Pauline Texas Johnson (Polly) Hanford, 103, formerly of Interlaken, died peacefully December 11 at Maple Knoll Village, a retirement community in Cincinnati, OH. Polly was born in Austin, Texas on May 27, 1911. Her family had gone to Texas for a year because her father had health problems that required that he spend time in a warmer climate. Soon after her birth, her family moved back to the family farm in Bean Blossom, an area of southern Indiana near Bloomington. She was the youngest of five children. Her mother died in the aftermath of a traumatic brain injury when Polly was only eleven, and as the only female left at home, she was required to assume grown up responsibilities, such as preparing meals, at an early age. When she was about 13, the family moved to West Lafayette, IN where her older brother, Robert, was a student at Purdue, and her father became herdsman for the university’s dairy herd. When she was 17, she and her father moved back to the farm, and she graduated from high school in Bloomington. After taking some post-graduation business courses and working for a while in Bloomington, her older brother, Robert, who by then had finished his Master’s Degree at Syracuse University and become a faculty member at Oneonta State Normal School, convinced her to come to Oneonta where she completed the three year course to become a school teacher in l932.
She took her first teaching job in one of the small communities near Oneonta. During the ‘30s she enjoyed traveling during the summer, visiting Labrador, Cuba, Mexico, the major National Parks in the West, and her aunt who lived in California. She also took summer school courses at Cornell, where her brother, Robert, was working on his Ph.D. in ornithology. Eventually, she took a semester off from teaching to attend the University of Buffalo so she could obtain her B.A. In l936, she took a job with the Ithaca City School District, teaching her entire career in Ithaca at West Hill School. The Ithaca family from which she rented a room was good friends with the Hanford family and invited her on a picnic where she met her future husband, Donald (Don) Hanford. They were married July 5, 1940 in the rose garden of the Taughannock Farms Inn. In 1937, Don had purchased the Case and Rappyele Hardware Store in Interlaken, and turned it into Hanford’s Hardware. Although Polly moved to Interlaken, she continued to teach at West Hill until the spring of l943 when World War II gas rationing made commuting from Interlaken impossible. She and Don bought a lot on Cayuga Lake where they began building, largely with their own hands, a summer cottage. Beginning in l946, the family moved to the cottage every summer for the months of July and August. Polly enjoyed living on the lake, sailing with Don, and entertaining family and friends there. Their daughter Wendy was born in l945, and their son Warren in 1949. In l948, they moved into a house in Interlaken built during the Civil War era, and Polly was very involved in it’s updating, remodeling, and redecorating.
Like Don, Polly was active in the Interlaken community. In l949, she was the first woman elected to the Interlaken School Board and surprised everyone by being the first board member to ask to see first grade standardized test reading scores. She was active in the Reformed Church where among other activities, she headed the Sunday School for a time. In later years, she was quite involved in the church’s food pantry. She was also active in supporting area Girl Scouting. She enjoyed gardening, bird watching, and playing bridge with the local Bridge Club, and helped care for Don’s elderly mother. In l960, she returned to teaching at West Hill School, where she especially liked teaching first grade, commuting from Interlaken until her retirement in l973. She joined Don in being an avid Cornell hockey fan.
After retirement, the Hanfords sold their house in Interlaken and their beloved summer cottage, and bought a house at Sheldrake where they spent their summers. They also bought a home in Holiday, Florida where they wintered amidst a group of kin from both sides of the family. Polly continued to garden, play bridge, and took up shuffleboard, while expanding her involvement in birding through Audubon Society activities, including field trips, the annual bird count, and introducing teachers to the free materials Audubon provided for teaching science. By 1999, the annual trek back and forth to Florida became too much, and Polly and Don sold both their homes and moved to Maple Knoll Village, a retirement community on the north side of Cincinnati. Polly continued to garden and play bridge and volunteered in the Maple Knoll library. Both she and Don, who were married 66 years, continued to live lives that were as full and active as their health permitted. With care progressing from independent living to assisted living to skilled nursing, Maple Knoll was a great help and support to both of them in their later years.
A strong, caring, and intelligent woman with a good sense of humor, Polly was preceded in death by her husband, Don; her parents, George and Cora Ebbage Johnson; and her older siblings: Blanche Williams, Robert Johnson, Faye Hite, and Paul Johnson. She is survived by her son, Warren, of Santa Fe NM; her daughter, Wendy Arundale and son-in-law Robert Arundale of Fairbanks, AK; granddaughter, Amelia (Amy) Arundale of Newark, DE; and grandson, Roberto Arundale of Cleveland, OH; sister-in-law Olive Schutt of Salt Lake City, UT; nieces (and spouses) Phyllis (Lawrence) Busby of Cincinnati, OH, Jo (Robert) Werner of Skaneatles, NY, Elizabeth Barnett of Richmond, VA, and nephews (and spouses) Philip (Judy) Johnson of Williamsburg, VA, and James (Sue) Williams of Brookville, OH as well as a host of other relatives in both the Johnson and Hanford families.
Celebration of Life services will be held in the late spring at both Maple Knoll Village and in Interlaken. Burial will be in Lakeview Cemetery in Ithaca. Memorial gifts may be made to the Future Care Fund, Maple Knoll Village, 11000 Springfield Pike, Cincinnati, OH 45246. Condolences may be sent to Wendy Arundale, 1629 Heather Drive, Fairbanks, AK 99709.
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