Margaret I. Hamman

Margaret Irene (Schendel) Hamman, 94, of Fort Wayne, passed away Wednesday, November 3, 2021 at North Woods Village at Inverness Lakes. Born October 10, 1927 in Muskogee, Oklahoma, Margaret was the daughter of the late Otto and Lettie (Rothner) Schendel. She graduated from County High School of Oak Ridge, Tennessee in 1946. Throughout her life, Margaret was grateful and moved when she recalled the kindness of her Oak Ridge classmates, who were supportive as Margaret endured multiple surgeries and treatments for cancer during her high school years. She completed a Bachelor of Science in Commerce from Oklahoma A & M College (now Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK) in 1951, and earned a Master of Science in 1953, also from Oklahoma A & M. While teaching secretarial skills to members of the Women’s Army Corps (WAC) and Women in the Air Force (WAF), Margaret met a young Air Force staff sergeant from Ohio, Donald Hamman, who was in Stillwater attending weather school. They married September 1, 1952. They briefly lived with Margaret’s beloved maternal aunts in Denison, Texas while Don was stationed at Perrin Air Force Base, but soon moved to Athens, Ohio for Don to attend Ohio University. Two of Don’s siblings and their spouses also had relocated to Athens, and all three of these young couples began their families while living in former army barracks that had been converted to married student housing. Margaret and Don’s first two children were born in Athens, and after the family settled in a suburb of Columbus, Ohio, two more children arrived. Margaret was a very practical woman who ran an efficient household. She knew how to stretch a dollar, whether that involved meal planning, sewing clothes for herself and her daughters, scheduling cross-country family vacations, or ensuring her children’s participation in various activities. Margaret enjoyed socializing with her bridge club friends and church groups. She was a very active member of Covenant Presbyterian Church in Upper Arlington for many years. Together, Margaret and Don attended musical theater performances by the Kenley Players. Margaret herself had a lovely singing voice, and she enjoyed opportunities to sing. Margaret and Don also became involved in square and round dancing groups. They continued these dancing activities after they moved to Longwood, Florida in 1979. Together, they also played many golf courses in central Florida, and Margaret carefully followed the lives and successes of professional golfers. She also made sure to keep up on current events, sometimes clipping articles to save or send to her children. Margaret enjoyed the years she and Don lived in Florida, and made especially good friends in her water aerobics class. She and Don also continued to travel throughout North America, and together they visited all 50 states. They moved to Fort Wayne in 2007 to be closer to family in their later years. Margaret and Don had been married 65 years when he passed in January of 2018. She is survived by three daughters, Linda H. (Mark) Moore of Champaign, Illinois; J. Elaine (Joseph) Kain of Fort Wayne; and Laura K. Henderson of Upper Arlington, Ohio; five grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren. She was preceded in death by her husband, Don; son, Gary W. Hamman; brother, Travis Schendel; and sister, Sylvia Brammer. No service is planned, although her immediate family will celebrate her life at a later date. In lieu of flowers, the family requests contributions to BrightFocus Foundation, which funds innovative scientific research worldwide to defeat Alzheimer’s, macular degeneration, and glaucoma, www.brightfocus.org.