Grandma Aggie

 

by Rocky Macy

My former mother-in-law, Agatha (Doerpinghaus) Farmer, passed away earlier this month at the age of ninety-three, and I would like to use today's blog posting to show my respect for the woman who was not only the grandparent of my children, but also a good friend for over fifty years.  

I have used this space in the past to write extensively about my own family history as a way of preserving those stories and relationships for my three children and their own children and future descendants, and while I have done quite a bit of historical and genealogical research on their maternal history as well, I have regarded that as someone else's story to tell.   But I do have some observations to make about Grandma Aggie based on my own long-standing acquaintance and friendship with her, and this seems like the appropriate place to preserve those recollections where they can be accessed in the future by my descendants - who will also be descendants of hers.

I first met Aggie Park, as she was then known, back in the late 1960's when I was in college.  She was a working mother of seven - the oldest, my children's eventual mother, was in college and the youngest was three-years-old.  Aggie was a pharmacist at the old St. John's Hospital (now Mercy) in Springfield, Missouri, a farm wife, and a full-time busy mom.

My children - Nick, Molly, and Tim - were Aggie's three oldest grandchildren, and they were fortunate in that they got to know their grandmother well in her retirement years when she and her final husband, Harris Farmer, settled into a quiet country life on a forty-acre farm near Dennard, Arkansas.  The kids were able to spend time with Aggie and Harris at the farm and to interact with their grandmother after she had left most of the pressures of her working years and raising a family behind.

I have no idea how many grandchildren Aggie wound up having, and her obituary did not give a number, but there were many - and there were also a multitude of great-grandchildren.  My oldest grandchild, Boone, was also Aggie's oldest great-grandchild, and even though when he was born I was no longer a part of Aggie's official family, I did pick her up in Springfield on Boone's first birthday and we drove together to West Plains to be with that special little person on his big day.

I kept up with Aggie over the years, exchanging the occasional holiday cards with snippets of family news.  She seemed to be becoming more focused on preserving family history during her final years, an interest that we shared.  Two years ago she prepared a special family Christmas card that focused on her mother, Sophia Josephine (Wiederkehr) Doerpinghaus, and this past Christmas she sent around a family book that she had authored and completed on August 1, 2021.  The book, looseleaf and bound in a three-ring binder, was an amazing collection of family history, stories, and photos.  I was pleased to discover that she had credited me with being one of her family history sources.

My last contact with Aggie was an email exchange on Boone's 23rd birthday which was May 6, 2022.  I had sent her the posting from my blog regarding his birthday, and she had replied about how unbelievable it was that he was already twenty-three!  (It seemed incredible to me, too!)

The following is the on-line obituary for "Agatha J. Farmer" of Conway Arkansas (January 31, 1929 - June 5, 2022):

Agatha Julia Farmer was born in Clarksville, Arkansas, on January 31, 1929.  She passed away peacefully in Conway, Arkansas, on June 5, 2022.

Agatha is survived by five of her seven children, Rita A. Moore, Karl K. Cates, Julia G. Cates, Stanley F. Park, and Donald R. Park.  She was preceded in death by two of her children, Leah B. Cates and Steven L. Park, and by her husband, Harris E. Farmer.

Agatha was blessed with an abundance of grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and she loved them all.  Agatha was a practicing pharmacist for 50 years and graduated in 1949 with the first class of pharmacists in the state of Arkansas.  She was one of two women in the class, the first two women to receive a pharmacy degree in the state.  Agatha was later awarded an honorary degree in pharmacology from the University of Arkansas. 

A funeral service will be arranged and announced in the coming weeks.  In lieu of flowers, the family asks that contributions be made to St. Joseph's Catholic Church in Conway.

Rest well, old friend.   We'll meet again, and when we do, perhaps we will be able to kick back and catch up on all of the family news over a good bottle of Wiederkehr wine! 

Thank you for all you did to help give my children a good start in life.