CHAPIN – Mary Ellen Fulmer Bostain, 89, passed from this life on Thursday, August 23, 2012. The service will be held at Chapin United Methodist Church on Sunday, August 26, 2012 at 3 o’clock. The Rev. Albert Cox and the Rev. Jody Flowers will officiate. Burial will be immediately following in Mt. Horeb Lutheran Church Cemetery in Chapin. The family will receive visitors on Saturday, August 25, 2012 from 5-7 PM at the Caughman-Harman Funeral Chapel, Chapin Chapel. Pallbearers will be: James Addy, Don Fulmer, Jr., Larry Fulmer, John Guerrera, Richard Lindler, and Michael Shear,
Mary Ellen was born May 15, 1923 at home in Chapin, the seventh of eight children of Wilbur E. Fulmer and Lula Mae Shealy Fulmer. Mr. Wilbur and Ms. Mae raised their children on the small family farm adjacent to Mt. Horeb Lutheran Church Cemetery, which is now Ellett Brothers Company and the home they built is now the Coldwell Banker office. Mary Ellen’s ancestors were German Lutherans who came to America in 1752 to settle in what are now parts of Newberry, Lexington and Richland Counties known as the Dutch Fork, the area between the Broad and Saluda Rivers. Mt. Horeb Lutheran Church has been the Fulmer family home church for several generations. Mary Ellen graduated from Chapin High School in 1939 where she was on the girls’ basketball team. She later enjoyed playing tennis. After graduation she began to date her high school basketball coach, Addison Bostain, Jr. They were married February 1, 1941. Mary Ellen and Ad raised three children before she began to work as a key punch operator for Wilbur Smith Traffic Consultants when it was starting in Columbia with only a few employees. She retired after 15 years.
Mary Ellen and Ad loved to travel, especially to the Gamecock football games. They also enjoyed the Gamecock basketball games. After raising their family in Columbia, they retired in Chapin on Lake Murray. They had always considered Chapin as home.
Mary Ellen is survived by her husband of 71 years, Addison; daughters, Patricia B. (Bud) Lewandowski, Barbara B. (Henry) Sweatman both of Chapin; son, Ronnie E. (Wanda) Bostain of Mount Pleasant; grandchildren, Mark Sweatman, Anna S. (Harrison) Rushton, Paul Sweatman, all of Columbia and Elissa Bostain, Mount Pleasant; step grandchildren, Thomas R. (Karen) Lewandowski, Columbia, and Robert L. (Stacy) Towne, Chapel Hill, NC; two great-grandchildren and three step great-grandchildren; brother, Donald (Becky) Fulmer, Sr., Newberry; sisters-in-law, Doris Fulmer, Chapin; Julia Fulmer, Kingston, TN; Marie Bostain, Chapin and Ella Bostain, Columbia. She was predeceased by her parents; sisters, Elese F. Addy and Thelma F. Addy; brothers, Milton, Bryan, Legrand and Henry Paul Fulmer.
The family wishes to thank caregivers, Brenda Bull, Mary Boney, Bertha Kessler and Vanessa Stukes and Regency Hospice for the loving care they gave to Mary Ellen.
In lieu of flowers memorials may be made to Chapin United Methodist Church building fund, 415 Lexington Ave., Chapin, SC 29036 or Mt. Horeb Lutheran Church building fund, 101 East Boundary Street, P. O. Box 8, Chapin, SC 29036-0008.
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