Janie Rumberger, age 78, of Dallas, Texas, died on Thursday, July 12, 2018. Janie was born on May 23, 1940, in Rainelle, West Virginia, to Carl and Mildred Simms. Carl left West Virginia for Baltimore to find work at the Glenn L. Martin Company in the 1940's The Simms family followed Carl to Baltimore locating in the Middle River community. Janie grew up in Baltimore and attended Kenwood High School taking the college prep curriculum. She distinguished herself by being a serious student while maintaining a pleasant, outgoing, smiling demeanor. Janie was the editor of The Spotlight, the school newspaper. In her senior year, she was recognized as the "High School Journalist of the Year" for the State of Maryland.
In her senior year, she caught the eye of fellow senior, Harry Rumberger. He asked her to attend the Easter Sunrise Service at Memorial Stadium in 1958. He said he would pick her up at the pre-dawn hour of 4 am. She eagerly awaited him and, unbeknown to her, a life of adventure was about to begin that would last 61 years.
Not willing to be too assertive with Janie, Harry did not ask to kiss her until his third date. After that good-night kiss, he turned and headed for his car. Janie quickly blurted out, "Where are you going? That was only a peck!" Harry, delighted to return, gave his new girl-friend a more substantial kiss.
A few more dates led to Harry asking Janie to attend the Senior Prom with him. The only obstacle was her Southern Baptist Church Minister who thought rock and roll music and dancing were "the work of the devil" He encouraged his church's young people to boycott and not attend the prom. Fortunately, Janie felt differently and accepted Harry's offer to be his date to the Senior Prom. Harry was so excited at the prom, he entertained Janie by writing four short poems dedicated to her on the dance drink napkin. Janie kept that drink napkin in her scrapbook-- later to be found by Harry.
In her senior year, Janie had been appointed "Editor-in-Chief" for The Spotlight, Kenwood High School's weekly newspaper. Her work was so outstanding she was awarded "High School Journalist of the Year" for the State of Maryland. Mr. Charles Brome, the newspaper's faculty advisor, wrote that Janie was the best newspaper editor he had ever worked with.
Through the summer, Harry and Janie dated while holding summer jobs. Harry worked at a downtown dairy six days a week while Janie worked as a "swing shift" toll collector at the Baltimore Harbor Tunnel. Dating had to be carefully scheduled in the limited time when both Janie and Harry were not working.
The summer of 1958 ended quickly and Janie departed for Madison College, a woman's college in Harrisonburg, Virginia. Harry left for Western Maryland College in Westminster, Maryland--about 30 miles northwest of Baltimore. He was on a teacher scholarship of $500 per year with an obligation to teach two years in Maryland schools.
They continued to write each other in college as the romance continued to flourish.
Every three weeks, Janie would take the Greyhound bus to Baltimore and Harry would get a ride from campus to meet his lovely girlfriend. Janie's scrapbook has playbills from the performances that the two young lovers attended. They both were delighted to see new things--especially plays and movies. Then as quickly as the weekend began, it came to an end with both young people departing for their two campuses.
In his sophomore year, Harry pledged the Phi Alpha Alpha local fraternity. At one of the dances, Janie attended at Western Maryland College, Harry proposed marriage by giving her his new fraternity pen. She accepted his proposal of a lifetime of adventure and fun. At Madison College, Janie pledged the Alpha Sigma Alpha sorority and moved into the sorority house. To seal the romance, Janie convinced Harry to give up his pajama top for her to wear when sleeping.
However, both lovers knew the tasks at hand were to graduate college so they concentrated on their studies leading to their degrees.
Janie decided to shorten her graduation to 3.5 years so for the summers of 1960 and 1961 she attended Towson State Teachers' college in suburban Baltimore. With those summer classes, Janie was able to complete the requirements necessary to graduate in January of 1962--ahead of a normal May graduation..
Upon graduation, Janie took a job with the public welfare department of Baltimore County. Harry kept his original 4-year program and graduated in May, 1962 with a BA degree in English with a minor in history. In addition, he earned a U.S. Army Officer's commission from his course-work in the campus R.O.T.C. program.
Harry requested that he begin full-time military service as soon as possible after graduation. Janie and Harry planned to be married in the short window of time between basic training and reporting for duty. In late June, Harry's orders arrived for Fort Polk in Louisiana. First, Harry had to complete officer basic training at Fort Ben Harrison in Indianapolis.
While at Fort Ben Harrison, Harry was able to successfully swap his stateside assignment to Fort Polk in Louisiana for an assignment in Germany. When Harry was offered the opportunity to go to Europe, he called Janie in mid-afternoon on Sunday. Although awakened from an afternoon nap, Janie listened, had a few questions, but trusted Harry to make the right decision.
Harry felt that going to Germany would be an adventure of a lifetime for the two young lovers--a two or three-year honeymoon in Europe. Janie would go anywhere with Harry. But an assignment in Germany did mean that Janie would be away from her family in Baltimore for several years.
In the meantime, while holding her job with Baltimore County, Janie planned the details of their wedding without Harry's help. Janie had the meticulous details all worked out for a wedding on Saturday, September 15, 1962. She chose Kenwood Presbyterian Church, Harry's church, for the wedding because of the church's medium size and beautiful stained-glass windows. Janie's Middle River Baptist Church was enormous in size, less ornate and too large for the expected attendance. This decision caused some concern from her parents and other Middle River Baptist Church members but those feelings soon dissipated to acceptance.
The wedding was beautiful. Janie even had the soloist sing, "Ich Liebe Dich" ( I Love You) in German because that was where they were beginning their married life. That Monday after the wedding, Harry took his new bride to nearby Fort Holabird to prepare wills and powers-of-attorney. Going overseas could be slightly risky and Harry and Janie did not want to delay doing the right thing.
Within a week of the marriage, Harry boarded a military ship to cross the Atlantic. Janie returned to her job and awaited word from Harry that he had found a place to live in Germany, had bought a car and that she should now buy a ticket to fly to Frankfurt. Harry was stationed at Fulda, Germany--up close to the East-West German border-- about 2.5 hours drive away from Frankfurt.
Everything was ready for Janie to take her first-ever plane ride--and overseas, to boot. Harry's parents took Janie to the airport and she boarded the flight to Frankfurt. She carried a small amount of money and, being cautious, even decided to stay on the plane when the plane stopped in London to refuel. Janie was concerned that something would go wrong if she got off the plane at this rest stop.
Janie loved the small German apartment that Harry had rented. It had one bedroom, a small sitting area and a kitchen. The only drawback was the toilet was down the hall in a common area. The owner of this three-unit apartment building was named Herr Kroft. He was stern. But he recognized that US Army Officers would make good tenants and pay rent on time.
Janie quickly passed the tests for her international driver's license, some classes in the German language and she secured a job as Kindergarten teacher for children at the US Army Post. She had two classes of 35 children each-- one in the morning and one in the afternoon. It was quite a challenge since she had no lesson plans and had not taught young children before. But Janie contacted Harry's mother and requested any help she could provide. Some teaching materials soon arrived in Germany from Baltimore where Eleanor, Harry's mother, taught 3rd grade.
Then to provide variety to her jobs, the following year, Janie taught a high-school completion course to soldiers that had not finished high school. These student-soldiers would train in the morning and then come to class in the afternoon tired and in their dirty fatigues. But the incentive for the soldiers to get the knowledge to pass the GED test and improve their lives, in or out of the Army, was there.
Janie and Harry were scheduled to leave Germany in June, 1964--completing a two-year military obligation. Harry, with consultation of Janie, decided to change his military status to "Volunteer Indefinite" This meant that Harry would continue to be in the army as a reserve officer until he requested to be discharged and the army agreed to release him. An important consideration was that Harry and Janie would complete a full 3-year tour in Germany--thus gaining two additional summers for travel. Janie would also be eligible to return to the USA if one of her parents became ill. Carl Simms, her father, had health issues. Janie was concerned that she might need to return quickly to the states. Knowing the Army would endorse and pay for the trip was an additional incentive for accepting a 3-year tour of duty in Germany.
In 1964, the Fulda Post was consolidated with another post to reduce costs. Harry's job changed from a Special Services Officer in charge of entertainment programs and facilities to becoming a Postmaster for the Hanau Post outside of Frankfurt. This meant that Janie and Harry were transferred to a larger, more urban area on the outskirts of Frankfurt. Fulda had been a more remote, but historic German, town just inside the West German border. The only building in Fulda damaged in the war was the train station. Intact were all of the other old traditional German buildings.
In Hanau, Janie and Harry now received government housing. They were assigned a two-bedroom apartment on the third story of a more modern apartment building. Although not needed, the second bedroom became handy for lodging visitors from the United States or Europe.
On the first floor were two people who would become life-long friends: John Thees and his wife, Dale. Together the four of them played bridge and socialized. Jackie, the Thees' first child, was also born during this time period. John Thees would eventually leave the military service and build a career in the petroleum industry. His career led him ultimately to move to Houston while Janie and Harry later settled up the road 200 miles in Dallas. John and his second wife, Elyse, continued to be close friends when Janie died--a friendship of over 50 years.
Harry's work in the Post Office had regular retail hours plus half-day duty on Saturday. This fixed schedule allowed Janie and Harry to travel on weekends and, because they were now located further south, near Frankfurt, to travel to other closer European destinations. During this time, Janie also got a teaching job in the US Army education system in Hanau.
In late August, 1965, Harry and Janie were scheduled to return to the United States after serving three years in Germany. Harry had decided that a career in public teaching, although attractive emotionally, was painful in that a teaching career did not pay well. His work as a retail postmaster led him to choose business as his future. To prepare him for this work, he applied and was accepted at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business and Commerce. The school year was approaching and would start in September, 1965--within 30 days of discharge from the Army.
The couple decided to start their new lives in the United States with a new car. A bright red 4-door Simca automobile, which was acquired from the Paris factory, was shipped to Baltimore to be picked up by Richard, Harry's brother. The Simca got 40 miles to the gallon and since gas cost 30 cents per gallon, the 9-gallon gas tank could be filled up for less than three dollars. The couple owned the Simca for five years--selling it after driving the car in Philadelphia and Minneapolis.
Janie and Harry set off for The Wharton School in Philadelphia and found an apartment in a three-story old row house at 4404 Chestnut Street, one of the oldest streets in our country. Using the university's housing search center had produced very poor results. At the end of the previous school year, apartments had been turned back to the owners in decrepit, filthy conditions by students. Because of the tight rental market, the apartment owners made no effort to clean the units and had a "take it or leave it" attitude with new potential renters.
So Harry tried an unusual approach to finding an apartment. Realizing that local barbershops often are a hub for a lot of local information, Harry parked the car, visited a barbershop and inquired about apartments.
Fortunately, one of the barbers said he owned apartments and had an apartment that was being vacated that very day. Janie and Harry visited the apartment and decided this would be a great new home. The apartment was unfurnished but Harry's mother was moving and gave the couple furniture she was not keeping. The apartment was 50 feet away from the Chestnut Street bus into the center of Philadelphia. Penn was also a walkable distance away-- down Locust, a quiet, tree-lined, slate-sidewalk street that went directly to the University of Pennsylvania.
To make the apartment livable in the hot summer, Janie and Harry purchased a window air conditioner for the bedroom. Janie's father also came and installed the clothes washer in a closet that backed up to the bathroom. He connected a hose from the washer through the wall to the shower head. They immediately had a way to wash clothes. The washer drained water into the bath tub so each time the couple wished to to take a bath, they had to clean out the soap scum in the bath tub. With this set-up, they could not take showers, only baths.
Janie took a job with the City of Philadelphia Welfare Department verifying occupancy in the apartments of welfare clients. Meanwhile Harry began his studies at the Wharton School with emphasis in marketing--especially, consumer products.
With the availability of scholarship money, Harry encouraged Janie to apply to the University of Pennsylvania School of Social Work. After interviewing, Janie was admitted with a full scholarship and a $200 tax-free per month grant. Together, with a newly available G.I. educational grant, the two were earning about what Janie was earning at the Department of Welfare.
Janie enjoyed her work at the School of Social Work--especially the field assignments. She had been assigned to work at a settlement house in West Philadelphia. Here she was instrumental in helping the community negotiate with the City of Philadelphia on how the community wished to have the neighborhood developed. Her Southern Baptist background was instrumental in her being accepted in the settlement house work. To assure the residents that Janie was a mature "family" person, she persuaded Harry to accompany her to many community events.
At the end of Harry's two-year Wharton program, Janie had completed only her first year in the two-year graduate social work program. Harry had received a very attractive job offer from General Mills in Minneapolis. The two discussed the option of Harry staying at Wharton to earn a PhD but both felt Harry's job offer from General Mills was too good to turn down. Janie decided that she could continue her social work studies at the University of Minnesota. In 1967, Janie applied and was accepted at the University of Minnesota School of Social Work.
In the interim, Janine, the couple's first child, had been born in September, 1967. To attend graduate school, the couple interviewed various women to be babysitters for Janine but did not find an acceptable person. Without acceptable childcare, Janie would put on hold her social work degree until she was in her mid-40's. In the intervening years, Janie volunteered in schools and the community as the couple moved from Minneapolis (3 years) to San Francisco (2 years) to Los Angeles (1 year) to San Diego (3 years) to Dallas because of Harry's job moves. However, Harry's career moves did allow the couple to explore the beautiful sites of America in each city they lived.
Brian was born in Walnut Creek, outside of San Francisco, in 1970. He was the third birth for Janie and Harry. After Janine was born in 1967, the couple had a still-born child in 1969. The infant was hydrocephalic (often referred to as "water-on-the brain"). Not wanting to bury an infant body they had not known in life in a grave in Minneapolis, Janie and Harry decided to donate the body to the Medical School for study.
At this time the couple wanted to know if a new pregnancy would be high at-risk for also being hydrocephalic. A trip to the University of Minnesota Medical School in St. Paul, MN, and an interview with medical experts assured the couple that the odds were very low of a repeat occurrence of hydrocephalus in a new pregnancy. The couple felt relieved and decided to have another baby. The family was complete when a healthy son, Brian, was born in 1970.
In 1976 Harry joined the Dr Pepper Company in Dallas, Texas, as Brand Manager for the Dr Pepper brand. This company was a small company, but well-known, company that operated as a family. All the employees knew each other and the work environment was very pleasant. Janine was now 9 years old. Brian was age 6. The school years for their children were critical so the couple decided to anchor in Dallas and stop moving around the country for Harry's career.
In 1988 Janie decided at age 48 to reactivate her career in social work by obtaining her Masters Degree in Social Work from the University of Texas at Arlington. After numerous field assignments and course work, she was awarded her Masters Degree in Social Work in 1990.
She then accepted a job with EA+, a small company that directed the employees of client companies to mental health counselors who would work with individual employees to resolve their mental health issues. This company was in Arlington, TX, near the school from which Janie graduated. However, the commute was still 25 miles --an hour drive from her home in Dallas.
An opportunity became available with PBHC, a similar employee assistance company-- only 1.5 miles from her house. In 1995 Janie accepted an account position that interacted with client companies to serve employees with mental health problems. Ultimately, PBHC was acquired by The MenningerCare Systems in Kansas and Janie departed the company in 2001.
In 2001 Janie began work at The Senior Source in Downtown Dallas. Senior Source was a referral source for seniors for financial, housing, medical or educational issues. Janie's extensive experience and academic credentials were valuable assets that helped Senior Source in interaction with the public as well as expanding the company's funding sources.
However, health-wise Janie was having issues breathing. At first, medical authorities felt her problem was asthma but further testing revealed that Janie's aortic heart valve was malformed from birth. She was required to wait for the stenosis, the narrowing of the valve opening, to reach a certain threshold measurement before a replacement valve could be surgically implanted. In 2002 Janie stopped working to concentrate on her health and wait for an aortic valve replacement.
In 2005, the three choices for aortic heart valves were a mechanical valve that required the blood thinner, Coumadin, or animal-tissue valves (pig or bovine) that did not require blood thinners. To avoid Coumadin, Janie chose to have a bovine aortic valve implanted at Baylor Hospital by Dr. Greg Matter. Janie's mother had problems with managing the dosage of Coumadin and Janie wished to avoid those problems.
Janie's bovine aortic valve lasted exactly 121 months--one month over the bovine valve's expected life of ten years. During this time, Janie also received a pacemaker to regulate the heart rhythm. In the Spring of 2015. at age 74, Janie had the ON-X mechanical heart valve implanted to replace the bovine valve. However, this new heart valve had a requirement for the blood thinner, Coumadin. During the heart valve replacement, the surgeon damaged the lead for her pacemaker so a new pacemaker had to be placed on Janie's right side. The older pacemaker was removed but the pacemaker wire lead connected to the heart was left inside her body.
Harry and Janie had traveled extensively while stationed in Germany. Later during their work years, they took trips to Australia, New Zealand, India, China and Tahiti in the far west. Crossing the Atlantic, the two had traveled to Israel, Africa, Portugal, Russia, Germany, Turkey, Spain, Hungary, Czech Republic, Scotland and the Baltic States. The only continent the couple had missed was Antarctic and that trip was being planned when Janie died. The two often put together slide shows of their travels and did travel presentations at local senior centers. Their travel kept their marriage vibrant and exciting and it was very noticeable in their travel presentations.
Since 2002, Harry had been a member of the Dallas Camera Club and participated in the monthly photo safaris and the intra-club photo contests. Janie joined the camera club also but initially did not participate in the competitions, After watching as a club member for about 18 months, Janie decided to enter the contests with photos that she had taken. She had an excellent eye for composition, and the direction of light. As a result within a few years, she advanced to become a Master Photographer winning several awards inside and outside the camera club.
Janie had a fondness for dogs as pets. The first family dog was Arfon, a Welsh Terrier, named from the combination of "Arf", a dog bark, and The Fonz, a character that Henry Winkler made famous as an actor on the television show, "Happy Days". Arfon was a great dog for their energetic children growing up because Arfon was so energetic
The final dog in the Rumberger household was Toby, a nervous, all-white, rescue dog who followed Janie around as she moved throughout the house. When Toby was first adopted, he demanded that he be in the room with the adults. He would bark unmercifully when Janie and Harry tried to cage him in the kitchen while they slept in the Master Bedroom. Finally, Janie placed Toby on a separate pillow bed to sleep in the master bedroom. Toby was happy to be in the same sleeping room with the household parents and slept calmly. During the daytime, Toby would bark loudly at all passers-by who walked the sidewalk in front of their house. In this way, he was a grand guard dog. But being a high-strung, nervous dog, Toby shed white hair everywhere. Janie did not care. Toby was "family" until he died in 2012--probably out of loneliness since he was left alone in the home while the couple traveled. A neighboring teenager came to play with Toby during the day but it may have not been enough human contact.
All of Janie's friends remarked how friendly was her composure, beautiful smile and her engaging conversation. She was a serious social worker who protected her clients. She worked to make her clients' lives better. Janie was devoted to both her work and her family.
She died suddenly on the morning of July 12, 2018, without warning.
Everyone loved her beaming smile and her upbeat, pleasant conversation. Loved universally, Janie will be missed.
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