The Emmett Touby Family Emmett Peter Touby 8-16-1888 to 8-2-1971 Elsie Locke Touby 8-6-1894 to 1-17-1975 married 12-24-1914 Emmett’s parents: Albert C. Touby and Kate Willits Touby Elsie’s parents: George Locke and Settie Graf Locke
Virginia Touby Coan
Louise Touby 11-24-1915 to 1-17-2005 Charles W. Coan 11-9-1911 to 7-28-1990 married 2-14-1935 Patricia, Eugene, Robert Dorothy Touby 5-8-1917 to 2-19-2013 Fred B. Kearney 1-10-1915 to 1-7-2006 married 11-4-1942 George, Caroline, Mark Frances Touby 4-14-1919 to 8-30-1958 Virginia Touby 8-29-1923 Arthur J. Coan 2-24-1920 to 11-29-2006 married 6-22-1946 David, Jane, Nancy, Elizabeth Joan Touby 8-12-1925 to 3-5-2002 Edver W. Coburn 2-2-1926 to 12-25-2006 married 6-19-1948 Charlotte, Marcia, Phillip, Lesley, Jonathan
VIRGINIA gracious lady, musician, understanding mother, faithful companion, good friend, piano teacher, compassionate listener, encourager, grandma, greatgrandma, seamstress, gardener, caregiver, storyteller, homemaker, public school teacher, mentor, Christian… Well done, good and faithful servant.
August 28, 2013
Happy 90th Birthday, Virginia!
HAPPY 90th BIRTHDAY
Virginia Touby Coan 90th Birthday Celebration
Virginia Touby Coan
August 28, 2013
Happy 90th Birthday, Virginia!
Virginia Touby Coan 90th Birthday Celebration
Music is the universal language of mankind. ~Longfellow Thank you for teaching so many to express themselves through music.
The Touby Girls Virginia was the fourth of the five Touby sisters: Louise, Dorothy, Frances, Virginia and Joan. They lived with their parents, Emmett and Elsie on the Touby Homestead farm on 500 North just west of the Rich Valley Church where they attended. Their entertainment was simple: tag, hide-andseek, dolls and dress-up, rook, checkers, ping-pong and badminton. Virginia and Joan shared a bicycle. One summer they played in their father’s granary, arranging their playhouse furniture in the various compartments like rooms. The dolls and cats were their children. There was a creek by the house where the girls ice skated in winter. They always had a dog…Virginia’s favorite was “Jiggs,” an airedale, and there were many cats.
The Touby sisters. FRONT: Virginia, Joan, Dorothy BACK: Frances, Louise
The Touby Farm
Emmett and Elsie Touby
The Touby home was built in 1898 by the girls’ grandfather, Albert Touby. Emmett and his sisters grew up there. It was a large frame house with white siding and a slate roof; the lumber all came from the farm. When Emmett and Elsie were married, a smaller house was built for them just east of the big house. Later, when Albert and Kate moved to Kokomo, Emmett and Elsie moved to the big house. Before they had electricity they kept milk, butter and other food cool in the cold, running water of the milk trough in the milk house. The house was wired for electricity in the late 1930s. Up until that time there were acetylene lights. The girls all had chores; they fed the chickens, gathered the eggs, fed the pets - including their pet sheep, Amos and Andy. They helped clean and dust; Frances washed the dishes. In summer they carried cool water in brown jugs to their father working in the fields.
Touby Homestead built by Albert C. Touby
Virginia shelling peas
The girls took the school bus to school. Virginia remembers that her parents and sister, Dorothy, taught her how to drive. She practiced in the farm fields. The first family car was a black Buick with sliding windows, later, a 1933 black Chevy, then a 1937 black Plymouth. She recalls that Arthur’s first car was a 1937 blue Plymouth…he was very proud of it!
Camp Tecumseh
Virginia & high school friend, Evelyn Swearingen
Howard Township High School Virginia always liked school, especially her music classes. During high school she was always involved in music activities, playing in instrumental groups, or accompanying choral groups on the piano. Virginia and Arthur grew up in the same community and both attended Rich Valley Church and Howard Township School. They went together to Christian Endeavor meetings on Sunday evenings, ballgames, and other social events. They often drove to Kokomo afterward for ice cream.
Arthur age 18
Virginia age 15
College years Virginia graduated from Howard Township High School and enrolled at Ball State Teachers College in 1941. The anticipated declaration of war came after the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7 and the draft was immediately in effect. Arthur was deferred for military service in order to help his father bring in the crops, and in February of 1942 he was called for induction into the Army on his 22nd birthday. Virginia traveled to Ball State with her parents, a suitcase, and her bookends, a gift from her grandmother, Settie Locke. She was assigned to Lucina Hall where she soon met Marianna Riddick, LaDonna Summe, Vera Robinson, Carmen Moody, and Olive Kohlmeyer. They developed close bonds that lasted a lifetime. After Virginia’s first year she decided to work a year at HaynesStellite in Kokomo, which produced alloys and went into military defense production. Sometimes, after the 3-11 shift, the working girls went to Mom Oakley’s where they would meet the guys from Bunker Hill Naval Air Base. That year Virginia purchased War Bonds, saving her money, and re-enrolled at Ball State the following fall. She joined Mu Zeta Sorority and in her junior year the women petitioned to become national Tri Sigma Sorority. Virginia was elected Ball State chapter’s first President.
Mothers Weekend at Ball State
The War continued and many young women worried about their sweethearts, grieving with those who received tragic news. Arthur was discharged in December of 1945. Virginia graduated with a degree in music in 1946, and they married that June.
Arthur’s departure for service. Arthur, Virginia and Charles
Virginia was the first BSU chapter president of Tri Sigma
Virginia, Joan and Dorothy, all Ball State girls
Virginia’s best friend Marianna Riddick, in LaGrange
Ball State music majors
Ball State graduation 1946
Ball State friends Marianna, Verie, Olive and LaDonna
AVOVE: Arthur was a Private at Camp Crowder when Virginia, a Ball State freshman, went to visit along with Arthur’s parents and brother, Robert. BELOW: On furlough, Arthur visits with Virginia and Dorothy. Arthur was a cook, and later a Master Sergeant.
Virginia spent the summers of 1944 and 45 working at George Williams College Camp with her friend Marianna.
The Coan Boys The Coan boys lived in the community and attended the same church and school. Charles and Louise married, as did Arthur and Virginia…two Coan boys married two Touby girls. This was endless fun for cousins who were doublerelated! Charles and Arthur both pursued farming. Dorothy and Fred met through a friend of Fred’s at Delco. Dorothy was a young teacher and Fred was in the Army Signal Corp when they were married. Joan and Ed were in the same senior class in high school. After Ed’s service in the Navy, he studied agriculture at Purdue, they married, and both went into teaching.
George Coan with his sons Arthur, Robert and Charles
Joan, Virginia and Arthur
Charles and Louise Coan
Fred and Dorothy Kearney
Arthur and Virginia Coan
Edver and Joan Coburn
A stop at Lake Geneva along the way
Honeymoon at Long Lake in Birchwood, Wisconsin
Career and Family In 1946 Virginia began her first year of teaching at Greentown School. She taught all levels of elementary music and high school band. David was born the following fall in 1947. Through the years she taught between children at Howard Elementary School. She often accompanied soloists at local contests. Rich Valley Church, and then Northview Christian Church, were blessed with her talent at the piano and with choral groups. She prepared beautiful preludes and postludes for the congregation, playing Chopin, Beethoven, Bach, and Schumann. She delighted in helping her children learn instruments, and was encouraging to so many young people who studied piano with her‌including her great-granddaughters! Virginia and Arthur loved tending the farm and the Locke home. The rhythm of farm life dictated the activities of the season - planting, cultivating, harvesting, and canning - and the children were taught to help alongside them. Even with the busyness of farm life, there was plenty of time for fun: the treehouse, pets (including a skunk and raccoons!), 4-H, community concerts, catching lightning bugs, scouts, playing with cousins. Meals were always shared as a family. Breakfast included devotions; supper was usually accompanied by produce from the garden. Birthdays and holiday celebrations were much anticipated and special requests were always honored!
James David - October 31, 1947
Jane Touby - November 4, 1950
Nancy Ann - September 6, 1952
Elizabeth Joan - April 6, 1958
Underwood Lodge on Long Lake was a favorite autumn destination for the whole family. We swam, found baby turtles, went out in the rowboat, and all of us learned to fish.
Nancy and Hi-Oh, Prancer!
David and Mary
David, Mary and Jason
David, Mary, Jason and Shay
Shay, Jason, Marly and Macy
Bill and Jane
Ken
Ken and his dogs: Silas, Niko and Lucky Dog
Mark and Nancy
Stephanie and David
David
Isaac, Audrina, Jake and Stephanie
Four generations
Brian and Elizabeth
Paul and Sarah
Daniel and Emily
Arthur and Virginia’s 50th Anniversary celebration, June 1996
Legacy Virginia has loved doing many things‌music, baking, sewing, reading, gardening, and spending time with friends and family. She has passed on a wonderful legacy to her children, grandchildren and greatgrandchildren who love to do those very same things. TOP: Virginia making a pie with Sarah and Emily and playing her accordion for Marly MIDDLE: Picking raspberries with Emily; A special Annie dress she sewed for Macy’s birthday BELOW: Isaac and Macy snap green beans from the garden; Christmas 2012: Virginia on piano, Nancy on flute, Brian and Macy singing Amazing Grace.
Christmas 2012
Christmas 2003
Christmas 2011 at Jason and Shay’s new home
ABOVE: Arthur and Virginia’s 40th celebrated with Ball State friends: Bruce & Verie Slack, Dick & LaDonna Rader, David & June Farrell, Marianna Riddick, Olive & Ralph Carland, Virginia & Arthur BELOW: Joan & Ned Hullinger; Ada & Bill Jones, with Eva & Ray Bevington
1988
2005
25th Anniversary, 1971
50th Anniversary, 1996
60th Anniversary, 2006
Making homemade ice cream at the Lake house
Sisters Week
1974 Toledo, Spain. Virginia began a tour in London and Jane Joined her in Munich
Exchange student, Maria Celeste Ferrari, from Rio de Janeiro - December 1968
Barcelona: Carmen, Jane, Virginia, Merche, Manolo
On the Chicago River
Virginia with her dear friend, Marianna Riddick, at the Lake
Virginia directing the Northview Choir
Grandma and Grandpa Touby congratulating Dave and Mary
Doris Lauer
Northview Christian Church, 50 year celebration, 2012
Liberty Grove Farm
Mother, the one lesson you taught so well was stewardship‌ of the land and its resources, of our family and home and time together, of our talents and how we chose to use them, and giving back generously because we were so blessed. We all wish you a very Happy 90th Birthday! August 28, 2013