Catherine Louise Stover

Catherine Louise Lobach was born on October 21st, 1930 in Derry Township, Montour County, Pennsylvania to Edwin and Mary Lobach. She was the fifth generation to be born on the family farm. Catherine was the first born child, and a few years later, she would be joined by a younger sister, Elizabeth Ann Lobach. Born during the time of the Great Depression, life for Lobach family was not easy. There was little money for shoes, clothes, and other necessities. On the brighter side of farm life, there was food to eat, and the family survived better than some due to their self-sufficient ways and strong work ethic.

Catherine’s parents also had four sons; unfortunately, all four died either at birth or shortly thereafter. They were either stillborns, or born prematurely. Catherine’s mother, Mary, was a diabetic, but she didn’t know it at the time. Premature births and stillborns occur more frequently to diabetic mothers. Catherine remembered those births and felt the grief of her parents with each loss. Sons were especially important to farmers, as the family farm was usually was handed down to one of them. As it was, Catherine and Elizabeth, worked long, hard days on the farm as they grew up. They got up before the rooster crowed to feed the chickens and milk the cows before going to school each day. There were also plenty of chores waiting for them when they got home. Growing up on the farm, they had many responsibilities, and they got to experience many things at a very young age. When Catherine was only 6 years old she started to learn how to drive a tractor. She steered and her mother shifted gears for her.

Although times were tough, there was one thing never lacking in the Lobach household, and that was love. Catherine said that she always knew how much her parents loved her and her sister. When Catherine was a young girl she enjoyed learning how to sew, cook, bake, and preserve foods. These were all necessary skills for life in rural America; however, she really enjoyed and excelled at doing these things. She was a good student and she was also active in her local 4-H club. She raised livestock and entered into other competitive events at the local county fairs. While in high school, Catherine also earned extra money by working at Siddell’s Restaurant.

In 1948, after graduating from Danville High School, Catherine left the farm to go to Mansfield State Teacher’s College in Mansfield, Pennsylvania. She decided she wanted to become a Home Economics teacher. She was the first person in her family to go to college. Her parents sacrificed and tried to help her pay for college. She also worked cleaning houses and babysitting for some of the college faculty while she was in college. She scrubbed many a floor to be able to eat and stay in the dorms.

It was at Mansfield State Teacher’s College that she met the love of her life, Glenn G. Stover. Fresh out of the Navy, Glenn had returned to his native state of Pennsylvania to attend college. He was studying to become an elementary and secondary level school teacher.

Now, the story as told by Glenn is that Catherine had seen him around the campus, but she really didn’t know him very well. When she was approaching her 20th birthday, the girls in her sorority decided to throw her a “handkerchief birthday party.” Everyone attending was expected to bring Catherine a gift of a handkerchief. Her sorority sisters told her she needed to invite Glenn to her birthday party. She didn’t want to because she thought he was dating another young woman. They told her, “No, he broke up with her.” So Catherine took their advice and invited him to her birthday party, it was their first date. Shortly after that, he took her on a second date to the Pennsylvania Grand Canyon with a group of friends. From that point on they were a steady item.

As a young man, Glenn smoked a tobacco pipe, and had earned himself the nickname of Smokey Stover, which by coincidence was also the name of a comic strip character. The name of Smokey Stover would stay with Glenn for decades to come, even after he gave up smoking a pipe. His nickname may have also had on influence on Catherine’s musical tastes. One of her favorite all-time pop songs was, “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes”, by the Platters.

Glenn could be quite a character at times. This was good, because generally speaking, Catherine had a somewhat serious demeanor, so he helped to bring balance to her life. Although Catherine wasn’t one to chase men, she did admit many years later that she went to college basketball games just so she could determine which players had the nicest legs!

Catherine was an excellent student, and she was on the Dean’s list 7 of 8 semesters that she attended college. She was also President of the Home Economics Society. Catherine had six roommates over the four years while she was in college, and while she was very close to several of them, there was one who became one of her dearest friends. Her name was Mary Nadine Geyer. Despite the years and distance that would later come between them, she and Mary Nadine would remain lifelong friends.

During the summer of 1951, Catherine went to work as a dietician at a Girl Scout Camp near Birdsboro, Pennsylvania. One day in July, Glenn caught a ride up to the campsite. He came there with an engagement ring tucked in a small box in his pocket. He discretely showed it to several of Catherine’s co-workers. That evening when she was done working in the camp kitchen, he took her for a walk down to the lake at the camp. It was supposed to be a moonlit night; however, the moon wasn’t shining through the clouds very well. As they sat together on a bench at the lake, he took the ring out of the box and slipped it on her finger. He never did ask her to marry him, but the fact that she didn’t take off the ring was all the answer he needed.

Catherine was never one to give her heart easily to men, so when she fell in love with Glenn it was for keeps. They were married shortly after Catherine’s college graduation on June 21st, 1952 at the Baptist Church in Muncy, Pennsylvania.

Glenn had graduated with his Bachelor’s degree in Education in January 1952, six months before the wedding. He was fortunate to find a teaching job in Jarrettsville, Maryland, which he started in March 1952. After their wedding, they initially lived in an old schoolhouse that was part of the property located next to the Lobach family farm. In the fall of 1952, they moved to Jarrettsville, Maryland. Catherine was blessed to be hired for a teaching position just 3 days after their wedding. Her first teaching job was at the Fawn Grove High School in Fawn Grove, Pennsylvania, which was just 12 miles north of Jarrettsville.

The first couple of years of married life, they moved several times. In the fall of 1953, Glenn and Catherine packed up their household and moved from Jarrettsville, Maryland to Delta, Pennsylvania. Delta is located just 13 miles northeast of Jarrettsville, so they didn’t have to move very far. It was also just 8 miles east of Fawn Grove, so Catherine didn’t have far to drive to go to work. Glenn had accepted a teaching position in Delta. It was here at this little country school that Glenn would make the acquaintance of Keith Robinson. Glenn taught 6th grade and Keith taught 3rd grade. These two hit it off, and they became the best of friends. When Catherine met Keith’s wife Dorothy, they discovered that they were two kindred spirits. When Catherine and Dot got together in the kitchen, they prepared food fit for kings, and they could talk for hours on end. Keith and Dot Robinson became Glenn and Catherine’s best friends on the east coast. Their friendship was very special and it would last throughout their lifetimes.

Keith Robinson was a few years older than Glenn and he encouraged Glenn to apply for a special teaching assignment. This assignment was to teach in a one-room school house in the Red Lion School District. He felt that the experience of teaching kindergarten through high school all at the same time would open up many new teaching positions for Glenn. Glenn applied for the job and he was accepted, so from 1954-1955, he taught in the one-room school house. Catherine continued to teach Home Economics at the Fawn Grove High School. Keith’s advice was sound, and the following year Glenn was able to obtain a teaching position in Danville, Pennsylvania, which was very close to Catherine’s home town. So in the summer of 1955, they packed up their household and moved north to the Washingtonville area.

During the early 1950s, Catherine’s parents had decided that they wanted to get out of the business of farming. They decided they wanted to open up a restaurant. So they purchased some land in Danville, Pennsylvania and in 1955 they set out to build their dream. It was fortunate that Catherine was returning to the Washingtonville area, as it is located just a few miles from Danville. Rather than continuing with her teaching career, Catherine used her Home Economics education to assist her parents in running their restaurant. The Locust Breeze Restaurant opened up for business in 1955. Catherine and her mom had a real knack for baking pies. As the word spread, they pie production ramped up and they sold over 6,000 pies in the first 6 months that the restaurant was open for business. The customer favorites were Shoo-fly pies, Montgomery pies, Cherry pies, Apple pies, and Pecan pies.

It was also during this time that Glenn and Catherine would start their family. Working at the restaurant was hard work, being pregnant made it just a little bit harder; however, this was all complicated by a painful back problem that Catherine had developed in college. She had been suffering with a slipped disc in her low back since the early 1950s. She had seen specialists, but when she saw other back surgery patients who ended up in wheel chairs for life, she decided just to deal with the pain. She wore a special back brace while she was pregnant. On March 1, 1956, Catherine gave birth to their son Keith Edwin Stover. He was named Keith after their dear friend Keith Robinson, and Edwin after Catherine’s father.

Catherine continued to work in the restaurant with little Keith in tow. When Catherine’s parents originally built the restaurant, they also built their living quarters in the back section of the restaurant, so there was room for a playpen and place to take a nap. It should also be noted that Catherine’s father, Edwin, had a way with babies. If there was a baby crying in the restaurant he’d ask if he could hold them. Somehow he could always get the babies to exchange their tears and screams for smiles and laughter. There is no doubt that little Keith managed to get his fair share of cuddling from his mom and grandparents while at the restaurant.

On September 4th, 1957, eighteen months and three days after Keith’s arrival into the world, Catherine gave birth to their daughter, Mary Nadine Stover. She was named after Catherine’s mother, Mary, and also for her college roommate, Mary Nadine Geyer. Catherine continued to work at the restaurant, but she also spent a large portion of her day just taking care of her two toddlers. During this same time, Glenn was busy teaching and working on his Master’s Degree in Education at Bucknell University. Glenn finished his Master’s Degree in 1959.

Now growing up in the city, and as the eighth of nine children, there were some things that Glenn didn’t have the opportunity to learn, one of which was how to drive a car. During their college days, it was Catherine who taught Glenn how to drive a car. In February of 1959, Catherine watched from their bathroom window as Glenn drove off to school. She was horrified when she saw his car go sliding down the icy road sideways when he hit a section of black ice. It was after that incident that Glenn and Catherine decided to move to California. Catherine’s half-brother, Kenneth, had moved to California a few years earlier and he had been praising the warm winter weather.

In late June 1959, Glenn and Catherine packed up Keith and Mary Nadine, and their most precious belongings and moved to San Diego, California. They arrived in San Diego on July 4th, 1959.

They settled into a rental home on Wightman Street in San Diego. It was while living at Wightman Street that they began to attend the Asbury Methodist Church. Glenn had gone to church fairly regularly as a child; however, Catherine’s church attendance had been sporadic at best. Catherine’s mom had a deep faith, she didn’t speak about it very much, but it was there and anyone who knew her could sense it in her strong, but quiet spirit.

When Catherine had been a child, she grew very rapidly. Her parents had taken her to see a specialist because at the age of 11 she was 5 feet 10 inches and appeared to be still growing. Upon examination and tests, the doctor had told them that Catherine was afflicted with gigantism. The doctor told her parents that she would grow to be between 7 and 8 feet tall, and weigh around 400 pounds. She would probably go blind, and she would not live past her early thirties. However, when Catherine reached the height of 5 feet 11 inches, she suddenly stopped growing. It wasn’t until Catherine had an appointment with a doctor in San Diego that she was told some amazing information. The doctor had discovered that a calcium type substance had grown over her pituitary gland. He had never seen anything like it, but it is what caused her to stop growing. The doctor told her that she was a medical miracle. Although she had stopped growing several years before, this discovery and being told she was a medical miracle was a turning point in her life. It was then that she truly believed that God existed and that He loved her. It was then that she accepted Jesus into her heart.

In 1960, Glenn and Catherine bought their first home on Iona Drive in the Encanto area of San Diego. It was closer to Glenn’s teaching position at Dehesa Elementary School. After a change of pastors at Asbury Methodist Church, Glenn and Catherine decided to attend the Encanto Methodist Church. It just seemed like a good time to do it and it was much closer to their home. Catherine was a full time stay at home mom, and she stayed active in the United Methodist Women’s group. Glenn worked a second job at the May Company store in San Diego’s Fashion Valley area so Catherine could stay home with their children.

When the Stovers moved to Iona Drive, they were blessed to have several good neighbors, the Chapman family, the Gata family, and a spunky widow by the name of Mrs. Thomas. The Gata’s were a first generation Italian family. Rosie Gata and her husband had six children. They were the real deal, Roman Catholic Italians, and she loved to cook. She and Catherine became good friends. One morning, Catherine and Rosie decided that they wanted to teach each other how to make the various baked confections from their ethnic backgrounds. So they kicked all of the kids out of Rosie’s house and locked the doors. Glenn was technically in charge of the kid’s care, but the kids were too busy trying to see inside of Rosie’s kitchen to warrant very much oversight. At the end of the day, the doors were unlocked and the kids were allowed into Rosie’s kitchen. There were cookies, donuts, and all sorts of pastries piled on top of Rosie’s dining room table, which by the way, was large enough to seat 12 people comfortably at any given time. That night, no one ate a regular dinner, they had dessert instead. It was from this recipe exchange that Catherine was given Rosie’s Basic Italian Cookie recipe. It is a cut-out butter cookie recipe that would continue to be used every year at Christmas time. It remains the family favorite to this day.

One day, in 1960, Catherine and Rosie decided to go downtown to the beauty college to get their hair done. While waiting for the beauty college to open up they went into a nearby coffee shop. Sitting not too far from them, they noticed two sailors who looked rather lonely. Catherine and Rosie struck up a conversation with them. They really liked the one sailor, a young man by the name of John Purk. They invited John to come out to the house for dinner and he accepted. John became an honorary big brother to Keith and Mary. He would go out to sea for months at a time, and then he would return with treasures from places abroad. In 1963, he brought back a full 8 serving set of china for the family. Other treasures included silk from Japan, jade statues, and a stereo system. He didn’t have much of a home life growing up, so he treasured his adopted status. After John’s enlistment was up with the Navy he moved back to Witchita, Kansas. Over the years he would still occasionally surprise the Stovers with a visit. They never knew when he’d show up, but he was always welcome. Catherine’s family loved to tease her about the day that she and Rosie went to downtown San Diego and picked up a sailor.

By 1963, Catherine was anxious to return to teaching, so she began to teach adult night school home economics classes. She taught at two different locations. Her classes were in the Logan Heights and Clairemont areas of San Diego. Now mind you, this was 1963, and there was a lot of civil racial unrest. Logan Heights was not a safe area of town, especially for a lone Caucasian woman. So when Catherine taught at Logan Heights she would dress up as a man while she drove to and from class. She felt she’d be safer dressed as a man, rather than be seen as a woman alone in a car at night. She really enjoyed her students and they came from a variety of ethnic backgrounds. Quite often her students would bring in food from their native culture to share with her and the other students in their class.

It was also during the early 1960s that Catherine’s parents purchased a large parcel of land in upstate Pennsylvania, 88 acres. The property was blessed with rolling hills, beautiful trees, and a lot of underground springs. Catherine’s father was a bit of an entrepreneur. He brought in bulldozers and carved out a 22 acre lake which was fed by the underground springs. Catherine’s parents continued to run their restaurant year round; however, during the summer they would shut the restaurant down on the weekends, and open up their lake property as a camp ground. Since they only had one granddaughter, they named the lake after her, Lake Nadine. Lake Nadine became one the Stover’s favorite summer destination.

Back in California, Glenn taught at Dehesa Elementary School from 1959 through June of 1965. He and Catherine decided it would be best for him to seek out a better paying teaching position. The Vietnam War was also going on during this time, and the sleepy little city of Oceanside found itself in need of more teachers to handle the influx of Marines and their families. Glenn landed at job teaching at Santa Margarita Elementary School on board the Camp Pendleton Marine Corps Base. So on September 4th, 1965, they packed up and moved to Oceanside.

One of the first things they did after settling into a rental property on Marshall Street was to look for their new home church. They began attending South Oceanside United Methodist Church. While attending South Oceanside United Methodist Church they would meet their west coast best friends, Bill and Helen Clifton. It was also at this time that Catherine would return to teaching as a substitute teacher. The first person she filled in for was Glenn. He was teaching a sixth grade class and they were heading off for a week at sixth grade camp at Camp Palomar.

Glenn and Catherine didn’t particularly like being renters, so two years later then bought a house in the Tri-City Hospital area. They lived there for about 1 ½ years. The soil was extremely poor and Catherine was a frustrated farmer when she tried to get anything to grow in it. In February of 1969, they found a house on Ridgeway Street in Oceanside. It was on ¾ of an acre and the soil was good. On President’s Day weekend, they moved to Ridgeway Street. It was here that they would stay. The location was also absolutely perfect, because by this time, Catherine was teaching Home Economics at Lincoln Junior High School which was conveniently located right across the street from their house. It was also at this new home that another miracle occurred. One day, she accidentally moved just right and the disc that had been out of place since the early 1950s popped back into place. The popping noise was so loud that it was heard from one end of the house to the other. It never went out of place again. Praise God!

As the years went by, Keith and Mary grew up, and Glenn and Catherine grew closer to the Lord and to retirement. Mary got married In 1976 to her high school sweetheart, Jerry Rice, and on September 27, 1976, Glenn and Catherine were blessed with their first grandchild, Charlotte May Rice. A few years later, on June 4th, 1979, their second granddaughter, Anna Louise, would make her way into the world. Six years later, Mary gave birth to a son, Kevin Patrick on Nov. 9, 1985. In 1978, their son, Keith, also married to his first wife, Jan Lowry. They had two daughters. Their daughter Jennifer Nicole Stover was born on May 22, 1980, and their daughter Jessica Noel Stover was born on Dec. 4th, 1981. Neither Keith’s, nor Mary’s first marriages went well and they both ended up in divorce.

In 1977, Glenn and Catherine drove to Pennsylvania and brought Catherine’s parents out to California to live. Her parents were both getting on in years. They were having some health issues and they were no longer able to drive. Her mother, Mary Lobach, affectionately known to her grandchildren as Nan-Nan, passed away in 1979 due to complications from diabetes. Her father, Edwin Lobach, affectionately known to his grandchildren as Pap-Pap, would continue to live until his passing 1984.

In the mid-1980s as Glenn got closer to retirement, he felt the calling to go into ministry. Glenn retired from teaching in 1985 and he returned to college to earn his Master’s Degree in Divinity. While attending Fullerton Theological Seminary in Pasadena, CA, he was also given a part-time ministry position at the Jacumba United Methodist Church in Jacumba, CA. Catherine continued to teach at Lincoln Jr. High during this time. Their lives were a whirl wind of suitcases and laundry. Their schedule consisted of Glenn driving up to Pasadena on Sunday evening. He would attend classes during the week and drive home either Thursday evening or Friday morning. When Catherine would finish teaching Friday afternoon, they’d pack their bags and drive the 110 miles to Jacumba. They would be there until after services were over on Sunday. They would eat lunch, pack up their bags, and drive back to Oceanside. Glenn would grab the suitcase that was filled with clean clothes and then drive 87 miles back to Pasadena. Catherine taught her classes, did the laundry and took care of everything at the house during the week. This went on for a couple of years. Fortunately, Catherine was offered an early retirement from teaching in 1986, and she took it. While Glenn still had to make a lot of trips, it was less taxing on Catherine when she no longer had to add teaching into the mix. Glenn graduated from seminary in June 1987.

Catherine truly enjoyed this new phase in their lives. As a minister’s wife she stayed actively engaged in the United Methodist’s Women’s group and other church related activities. It is has been said that behind every successful man is a good woman. Catherine was the epitome of a good wife. She was always willing to follow Glenn wherever he felt the calling to go. They ministered in Jacumba from 1985 to 1989. From January 1988 to July 1989, they actually lived in Jacumba; during this time, Mary and her children house-sat for her parents. It was mutually beneficial to everyone. In July 1989, they moved back to their home in Oceanside. A year later, they moved to Ridgecrest, CA where Glenn had 3 part-time ministry positions in the Inyokern, Randsburg, and Johannesburg, CA.

1990 was also a year of change for their children, as both Mary and Keith remarried. Glenn performed both wedding ceremonies, although the Mary’s was a little trickier. He walked her up the aisle, and then took his place as the officiating minister. Keith married Janet Henderson and Mary married Laurence Bradley. In 1994, Mary gave birth to her parent’s 6th and final grandchild. Rachel Christine Bradley was born on January 28, 1994. Glenn and Catherine stayed in the Ridgecrest area until Glenn retired as a full-time minister in June of 1995.

Throughout Catherine’s life she and Glenn went on many trips. They made the trip to Pennsylvania and back numerous times. They saw the sights of Yellowstone National Park, Mt. Rushmore, the Carlsbad Caverns, the mighty Sequoia and Yosemite forests, Hawaii, Mt. Saint Helens, Niagara Falls, and of course, many of the historical sites in their home state of Pennsylvania and the areas surrounding it. They even let Keith and Mary plan out the route to Pennsylvania and back, so they could add in sites that they wanted to see.

Catherine kept busy with the things she loved in life. She enjoyed working with people. She helped out with Vacation Bible School, she worked with children who were struggling to learn how to read, and she started the adult Sunday school classes at church. Catherine continued to stay active in the United Methodist Women, and she headed up the Crafty Dreamers craft group for many years. She loved to garden, bake all sorts of goodies, and she loved to sew. She also enjoyed reading, everything from Christian inspirational books to mystery novels. She passed along her love of the home arts to her daughter and she passed along her mechanical abilities to her son. She loved to help other people; it was part of her mission in life.

Catherine and Glenn lost their good friends the Robinsons in 2002. They passed away just a few months apart. Keith and Dot left behind their sons Adrian and Kevin. When Adrian and Kevin were little, they became good friends with Keith and Mary. They had spent many a summer vacation playing and sight-seeing together with their parents. Keith and Mary have continued to carry on their friendship with Adrian and Kevin and their families. A few years later, Bill and Helen Clifton, also passed away and went to be with the Lord. Bill died four short days after Helen did. Losing their dearest friends so close together was hard to bear. Mary made the comment to her mother that she felt to sorry for both the Robinsons and the Clifton’s children; it was a tragedy to lose both of their parents so close together. Catherine agreed that it was rough on the children, but she also thought it was beautiful that two people could be so close that they really couldn’t live without the other.

Three years ago, in 2007, Catherine took a bad fall on the back patio of their home. She hit her head pretty hard and had to have stitches. It was after this fall, that Catherine’s health started to decline. She was never quite the same and she struggled with a variety of ailments, the worst of which was the loss of balance combined with the onset of Alzheimer’s disease. Despite her circumstances, she rarely complained, but rather took it in stride as a part of aging. While others may have looked at this and seen her cup in life as half-full, she still looked at the cup and saw it as overflowing. She was blessed to have 6 grandchildren, 3 great-grandsons, and 3 step-great grandchildren. She continued to pour out her love on her family despite the progression of her health issues. In her final days, she just kept telling everyone how much she loved them, and how blessed she felt to have her family and friends in her life. She loved us all, but it was we, her family and friends, we were the ones who were truly blessed to have her in our lives as a wife, a mother, a grandmother, and a friend.

Catherine Louise Stover passed away peacefully on Friday, August 20th, 2010, at 6:40am. She is with the Lord and her beautiful spirit has been set free. She will be greatly missed by those who knew her and loved her.

Arrangements under the direction of Eternal Hills Memorial Park, Mortuary and Crematory, Oceanside, CA.