As related by herself: She and Lester started school in Waterford (a one-room school), walking a mile each way. Orrie started at King's Corners near Lexington (also one-room). Then schools were centralized and they were bused into Lexington. After her father's death when she was 13, they moved to Edison, OH where she graduated in 1935 in a class of 21 pupils from a small rural high school. Her mother did several odd jobs to keep the family toghether. During WWII she worked at the Army Depot in Shelby, OH. By that time she had moved to Galion, OH where work was a little more plentiful. She also had a job as a cook in Isaly's Dairy Restaurant there, and Orrie graduated from Galion High School.
She was married and apparently lived most of her life in Kentucky. But moved back to Ohio and lived with her daughter when her health deteriorated in 2003.
[Obituary]
DAYTON - Bernice A. Carmean, 90 of Piqua and formerly of Caledonia, passed away Thursday, April 10, 2008 at the Hospice of Dayton. She was born July 11, 1917, in Waterford, to the late Lloyd and Josie (Wells) Ruhl.
She was a 1936 graduate of Edison High School in Edison. Bernice married Paul R. Carmean and he preceded her in death in 1997.
In earlier years she was employed by North Electric in Galion. Bernice was a homemaker, a wife to Paul and a mother to their daughter Rosalee. She enjoyed working on the family farm, sewing and cooking and was a member of the Homemakers Club when the family lived in Danville, Ky. She attended the Caledonia Memorial United Methodist Church.
She will be missed and remembered by her daughter, Rosalee McCulloh of Piqua; sister-in-law, Mary Karody of Mount Gilead; extended family and friends. She was preceded in death by her brothers, Lester Ruhl and Orrie Ruhl.
Funeral services to celebrate her life will be held at 2 p.m., Friday, April 18, at the Timson-Allen & Melroy Funeral Home in Caledonia with Pastor Randy Kiel officiating. Interment will follow in the Caledonia Cemetery.