Ellen H. Schumacher

Ada Ellen Huggins was born on November 6, 1925 in Memphis, Tennessee, the first child from the marriage of Gladys North to Roy Huggins. The family lived with and among relatives until it was time for Ada Ellen to enter elementary school. Roy, Gladys and Ada Ellen moved onto some farm land belonging to J.B. Huggins and his wife Mary Ellen, Roy's parents, in the Gravel Hill community. It was soon that Ada Ellen entered the first grade at the Gravel Hill School under the excellent tutelage of Jo Swaim, an itinerant teacher from Selmer.



Ada Ellen's high school years were spent at Ramer High School from which she graduated in the spring of 1943. At some point in her youth she became an accomplished pianist.



Ada Ellen was something of a venturesome character. She enrolled as a Cadet Nurse in the Navy's Nurse Corps and began training at the Methodist Hospital School of Nursing in 1943. Because World War II was concluded before she graduated Nursing School in 1946, she was released from her commitment to the Navy upon graduation and certification as a Registered Nurse. But, a larger more profound event was soon to enter her uncomplicated life. Around February 1946, Ada Ellen met Paul Schumacher, perhaps the first full-blooded Yankee that she had the good fortune to encounter one evening off campus. The chance-meeting that evening blossomed into a friendship full of exciting challenges and surprises in their 60-plus years of courtship and marriage.



On June 23, 1948 in a small Baptist Church near the Army Base Hospital, she became Ellen H. Schumacher, a name she adopted for life. Ellen and Paul have three children: Kirby resides in Beavercreek, Ohio; Joyce lives in Columbus, Ohio; and, Kevin with wife Linda and their children Robert, Kristin, Lacy and Kevin Phillip live in Minnesota.



For years too numerous to list, Ellen and some girl scout and cub scout leaders were continously trekking young girls and boys into our basement in Ohio for training. A large girl scout camp in southern Ohio always recruited Ellen for its First Aid requirements.



She was active in the choir and as a pianist, Sunday School teacher and faithful member of the Women's Guild at Hawker United Church of Christ in Beavercreek, Ohio. Once the children departed the nest, Ellen practiced nursing at the church Retirement Home, a large complex that had apartments and skilled nursing care units. With Paul's retirement in 1981, they began planning to relocate to the Gravel Hill Community. They made the move at the end of April 1982. Ellen was employed by the McNairy County General Hospital until her retirement in 1990. Then she began devoting time to the Ramer Cumberland Presbyterian Church ladies and their quilting bees, teaching Sunday School class and playing the piano and organ for church services.



Ellen enjoyed traveling throughout the USA and in Europe. Most of all, she cherished the friendships she made with veterans and their families who attended the 9th Infantry Division Association reunions each year. Ellen was the steady illuminated beacon that guided her family through the storms and the quiet times of their years together. Her presence will be missed by all of her family and friends.