Veteran area schoolteacher volunteered in retirement

10/11/2006

CRIDERSVILLE, Ohio - LaDona M. Wellman, 90, a retired teacher and volunteer instructor of china painting, died of cancer Sunday in the Otterbein-Cridersville Retirement Community.

Mrs. Wellman retired in 1976 after 16 years of teaching at Cridersville Elementary School and Wapakoneta City Schools.

Before that, she taught two years at Lima City Schools and was a bedside teacher, tutor, and elementary substitute teacher at Lima, Bath, and Shawnee schools for eight years.

She was a member of the Allen and Auglaize counties' retired teacher associations and a life member of the Ohio Retired Teachers Association.

In retirement, Mrs. Wellman lived in Lakeland, Fla., and Auburndale, Fla., where she took private lessons to become a porcelain artist. After moving to the retirement community in Cridersville in the late 1990s, she volunteered to teach china painting to area adults.

"She was a person who enjoyed giving and helping others because of her love for Christ. I would assume that's where her love of teaching came in," her daughter Mary Seippel said. "She also helped needy people in the community with housing and other needs."

A native of Ada, Ohio, Mrs. Wellman received a bachelor's degree in education from Ohio Northern University, Ada.

In 1937, Mrs. Wellman, whose maiden name was Church, married Victor V. Wellman. He died in 2003.

Mrs. Wellman, who lived most of her married life in Lima, was a member of United Methodist Church, Lima, where over the years she was a Sunday school teacher, superintendent, and missions chairman. She was the local, district, and conference secretary to United Methodist Women in Lima for 12 years.

Her other local memberships included the Allen County Historical Society, the YWCA, the AAUW, and the AARP.

Surviving are her son, Ronald Wellman; daughters, Colleen Krogh and Mary Seippel; sisters, Dorothy Apple and Patricia Swope, 10 grandchildren, 17 great-grandchildren, four stepgrandchildren, and a stepgreat-grandchild.

Visitation will be from 6 to 8 p.m. today in the Chiles & Sons-Laman Funeral Homes, Shawnee Chapel, Lima. Services will be at 10 a.m. tomorrow in Trinity United Methodist Church, Lima, where additional viewing will be from 9 to 10 a.m. tomorrow. The family suggests tributes to Trinity United Methodist Church or the Otterbein-Cridersville Retirement Community.