Elsie Virginia (Owens) Tatman, 95, of Uhrichsville Ohio passed away at 10:25 pm on June 22, 2024, at the Truman House in New Philadelphia. Elsie was born on December 5th, 1928 to the late Craig Forrest and Edna Belinda (Kelley) Owens in Uhrichsville Ohio.
Elsie was a 1946 graduate of Uhrichsville High School in Uhrichsville Ohio. She attended Muskingum College in Zanesville Ohio. Upon returning home Elsie went to work for Paul’s Burgerola on S. Water St. Uhrichsville and the J.E. Smith Store on 3rd St. Uhrichsville. She learned her bookkeeping skills at Gibbs Chevrolet on 3rd St. Uhrichsville and worked for the Ohio Power on Grant St. in Dennison. She was also the bookkeeper for her husband’s business, Tatman Lumber in Stillwater.
She met the love of her life, the late Charles Emory Tatman, at a square dance in Stonecreek, Ohio, whom she married on March 1st, 1958. Charles and Elsie settled on a farm on Tatman Road in Uhrichsville and raised Black Angus beef cattle. She was still climbing on the hay wagon to help bale hay in her late 80’s. She also helped on the sawmill when Charles needed help and followed her family into the woods on several logging trips – helping wherever she was needed. Elsie devoted the rest of her life to raising her family. She chauffeured her children to all kinds of activities, from school functions, marching band practices, football games, and basketball games to 4-H meetings and Farm Bureau Youth meetings. She spent the week of the Tuscarawas County Fair supporting her children as they showed their cattle for 4-H. She also volunteered many hours in the Grange eat stand at the fair. She always said, “Where there is a will, there is a way”.
She will be well-remembered for her baked steaks, homemade pies, cookies, sweet tea, and her famous Chocolate Cake with Penuche Icing, a family tradition passed down to her through the Kelley family to celebrate birthdays. She had a green thumb that could grow anything from a seed to a snipping. She planted a garden every year and canned food for the winter months. She made the best homemade jams, jellies, and pickles.
Elsie and her husband were longtime members of the former Park Grange in Uhrichsville and the Tuscarawas County Farm Bureau. She was also a lifetime member and a former volunteer of the Tuscarawas County Genealogy Society who could recite the birth and death dates of many of her ancestors as far back as the 1700s into her 90s. She was an avid reader, especially historical and genealogy publications. In her youth, she attended Pleasant Valley United Methodist Church in Dennison where she and Charles were married. After she moved to Stillwater, she attended the Pleasant Grove United Methodist Church in Stillwater.
Genealogy was her passion as she sought to preserve the history of her family. Up until 2022, she was still having her daughter, Sarah, record her as she told the stories about her childhood and the family that she loved and missed so dearly. Up until she was no longer able to drive herself, there was not a cemetery anywhere that she wouldn’t turn the car around just so she could walk through to see if she recognized any names. One time, she was trying to learn more information about a distant relative who was buried in Union Cemetery in Uhrichsville. She noticed that there was a planter on the grave so she wrote a note, placed it in a baggy, and stuck it in the dirt of the planter. Lo and behold a few months later, the person that had left the planter reached out to her when they discovered the note in the planter. We picked on her for years after that because she could proudly say, “I got an answer from the grave”. On another occasion, Elsie, her daughter Sarah, and good friend Mable (Hershberger) Stutzman of Jasper New York (formerly of New Bedford, OH), were on a trip in Pennsylvania when they stopped to visit a cemetery located in a remote part of PA. Elsie had taken off wandering through the cemetery on her own when she tripped over a footstone and injured her leg. She came back to where Mable and Sarah were and said she needed a band-aid. Sarah looked down and her mother’s pants leg was soaked in blood. After temporarily fixing the wound, Sarah went in search of a hospital only to find out that the nearest hospital was more than an hour away. The “little scrape” as Elsie referred to it, took several stitches to patch up.
Elsie is survived by her sons, Michael (Esther) Tatman and Mark Tatman; her daughter, Sarah Grezlik; her stepson, Orville (Debora) Tatman; and her son-in-law Ron Grezlik, all of Uhrichsville; her step-grandchildren, Melissa (Jason) Parrish of Uhrichsville, Alexander (Kristi) Tatman of Dennison, and Serena Faye (Jeremy) Rose of New Philadelphia, as well as their children. She is also survived by her sister-in-law, Cookie (Thompson) Owens of Dennison; step-brother-in-law, William (Chris) Irvin of Grove City, Ohio; and her dear friend and neighbor, Polly Wright of Uhrichsville who kept Elsie stockpiled in books to read and kept her company. Also left to mourn her loss are Shelby Gatts who referred to Elsie as “Momma Bear” and Brenda Oxley who referred to her as “Momma Elsie”. She was also known as Great-Nana to Shawna (Bob) Page and their children. She also leaves behind several nieces and one nephew. She was very appreciative of her nieces, Lorri (Owens) Yockey and Doris Tatman, for making the extra effort to visit her. She also deeply appreciated her friendship and letters from Mable (Hershberger) Stutzman, and her lifetime friendship with Thelma Albaugh of Dennison Ohio.
Elsie joined Mark on several occasions for events, such as weiner roasts and New Years Eve parties hosted by Mark’s friends, Bill and Jennifer Brown of Mineral City. She enjoyed her visits with Jennifer’s mother, Norma, and was thrilled to learn they were cousins on the family tree. She also enjoyed her visits from her cousin, Sharon Bear of Michigan. She enjoyed taking Sharon to the Pleasant Hill Cemetery on the border of Harrison and Guernsey Counties and showing her where all of the Bear family stones were located and stories about many of the individuals she remembered from her own childhood. Although she never had biological grandchildren, she did have children that helped to fill the void of never being called grandmother. They included Alex Tatman, Clara Tatman, Barb (Fair) Pack, Mandy Slentz, Courtney Burdette, Karissa Dickey, Chloe Alderman, Katie Kidd, Kyler Kidd, Aurora Miller, Evie Miller, and an extra special bond with Dominic Miller, whom Sarah watched at Elsie’s house since Dominic was born three years ago. Elsie taught him many things, but some of his favorites were how to “paddy-cake” and to mimic her by shaking his finger from side to side and saying “no, no, no”. Every smile he gave her was cherished and she would light up every time she saw him.
She was preceded in death by her beloved husband of 40 years, Charles Emory Tatman on April 21st, 1998; her parents, Craig and Edna (Kelley) Owens; her only sibling, James Kelley Owens (Dennison Ohio); and her two favorite Aunts who were more like grandmothers, Mayme and Lizzie Kelley. She had a close bond with her cousin, the late Glenn Arnold of Cambridge, OH. Also preceding her death were her brothers- and sisters-in-law, Gerald “Gary” and Margaret (Tatman) Wright and Dallas “Dal” and his wife Betty (Boehme) Tatman (Uhrichsville Ohio).
A special thank you is extended to Pastor Rod Phillips for visiting, reading scripture, and praying with our mother; to Karissa (Kidd) Dickey for always looking out for her “Great Nana” and helping in whatever way you could; to nurses, Jessica Kamban and Angel Tantarelli, and physical therapist, Jason Wright for your excellent care of our mother; and to her favorite bath lady, Heidi Nelson. She appreciated all you did to help her through these last four years. To Community Hospice and the amazing nurses and nurses’ aides, thank you!!! We couldn’t have kept her at home as long as we did without your help.
The family has opted to have a private family service conducted by Pastor Rod Phillips of the Dennison Foursquare Church, per Elsie’s request. Burial will take place in East High Avenue Cemetery in New Philadelphia beside her beloved husband and parents. R.K. Lindsey Funeral Home in Dennison is in charge of arrangements. In memory of Elsie Tatman and her love of genealogy, those wishing to make a donation may do so to the Tuscarawas County Genealogy Society, PO Box 83, Dennison, OH 44621-0083. We leave you with Elsie’s favorite thing to say when visitors were leaving: Beheef dich! – “Behave yourself!”
R.K. Lindsey Funeral Home, Inc.
740.922.1970
www.lindseyfh.com
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