Wenatchee World , June 23, 2010

Erma Mary (Heminger) Bolinger was the last living child of Wenatchee Valley pioneer couple Oliver Eli Heminger and Effie Kabrich Heminger. She was born in East Wenatchee, WA on July 30, 1909, into a family of eight siblings. She was raised on the family orchard, where her parents and extended families owned and operated Hi-Line Growers Apple Warehouse on Hi-Line Avenue. Some of the storage buildings are still standing there today. Erma's higher education was at Laverne College, in Pomona, CA. She married Paul S. Bolinger on January 1, 1933, in the family home in East Wenatchee, at the stroke of midnight! She and her husband purchased land and planted their apples, peach and cherry orchard on SE 8th Street, near Nile Road in East Wenatchee, WA, prior to their marriage. While the trees were young, Erma would go with a hoe and knock the thistles away from the young trees, so they would not be uprooted by the wind. Erma worked for the Kress Store, Miller's Department Store and Tots and Teens Clothing Store, early on. She kept books for a family business, Apple Masters Packing Warehouse, and was long employed by The Chieftain Motel as a bookkeeper/desk person. She was very good at and enjoyed meeting the public. She also liked to square dance and sew her daughter's clothes, including many prom dresses that were being hemmed as Janis walked out the door to the dance! Crossword puzzles were always in her hand. She would finish some of the grandkids' harder ones they couldn't complete. She enjoyed her family, her church, needlework, gardening and travels. She visited Alaska, flying over the North Pole at age 80, in a niece's private plane. She also enjoyed trips to China, the Bahamas and Hawaii, New York and Illinois. She was active in the Alta Slabaugh Guild of the Brethren Church and enjoyed working in Camp Fire Girls as Advisor and Leader. She helped raise all of her grandchildren. She was the first in her Heminger family to move from East Wenatchee, when they built and established their home where she raised her children, at 1131 Monroe St., "clear across the river" in Wenatchee. Erma spent her final years being cared for lovingly at Angel House Adult Family Home in Yakima, by Dana and Rebecca Rutz, who cared for her as their own family. She will live on in the many lives she has helped create.

Surviving are her three children and their spouses, Paul Duane Bolinger and Janet Bolinger of Chelan, WA, Terry Alan Bolinger and Patty Bolinger of Yakima and Chelan, WA and Janis Colleen Cooper and Guy Cooper of St. Charles, IL; her grandchildren, Kim D. (Phil) Hanford of Wenatchee, Kristi L. (Louie) Falco of Spokane, WA, Jon Paul (Melissa) Bolinger of Long Beach, CA, Jeff A. Bolinger of Yakima, Jeni L. (Will) Perri of San Diego, CA, Blake Charles Holcomb of Denver, CO, Abby (Tim) Erlandson of Chicago, IL, Katie (Adam) Craven of Maine, Natalie (Mike) Cooerman of New York and Paul Cooper of Atlanta, GA; and her great-grandchildren, Grant L. Falco, Tyler P. Falco and Kolby Falco, all of Spokane, WA, Phillip H. Hanford of Wenatchee, Mathew, Anthony, Hope, Christian and Nathan Erlandson, all of Chicago and Madeline and Calvin Craven, both of Maine. She also has enjoyed following the lives and accomplishments of her many nieces and nephews, most of whom still reside in the Wenatchee Valley. She was preceded in death by her husband, Paul, her parents, five sisters and three brothers and an infant sibling.

Celebration Services will be held at 11:00 a.m., on Monday, June 28, 2010, at Brethren Baptist Church, 535 Okanogan Street, Wenatchee, WA 98801. For those who wish, she had chosen, in lieu of flowers, a fund at the Wenatchee Brethren-Baptist United Church, 535 Okanogan Street, Wenatchee, WA 98801. Please express your thoughts and memories on the online guest book at jonesjonesbetts.com. Arrangements are by Jones & Jones ~ Betts Funeral Home, Wenatchee.

///this was sent to me by Teresa ID#46969893