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Obituary for Mary Eleanor Everly Sanford
Mary Eleanor Everly Sanford, only child of Warden Everly and Inez Fogle Everly, died Thursday, October 17, 2019, at her home, four months after the death of her husband, Lorin, and the day before his birthday. They were married seventy-two years. Eleanor was born December 23, 1925, in Noble County. As a bride in the post-war period, she worked to help put Lorin through The Ohio State University, even as she was completing her own degree in 1947 in Poultry Science, an unusual major for a woman. She was elected to Gamma Sigma Delta, the Honor Society of Agriculture in 1947, and laughed later that the only “D” on her transcript was in Physical Education. She couldn’t connect a racquet with a tennis ball the entire quarter.
After moving back home to Noble County, Eleanor and Lorin raised chickens and sold eggs, but the advent of the factory cage farms forced them to close the business. Eleanor supported Lorin in his job with the Buckeye Polled Hereford Association, typing newsletters and doing mailings from their home office while they raised their own beef cattle. It was also where they raised their daughter, Ann. Eleanor was so proficient at keeping financial records that the IRS agent complimented her on the completeness and accuracy of her deductions during their only audit.
Eleanor went back to college when her daughter Ann was in high school, driving at night to Zanesville or St. Clairsville to acquire enough credits for a teaching certificate. When Ann left for college in 1971, Eleanor became a teacher in the business department at Shenandoah High School She enjoyed teaching her students the life skills they would need in the real world: opening a bank account, balancing a checkbook, and saving and investing their money. She was passionate about the stock market and taught her students how it worked. Eleanor taught until 1986, when she retired, and then she became a grandmother.
Her grandsons, Ford Bennett (Christine Fair) and Robert (Deuce) Bennett, meant the world to her. She taught them to enjoy new foods and flavors as well as new places to visit across the United States. She was proud of her Irish heritage and was the go-to person for relatives far and wide who wanted a fact or oral history about a family before the internet. She loved history, reading many biographies of great leaders, and she always knew which king or queen of England was which. Her intelligence and being always willing to help was the hallmark of her life.
Eleanor was a member of the Caldwell United Methodist Church, where she had served as church treasurer, and she was also a member of the Guernsey Chapter #211 Order of the Eastern Star.
Friends may call Sunday, October 20, 2019, from 2PM-4PM at McVay-Perkins Funeral Home, 416 East Street, Caldwell, where the funeral service will follow visitation at 4PM with Rev. Bev Hall officiating. Burial will follow at Olive Cemetery. Memorial contributions may be made to the Caldwell United Methodist Church, 537 Main Street, Caldwell, Ohio, 43724.
