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CENTENARIAN WENT TO SCHOOL WITH RONALD REAGAN |
| (09/13/2008) |
| Centenarian Harold E. Martin, father of Nancy Engelke of Creston, went to school with Ronald Reagan. Martin, a native of Peoria, Illinois, died Friday in Florida. Martin was born on an Illinois farm when none of the present day amenities such as running water, electric, or telephone was available. In the long span of his life, standing on a Florida beach, he watched the explosion of spacecraft Challenger. When he was 10 years old he was the only member of his family who did not have the Spanish Influenza, the pandemic that killed millions worldwide. Caring for his parents and his older siblings, no one in his family died from the dread disease. He went to school with Ronald Reagan and Ronald's brother "Moon" in Dixon, Illinois and saw Charles Lindbergh who delivered airmail to his rural community. He worked for over 60 years for the Freeman Shoe Company in Illinois, and went on a three-month assignment to Pakistan where he taught natives how to make shoes. Late in life, he worked at Habacorn's Ace Hardware Store in Peoria, Illinois and as a bag boy for Publix in Florida. He finally left the work force at about age 90 to take care of his wife who passed away about five years ago at age 94. They had been married 77 years.
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