View of Cincinnati from atop Mt. Echo Park: Cincinnati Where the River Wi-i-inds

Almost forty ears ago I was hitchhiking in Tennessee near the Smoky Mountains. A young couple picked me up, asked me where I lived. When I told them Cincinnati, they both broke out into song:

One more hour and I'll be home,
Close my eyes and rest my bones.
Can't be more than a mile or so
From Cincinnati, O-hi-o, Cincinnati, O-hi-o.

Cincinnati where the river wi-i-inds,
Cross the Mason and the Dixon line.
There's a place for me, I know,
In Cincinnati, O-hi-o, Cincinnati, O-hi-o.

This very song I sang with my Peacemaker friends at the Mansfield House Commune--me on guitar hitting the simple three chords. When it came to the "wi-i-inds" part, we laid it on thick, pulling a one-syllable word into an entire line. It was great fun. Well last Sunday, at the memorial picnic for Dorothy Glanzer, I saw many of these old friends. The picnic was at Mt. Echo Park, hundreds of feet above the city, with a perfect view of downtown and northern Kentucky, and that Ohio River wi-i-inding around. Here's a photo I took:

Cincinnati, from Mt. Echo Park

Peacemaker Gathering at Memorial Picnic for Dorothy Glanzer

Yesterday at Mt. Echo Park in Cincinnati there was a gathering of old Peacemakers and friends of Dorothy Glanzer and Greg Haas. Dorothy died recently after suffering for years with MS. The gathering was a wonderful reunion of old friends, many of whom met back in the late 1960s or early 1970s in the Vietam-era peace movement. The peace movement is gaining steam again, in response to perpetual war.

Greg Haas

Alice Ann, Peggy, Mary Alice, Anne, Clare, me

Mansfield House photo from 1971 or 1972. Looks like a poster for the musical "Hair"! Ken Przybylski at far left, with Chris Cotter to his right. Also pictured, Carolyn Bromley, Greg Haas, Peggy Scherer, Anne Weinkam, Jack Shereda, John Luginbill, Joan Levy, Bonnie Tompkins, Denny Ryan, Mary Jane Atkinson, and two neighborhood boys

Me with Mary Alice Shepherd Milnes

Me with Peggy Scherer

With Jim Tarbell

Manuel, Alice Ann, Peggy, Mary Alice, Anne, Clare, me

A strange thing that often happens at wakes and memorial services is the joy that people have in seeing old friends. That certainly happened yesterday. The afternoon was filled with hugs and hilarious stories.

One woman approached me and asked me if I knew who she was. I recognized her right away, but her name didn't come to me. It turned out to be Debbie Boerschig, who had lived in my old apartment building--I think my own apartment on the third floor. Debbie is a nurse who began her career at 12th Street Clinic, where I worked from 1971 to 1973. We know many people in common from 12th Street Clinic and from our old neighborhood in Over-the-Rhine. There were other people at the gathering who had lived at 225 Orchard Street--Anne Weinkam and Clare Weinkam. Clare said she moved from the second floor to the fourth floor because the rent was cheaper the further up you went--from 48 dollars a month to $47.50 (or something like that). The rent was astonishingly cheap, and the building fairly well-maintained by our plumber-landlord, whose name I think was "Dougherty." I also saw Joyce [can't think of her last name--Hillstrom?] there--hadn't seen her since maybe the memorial services for Maurice McCrackin or Ernest Bromley. Joyce had lived in the Lang Street house in Over-the-Rhine (as had John Luginbill, Chris Cotter, and other friends). The rent there was $40 per month! Talking to Debbie I heard that one former resident of 225 Orchard had died--Mary "Bird" Bliss. I also learned that Rowena Toews, who had a short, unfortunate marriage to Richard Gale, had also died. So many of our old friends gone--Jack Shereda, Kenny Przybylski, Carolyn Bromley, Maurice McCrackin, Ernest and Marion Bromley, Chuck Matthei--so many.

We also talked about friends who didn't make it to the memorial: Chris Cotter, Henry Scott, Andy Meyer, Denny Ryan, Bonnie Tompkins, Richard Gale, John Luginbill, Joan Levy, and others. We missed them all.

Our prayers are with Greg Haas and his wife Dorothy Glanzer. Rest in Peace, Dorothy.

The Passing of a Good Woman--Dorothy Glanzer, Wife of Old Friend Greg Haas

My old Peacemaker friend Greg Haas, who I met in February of 1971 at the Mansfield House in Cincinnati's Over-the-Rhine neighborhood, lost his wife Dorothy a few days ago. Greg and Dorothy were married in 1983 by Rev. Maurice McCrackin. For most of their married life they lived in Bloomington, Indiana. Greg sent me this beautiful obituary of Dorothy (below). Both Greg and Dorothy have lived beautiful, simple, truthful lives. And for the past 15 years or so of Dorothy's life, she lived with Multiple Sclerosis. It was an incredible challenge to both of them. As a Catholic Christian, I like to think of this as "Redemptive Suffering." It's not something I can explain very well, but it's something I believe deeply in.

Dorothy Mae Glanzer

---

September 4, 1953-May 23, 2014
    Born near Canistota, SD to a hard-working, frugal Mennonite family in an historic Mennonite agricultural community, Dorothy and her three siblings grew up tending chickens, working in the milk house and doing farm chores while attending a mixed-grade, one-room school.
    Studying and boarding at Freeman Junior College, Dorothy took organ and piano lessons and played for church services. After high school she spent a year in a Mennonite cultural exchange program in Switzerland and Germany. At Goshen College, she participated in a study-service term in Honduras, graduating with a B.S in Nursing. After college she worked at Sioux Valley Hospital in Sioux Falls and a summer at a Black Hills Lutheran camp.
    Seeking adventure and wanting to see more of the country, she signed up for Mennonite Voluntary Service where she served two years in Cincinnati, Ohio while living in a MVS community house. Staying in Cincinnati, she worked as a nurse with Dominican Sisters of the Sick Poor for eight years and at Bethesda Hospital’s in-patient hospice for one and a half years.
    While working in the historic Over-The-Rhine, the city’s largest, poorest neighborhood, she met her husband who was working on a low-income housing project. Sharing concerns for social justice, world peace and creating community, they married in 1983 at a home-spun, convivial celebration officiated by Rev. Maurice McCrackin, Cincinnati’s well-known anti-war and social justice activist. In 1989 the couple moved to Bloomington where Dorothy worked part-time in the Bloomington Hospital Rehab and Orthopedic departments for four years, Bloomington Hospice for seven years and Area Ten Agency on Aging for four and a half years until 2004.
    Besides a vocation in nursing, Dorothy enjoyed playing the piano, singing, cooking, socializing with friends, gardening, reading and the great outdoors. A vacation ritual was driving out to South Dakota to visit with family and friends, often getting off the interstates to enjoy the great natural beauty and cultural attractions of the Midwest.    For the last fifteen years of Dorothy’s life, multiple sclerosis was a major challenge forcing her to eventually quit work and relinquish many of the activities she loved to do. For the last ten years she was limited to using her power wheel chair, working endless hours at her computer, reading extensively and watching films. She enjoyed participating in a writing group in which she reflected on her farm life experiences and working in Cincinnati’s poor neighborhoods. She was a formidable Scrabble player. Throughout all her struggles with MS and finally cancer, we will remember her sweet, radiant smile, her equanimity, serenity, grace, poise, and good humor despite her seemingly interminable, ever-deteriorating health. 
    Dorothy was a member of Bloomington Friends Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) and was member of the group that created Mt. Gilead Friends Retreat, a sixty-plus acre natural preserve where all are welcome to be nourished through the wonder and inspiration of nature.
    Dorothy is survived by: her husband of thirty years, Greg Haas; her father, Moses and the late Reva Glanzer of Freeman, SD; Lu Ann Glanzer of Sioux Falls, SD; Nancy and Jeff Fischer of Lincoln, NE; Mark and Margaret Glanzer of Canistota, SD; in-laws, Flora and the late Charles Haas, Sr., Charles Haas, Jr., Linda (Haas) and Greg Hand of Cincinnati; Cindy (Haas) Potter of Burlington, KY; seven nieces and nephews; beloved aunts and uncles; and numerous cousins.
    We would like to thank the many doctors, nurses, home health agencies and aides, area nursing homes and especially Bloomington Hospital (I.U. Health) and I.U. Health Hospice and Hospice volunteers for all the many wonderful and caring services that Dorothy received over the years that added immeasurably to the quality of her life.
    With much gratitude we thank our wonderful, amazing and incredible families and friends for all the assistance in many forms, for their love and support, visits, meals, flowers, cards, phone calls, massages, errands, favors, sewing projects, emergency assistance, care packages, pharmacy and airport runs, etc. over the last ten very difficult years. To have been held in the embrace of love and community has been miraculous. We have been so richly blessed by your celebrating Dorothy’s life in community. We love you all very much.

A memorial service will be held at Hutterthal Mennonite Church in Freeman, SD at a later date. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made in Dorothy’s memory to Mt.Gilead Friends Retreat, 3363 Mt.Gilead Rd., Bloomington, IN 47408, or to the charity of your choice. 

Cincinnati Peacemakers (and John Leininger's Death)

The passing of John Leininger has certainly awakened my memories of the active and courageous peace community in Cincinnati in the early 1970's. I mentioned some of the Peacemakers that John would have known and worked with in the previous blog posting. Here are some others that I remember: Andy Meyer, Joan Levy, Denny Ryan, Richard Gale, Bonnie Tomkins, Joel Stephens, Dick Crowley--and all the other folks who either lived in or often visited the Mansfield House Community and the neighborhing Orchard Street house (where I lived, along with Chris Cotter, Anne and Clare Weinkam, Peggy Scherer, and Jack Shereda). Henry Scott was for a while at the Bromley's in Gano, Ohio, and at other times in the Over-the-Rhine area. There were many others who were in and out: Maggie Jones, the local VISTA workers (Dick Crowley, John Thornton, and many others), some folks from the Bluffton College Mennonite service group, some local organizres and social workers. Jim Tarbell was occasionally there, as were some local artists. It was a dynamic, ever-changing, fantastically interesting gathering of people. Many Peacemakers, Catholic Workers, and Quakers from out of town came through from time to time. They were all offered hospitality--a place to stay and food to eat, without a question being asked. I wish I could express the flavor of this time and place better than I have. It's something that won't ever happen again in exactly that way.

Cincinnati's Mansfield House in Over-the-Rhine (#3)

The Mansfield House was, loosely defined, an intentional community. I guess "anarchists" (and many of these folks were anarchists, but not in the common sense of this term) don't form rigid intentional communities! What held this community together? Well, the community membership was dynamic, with people constantly moving in and out, but they did share many values: a dedication to nonviolence (in the Gandhian and Martin Luther King Jr. sense); opposition to the Vietnam War; and a dedication to living simply. I imagine many members felt marginalized in the normal American world, so there were psychological similarities in many of the Mansfield House's community members. Many came from a religious background. A number of the members were affiliated with the Friends, the Quakers (Dan Bromley, Caroline Bromley, possibly John Luginbill); others found the Mennonites to be friends in spirit; a number of people came out of the Catholic tradition (Peggy Scherer, Greg Haas, Kenny Przybylski, Jack Shereda, Anne Weinkam). One, Joan Levy, was a secular Jew. I didn't know if some others, like Bonnie Tompkins, were brought up in a religious tradition. Some of these people continued to practice their religion; others didn't.

Many people stayed in the Mansfield House for days, or weeks, or even longer, but probably wouldn't have been considered long-time members of the community. Others came over mostly during the day and just occasionally stayed there over night. Among these people would be Joel Stevens, Henry Scott, Mary Alice Shepherd, Chris Cotter, myself, Dick Crowley, Denny Ryan, Clare Weinkam, Paul Weinkam, and possibly Jim Tarbell. There were many others that don't immediately come to mind.

Mansfield House in Over-the-Rhine (#2)

I'm not sure who established the Mansfield House Community in Cincinnati's Over-the-Rhine. My guess is that the founders were Greg Haas (currently living in Bloomington, Indiana) and John Luginbill (still in Cincinnati, I think). The impulse to establish this community probably came from the Gano, Ohio-based Peacemakers and the movement against the Vietnam War. Also connected to the Peacemakers was the war-tax resistance and draft resistance movements. As you might expect, people drawn to these positions, which could involve prison, were a bit unusual--to say the least! Indeed, most of them were the brightest, most courageous, most-principled people I've ever known.

Other people in on the Mansfield House included Caroline Bromley, Dan Bromley, Bonnie Tompkins, Kenny Przybylski, Jack Shereda, Andy Meyer, and many others I will mention in this blog entry or in another entry.