Blanche Schermerhorn GUSHWA

Blanche Schermerhorn Gushwa Trout BIRTH 12 Nov 1903 LaGrange County, Indiana, USA DEATH 26 Mar 1984 (aged 80) Union, Cass County, Michigan, USA BURIAL East Union Cemetery Union, Cass County, Michigan, USA Show Map MEMORIAL ID 93528108 Blanche S. Trout, 80, of 69838 Trout Road, Union, Mich., an Elkhart Truth correspondent and feature writer for the Union area, was found dead at home Monday night, March 26, 1984. She apparently suffered a heart attack that morning. Mrs. Trout also was a former Cass County commissioner, became the first woman commissioner for Porter Township and was a retired Cass County rural school teacher. She was a member of the Mason-Union Garden Club, the United Methodist Church, the Daughters of the Colonists, the Cass County Republican Women's Club and the Cass County Historical Society. She was a Cass County DAR Registrar. She had been employed by The Truth for a number of years. She was born Nov. 12, 1903, in LaGrange County. As Blanche S. Gushwa, she married Claude H. Trout Nov. 27, 1925, in Elkhart, Ind. He died Sept. 30, 1981. Surviving are two daughters, Mrs. Jack (Norma Jean) Lightfoot, Elkhart, and Mrs. Gene (Doris) Powers, Bristol, Ind.; six grandchildren; 11 great - grandchildren; and a sister, Mary E. Gushwa, Sturgis, Mich. Friends may call from 3 to 5 and 7 to 9 p.m. Wednesday at the Stemm - Lawson - Peterson Funeral Home, Bristol Chapel. Services will be at l p.m. Thursday at the Bristol United Methodist Church. The Rev. Ted Blosser, pastor, will officiate. Burial will be in East Union Cemetery, east of Union on U.S. 12. Memorials may be made to the Porter Township Fire Department. Elkhart Truth UNION - To those who knew her, Blanche Trout was the ideal example of a good citizen. Mrs. Trout. 80, died in her home Monday, March 26, 1984, of a heart attack. "Blanche was very involved in community life and stayed that way until the very end," said Mrs. Grace Carter Pickrell. Mrs. Trout was also a long-time correspondent for The Elkhart Truth. " Her contributions in news and historical feature areas were both interesting and significant," said Truth State Editor Brian Howey. "She will be irreplaceable." Mrs. Trout, a former teacher, was instrumental in the establishment of the Baldwin Prairie Elementary School in Union at a time when schools were ordered to consolidate. She was one of several Union area residents determined to establish a local school so young children wouldn't have to ride far lengths. Junior Schmeling, a Union neighbor of Mrs. Trout, served with her on the committee that founded Baldwin Prairie Elementary School. In the early 1950s, there were six local elementary school districts in the area and they were paying tuition to send the students to Bristol High School. So Union School. located on U.S. 12, and Maple Grove, about a mile east of Union, formed one district and bonded out to build a new elementary school. Schmeling said that if he remembers correctly, Mrs. Trout even suggested the name for the school. Shortly the thereafter the area became a part of the White Pigeon School District. Schmeling, like many others, remembered Mrs. Trout as a good historian . "She could take you clear back to the Indians," he said of her historical accounts. Mrs. Trout served on the Cass County Board of Commissioners from the 8th District from 1971 to 1976- the first woman in the county's lengthy history to do so. " She did her job. She was a down-to-earth commissioner," said Harold Harp, an Adamsville Democrat and a friend of the Trout family. Harp served on the county operations committee with Mrs. Trout for two years and "she was always at meetings. The weather didn't matter to her." Harp's wife, Wilma, remembers Mrs. Trout as a ''very giving person." Both were very active in the Capt. Samuel Felt Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution and Mrs. Harp described her as "a real history buff - always interested in genealogy." Past Cass County Republican Chairman Ray Wilder, Sisters Lake, remembered Mrs. Trout as a "rock-rib Republican from long ago." "We hate to lose her," Wilder said. Bertha Fisher, Union, who knew Mrs. Trout for 62 years, said, "Blanche was a very giving person, both to her family and her community. She was extremely interested in local history and did a lot to uncover it for the people of this community. ''I will miss her and so will many others," Miss Fisher said. Mrs. Trout was on the advisory committee that established the original Union post office. She also served as Porter Township's justice of the peace for 25 years.

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