Owner of businesses liked to grow roses

7/28/2003

FINDLAY - Beulah `Bea' Kahler, who in the 1990s owned the Dairy Snack in Mount Blanchard for about five years and owned and operated two bars in Lima before that, died Saturday of cancer at her home in Findlay. She was 71.

Her son, K. Alan Pelphrey of Findlay, said his mother was a hard worker who enjoyed spending time with people.

“She was there every day, all day,” he said of his mother working at the Dairy Snack. Before that she put in long hours at her Uptown Lounge in Lima and at another Lima bar she owned.

“She was good at being able to get people good service. She made it like it wasn't a challenge; she just made people feel very comfortable,” Mr. Pelphrey said.

Ms. Kahler was born in Kentucky and moved to Michigan as a teenager. She moved to the Hancock County area in 1954. She married Grant Pelphrey in 1950; they later divorced.

Mr. Pelphrey said the last three years of his mother's life were a struggle, because her other son, Rodney, also had cancer and she cared for him. Rodney Pelphrey died last year.

Ms. Kahler retired after selling the Dairy Snack and moved to Findlay. She enjoyed growing roses. She was a past member of Ridge Chapel Church of the Nazarene.

Surviving are her son; five grandchildren; three half-brothers, James Richie and Kenneth Hall of Florida, and Donald Hall of Ashtabula, Ohio; and one half-sister, Deborah Hall of Ashtabula.

Services will be at 11 a.m. tomorrow at the Colden-Crates Funeral Home in Findlay, where the body will be after 2 p.m. today.

The family suggests tributes to either Bridge Home Health and Hospice, or the Cancer Patient Services.