kenneth was legally old
enough to get married. “He couldn’t wait,” son Jim Felumlee said.
When the couple returned, they were too nervous to tell their parents
right away, so they lived separately several weeks until Kenneth developed
the courage to break the news of their elopement.
“I would have
liked to have been there for that conversation,” Cody said.
The
newly official Felumlee family grew almost immediately, as Helen quickly
became pregnant with the first of their eight children.
Caring for
a household of eight children was no easy task, but the couple was
determined to make it work. Both Helen and Kenneth had grown up working,
and they weren’t afraid to put in the extra effort.
Kenneth worked
at the B&O/Chessie Systems Railroad as a car inspector while also
operating Felumlee‘s Garage. He later worked as a rural mail carrier for
the Nashport Post Office. In addition, he was active in his
Nashport-Irville United Methodist Church as a Sunday school teacher and
member of the Council on Ministry and administrative board. He also was a
member of the board of education from Frazeysburg-Nashport schools,
Tri-Valley schools, and the Muskingum County School Board.
His
children recall him coming home from one job, grabbing the only hour or
two of sleep that he ever operated on, and then heading off to his other
job. At night, it wasn’t uncommon for Kenneth to leave the house in order
to go help someone whose plumbing or car had broken. “Some days, he
wouldn’t sleep,” Jim said.
Helen and Kenneth Felumlee in 1997.
The long absences could be hard to deal
with, but Helen supported Kenneth in all his endeavors. “There would be
hours he wasn’t here, and she had all these kids, but she understood that
it was a need in him to help other people,” Cody said.
Helen spent
her days cooking and cleaning not only for her growing family, but for
other families in need in the area. She even changed diapers for a
neighbor’s child, as the father was not keen on the task. She taught
Sunday school and served on the Council on Ministry and Friendship Circle
at the church, but was known even more for her greeting card ministry.
Not only would Helen just send birthday cards, she would also send
sympathy cards, greeting cards and holiday cards to everyone in her
community, each with a personal note inside.
“She kept Hallmark in
business,” daughter-in-law Debbie Felumlee joked.
Jim added, “If
you would forget your birthday, she would remind you.”
Together,
the couple served their community, were active in the lives of their many
grandchildren, and visited nursing homes on Sunday. Beloved by the
community, Kenneth was jokingly dubbed the “self-appointed mayor of
Nashport” by those that knew him well.
When Kenneth retired in 1983
and the children began to leave the house, the Felumlees began to explore
their love of travel, visiting almost all 50 states by bus.
“He
didn’t want to fly anywhere, because you couldn’t see anything as you were
going,” said Jim.
The two grew with every day, their children said,
and remained deeply in love until the very end. Even in their last days,
Helen and Kenneth would eat breakfast together while holding hands.
About 12 hours after Helen died, Kenneth looked at his children and
said, “Mom’s dead.” He quickly began to fade, and was surrounded by 24 of
his closest family members and friends when he died Sunday morning.
“It was a wonderful going away party,” Cody said. “He was ready. He
just didn’t want to leave her here by herself.”
Zanesville Times Recorder
Couple died eight hours apart after 69
years of marriage
TIFFIN, Ohio (AP) — The son of an Ohio couple who died eight hours
apart after 69 years of marriage says it wasn't surprising for a pair who
did everything together.
The Advertiser-Tribune in
Tiffin reports 88-year-old Gene Warrington and his 86-year-old wife,
Pat, died Dec. 27 in Findlay. Both had been in hospice care.
Gene
Warrington had been able to visit his wife's room and hold her hand a few
days before they died. Phil Warrington says his father recognized that Pat
was in critical condition and told him that life won't be fun anymore.
Eight hours after Gene died, his wife passed away.
Phil
Warrington says his parents met in junior high school, wed as teenagers
and were nearly inseparable, even in failing health. Given that, he says
the ending of their love story was almost predictable.
Married 67 years,
Floyd and Violet Hartwig of Easton, die within hours of each other
Published on Feb 21, 2015
Longest Married Couple Project
America's Longest-Married Couple married 83
years
John and Ann Betar
The couple eloped
in 1932 when they were just 21 and 17, after Ann's father said he wanted
her to marry a much older man. Fast forward to 2016 and the couple are now
great-grandparents and have both lived to be past 100! John is 104 and Ann
is 100.
