Mary Huffman Turns 104 On March 20Mary Virginia “Ginger” Huffman will turn 104 on March 20.
Ginger said she doesn’t have any advice to live a long life. Son Robert “Bob” said she used to attribute it to milking cows and drinking coffee. He also said she’s not on any medications and doesn’t get sick all that often.
She was born March 20, 1918, in Illinois. She later attended Etna Green High School.
She married John F. Huffman in 1935. He died in 2002. They had four children: Connie; John Thomas “Tom,” who passed away in 2008; Steve and Bob. They have nine grandchildren, 12 great-grandchildren and three great-great-grandchildren. Bob said the family is kind of spread out with family members living in Kentucky, Tennessee and Missouri.
Bob said when Ginger and John got married, they bought a 100-acre farm in Etna Township. Ginger milked cows. John worked on the farm, as well as working at Studebaker. Then he went to work at Lone Star Book Company. They had their main plant in Texas. The company asked John to go down to Texas to help that plant improve their productivity. John and Ginger moved to Texas in 1963.
While living in Texas, Ginger sold shoes. She said she sold both women’s and men’s shoes. Bob said she probably started selling shoes in the ’70s and retired in the late ’80s or some time in the ’90s.
Ginger lived there until moving in with Bob in 2016. It was a combination of things the children were seeing that made Bob ask Ginger to move in with him and his wife, Cheryl, into their Warsaw home.
When Ginger lived in Texas, Cheryl said Ginger painted dishes and was busy making afghans and quilts. Bob said since moving back to Indiana, her skills haven’t been what they used to be.
Bob said Ginger worked on painting dishes for quite a number of years. She starting taking classes for it and started doing it, even buying her own kiln.
Bob said Ginger made afghans for her children and grandchildren. She and John made quilts for their children and grandchildren. For as long as she could, she made afghans for her great-grandchildren.
When asked what it was like growing up with Ginger as his mother, Bob said she was pretty watchful over her children as they were growing up. She made sure the lights were on in the house when she went out to milk the cows. If the lights weren’t on, she would make sure the kids were getting up for school and went off to school.
Ginger had done a lot of traveling. Bob said she and John traveled to every state and did so mostly by car. She even rode mules around the Grand Canyon. She said her mule liked to walk on the canyon side of the route and Bob said the mule leaned toward the wall side. Bob said when his father tried to get off of his mule at the end of the ride, he couldn’t.
“We wanted to go some place, we just went out,” Ginger said.
John and Ginger were very supportive as parents, Bob said, and they made sure to attend all the activities the children were involved in. They made sure the children went to church every weekend. They provided a roof over their children’s head and made sure the children got everything they needed.
Ginger’s personality has always been very quiet and she’s a very gentle lady.
“She took care of us for a lot of years. That’s why we thought we should take care of her in her later years,” Bob said.
Any plans for a birthday party would probably be when the weather is a little bit better or some time during the summer, Bob said. When Ginger turned 100, there was a party at the community center at Heritage Park in Etna Green. The family had people come out and there was a caterer come in. Last year, they had an open house at Bob’s house. This year, Bob said he’d like to see if he could rent the community center again.
“So it’ll probably be in June some time,” Bob said.
