A Friend Never Met
(Article written by the St. Ann Arts and Cultural Center )
Ms. Lorena Amelia Meyers (Schlemmer) of Shawnee, Kansas, age 104 was a friend never met. What made her passing unique is none of the Board of Directors or volunteers at the Center have ever had the opportunity to meet Ms. Meyers.
Over ten years ago, Ms. Meyers’ daughter, Joleen Vatcher of Fall River, visited the St. Ann Arts and Cultural Center as part of a bus tour. After seeing the magnificent frescos and hearing the stories behind them, Joleen was so impressed that on her next visit to Kansas, to see her mother, she shared the stories and pictures of the building with her.
Joleen is a flautist with the Rhode Island Wind Ensemble (RIWE) and soon after that tour had the idea of bringing the group to the Center. “At that time, says Dominique Doiron, Executive Director (SAACC), the Center did not have the funds to pay the ensemble’s performance fee.” Joleen said to Dominique that after learning about the Center, her mother wanted to help by sponsoring the concert. Her reasons were two fold. One was to help the Center and the other was because she was thrilled Joleen was playing flute again.
When she was young, Joleen had taken many years of piano lessons. She didn’t like it and never really became very good. At age 12, she fell in love with the flute and played all through high school in both the orchestra and band. After high school, she, unfortunately, rarely played during college or during her 34 years of elementary level teaching. It was only when she retired that she would pick up the flute again. After much practicing, she auditioned for the RIWE and was accepted. Her mother was so thrilled she was playing with the RIWE that she decided to sponsor the first performance at the St. Ann Arts and Cultural Center. And so began a wonderful relationship with Ms. Meyers who continued to sponsor every appearance of the Rhode Island Wind Ensemble at the Center.
When her sponsorship began, Ms. Meyers was already in her early 90’s and due to her advanced age was no longer able to travel from Kansas to Rhode Island, so no board member or volunteer ever had the opportunity to meet her or personally thank her. In 2010, at a performance of the RIWE, the board of directors of the Center dedicated a pew memorial in her honor to thank her for her continued support.
Ms. Meyers was born Lorena Amelia Schlemmer in Kansas City, MO on May 8, 1912, two years before the current St. Ann Church was constructed. During the Great Depression, she worked for the WPA teaching cooking and clothing lessons to adults in the Kansas City area. She married John Wesley Meyers of Shawnee Kansas in 1934 and took up housekeeping in Overland Park where she resided until she was 100 years old.
As the depression continued, Ms. Meyers devoted herself to teaching, social services and food demonstration work. She worked several different jobs until landing a career as a Consumer Affairs Officer, one of only seven consultants, for the Food and Drug Administration covering the states of Kansas, Iowa, Nebraska and Missouri. She retired in 1984 and in 1990 she was asked to do a recorded and written history of her early years as part of the FDA. Copies are now available in the National Library of Medicine, Kansas State University (her alma mater) and the Smithsonian Institution. Ms. Lorena Meyers passed away at 104 years old on July 21, 2016.
Joleen will pick up where her mom left off and continue to sponsor the Rhode Island Wind Ensemble performances at the St. Ann Arts and Cultural Center in honor of her mother.
(Article written by the St. Ann Arts and Cultural Center )
Ms. Lorena Amelia Meyers (Schlemmer) of Shawnee, Kansas, age 104 was a friend never met. What made her passing unique is none of the Board of Directors or volunteers at the Center have ever had the opportunity to meet Ms. Meyers.
Over ten years ago, Ms. Meyers’ daughter, Joleen Vatcher of Fall River, visited the St. Ann Arts and Cultural Center as part of a bus tour. After seeing the magnificent frescos and hearing the stories behind them, Joleen was so impressed that on her next visit to Kansas, to see her mother, she shared the stories and pictures of the building with her.
Joleen is a flautist with the Rhode Island Wind Ensemble (RIWE) and soon after that tour had the idea of bringing the group to the Center. “At that time, says Dominique Doiron, Executive Director (SAACC), the Center did not have the funds to pay the ensemble’s performance fee.” Joleen said to Dominique that after learning about the Center, her mother wanted to help by sponsoring the concert. Her reasons were two fold. One was to help the Center and the other was because she was thrilled Joleen was playing flute again.
When she was young, Joleen had taken many years of piano lessons. She didn’t like it and never really became very good. At age 12, she fell in love with the flute and played all through high school in both the orchestra and band. After high school, she, unfortunately, rarely played during college or during her 34 years of elementary level teaching. It was only when she retired that she would pick up the flute again. After much practicing, she auditioned for the RIWE and was accepted. Her mother was so thrilled she was playing with the RIWE that she decided to sponsor the first performance at the St. Ann Arts and Cultural Center. And so began a wonderful relationship with Ms. Meyers who continued to sponsor every appearance of the Rhode Island Wind Ensemble at the Center.
When her sponsorship began, Ms. Meyers was already in her early 90’s and due to her advanced age was no longer able to travel from Kansas to Rhode Island, so no board member or volunteer ever had the opportunity to meet her or personally thank her. In 2010, at a performance of the RIWE, the board of directors of the Center dedicated a pew memorial in her honor to thank her for her continued support.
Ms. Meyers was born Lorena Amelia Schlemmer in Kansas City, MO on May 8, 1912, two years before the current St. Ann Church was constructed. During the Great Depression, she worked for the WPA teaching cooking and clothing lessons to adults in the Kansas City area. She married John Wesley Meyers of Shawnee Kansas in 1934 and took up housekeeping in Overland Park where she resided until she was 100 years old.
As the depression continued, Ms. Meyers devoted herself to teaching, social services and food demonstration work. She worked several different jobs until landing a career as a Consumer Affairs Officer, one of only seven consultants, for the Food and Drug Administration covering the states of Kansas, Iowa, Nebraska and Missouri. She retired in 1984 and in 1990 she was asked to do a recorded and written history of her early years as part of the FDA. Copies are now available in the National Library of Medicine, Kansas State University (her alma mater) and the Smithsonian Institution. Ms. Lorena Meyers passed away at 104 years old on July 21, 2016.
Joleen will pick up where her mom left off and continue to sponsor the Rhode Island Wind Ensemble performances at the St. Ann Arts and Cultural Center in honor of her mother.
Ms. Meyers graduated from Kansas State University in 1933 with a B.S. degree in Home Economics with Smith Hughes qualifications. She was a member of the Alpha Delta Pi Sorority.
She did extensive traveling lecturing on the principles and methods of freezing foods. In 1959, she became a Consumer Affairs Officer for the Food and Drug Administration. Her responsibilities included speaking engagements, tours of the agency, answering consumer requests and questions and responding to the media. In 1979, she received a commendable service award for her effective implementation of a national FDA food labeling regulations.
She was active in various organizations including the American Association of University women, American Home Economics Association and as a board member of the Kansas Citizens Council on Aging, the Kansas Nutrition Council, the Kansas City Consumer Association, the Kansas City Home Economics Association, the Merriam Homemakers Association, and the Shawnee Mission Garden Club. She received many honors for all of her efforts to improve the lives of thousands all over the country. She received special recognition from the Missouri Association for Social Welfare Volunteers Against Hunger, helping people help themselves through home grown vegetable gardening for better nutritional health. In 1976, she received the Special Service Award for her assistance in preparing a Directory of Federal Agencies and support in fulfilling the Federal Executive Board goals and objectives.
For twenty years, while working for the FDA, she taped radio programs for the Audio-reader at KU in Lawrence, Kansas. Her “Consumer Report” for the blind and handicapped covered health and pocketbook protections. The program was offered nationally and she was often on TV promoting the FDA.
Soon after her retirement from the FDA in 1984, she became a full-time volunteer as the National Organizer for the Widowed Persons Service. She was responsible for establishing and maintaining on-going programs to help newly widowed people with their emotional and social adjustments to widowhood. She was personally responsible for establishing and maintaining approximately twenty-five programs throughout the state of Kansas and Missouri.
Ms. Meyers was a dear and devoted born-again Christian. She attended the Overland Park Baptist Temple for many years after being a member of the Southwest Bible Church for more than forty-five years. She had a love of flowers and gardening, designing and faithfully providing the fresh flower arrangements for that church every Sunday for more than thirty years.
Lorena was a dedicated and loving wife, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, and great-great grandmother. She spent her life serving other people and graciously giving of herself to everyone. She is survived by a son, Jack Meyers and his wife, Jan, of Bucyrus, Kansas, son-in-law, Jack Vatcher (spouse of Joleen (Meyers) Vatcher), of Seekonk, Massachusetts, three grandchildren, Tom Meyers, Bill Meyers, and Jaclyn Suzanne Vatcher Nutter, three great grandchildren and two great-great grandchildren.
She did extensive traveling lecturing on the principles and methods of freezing foods. In 1959, she became a Consumer Affairs Officer for the Food and Drug Administration. Her responsibilities included speaking engagements, tours of the agency, answering consumer requests and questions and responding to the media. In 1979, she received a commendable service award for her effective implementation of a national FDA food labeling regulations.
She was active in various organizations including the American Association of University women, American Home Economics Association and as a board member of the Kansas Citizens Council on Aging, the Kansas Nutrition Council, the Kansas City Consumer Association, the Kansas City Home Economics Association, the Merriam Homemakers Association, and the Shawnee Mission Garden Club. She received many honors for all of her efforts to improve the lives of thousands all over the country. She received special recognition from the Missouri Association for Social Welfare Volunteers Against Hunger, helping people help themselves through home grown vegetable gardening for better nutritional health. In 1976, she received the Special Service Award for her assistance in preparing a Directory of Federal Agencies and support in fulfilling the Federal Executive Board goals and objectives.
For twenty years, while working for the FDA, she taped radio programs for the Audio-reader at KU in Lawrence, Kansas. Her “Consumer Report” for the blind and handicapped covered health and pocketbook protections. The program was offered nationally and she was often on TV promoting the FDA.
Soon after her retirement from the FDA in 1984, she became a full-time volunteer as the National Organizer for the Widowed Persons Service. She was responsible for establishing and maintaining on-going programs to help newly widowed people with their emotional and social adjustments to widowhood. She was personally responsible for establishing and maintaining approximately twenty-five programs throughout the state of Kansas and Missouri.
Ms. Meyers was a dear and devoted born-again Christian. She attended the Overland Park Baptist Temple for many years after being a member of the Southwest Bible Church for more than forty-five years. She had a love of flowers and gardening, designing and faithfully providing the fresh flower arrangements for that church every Sunday for more than thirty years.
Lorena was a dedicated and loving wife, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, and great-great grandmother. She spent her life serving other people and graciously giving of herself to everyone. She is survived by a son, Jack Meyers and his wife, Jan, of Bucyrus, Kansas, son-in-law, Jack Vatcher (spouse of Joleen (Meyers) Vatcher), of Seekonk, Massachusetts, three grandchildren, Tom Meyers, Bill Meyers, and Jaclyn Suzanne Vatcher Nutter, three great grandchildren and two great-great grandchildren.