Avid golfer helped out with Farr tourney

11/29/2009

Walda Jean Pittman, a longtime volunteer at the LPGA Jamie Farr Owens Corning Classic and at the Toledo Hospital whose marriage to her high school sweetheart lasted a half-century, died of cancer Thursday in Ebeid Hospice Residence, Sylvania. She was 72.

An avid golfer, Mrs. Pittman and her husband, Dale, were honored at last year's Jamie Farr tournament as the only couple to volunteer their services for 25 years running. She oversaw the greens reporters, who collected and conveyed scores and statistics.

Her volunteerism extended in a big way to Toledo Hospital, where she was active for 30 years, and her beloved alma mater, the former DeVilbiss High School, where she organized the reunions for her class of 1955 and was inducted into the Hall of Fame.

"She was the chairperson for the class reunions, which are held every five years. She got the committee together and she did a fantastic job," her husband said.

At the hospital, she ran the shopping cart and worked at the information desk.

Mrs. Pittman, whose friends and family knew her by her childhood nickname PeeWee, met her husband when both were sophomores at DeVilbiss. She was a cheerleader and he played football.

After they married in 1959, she accompanied her husband to Fort Benning, Ga., and Fort Dix, N.J., for his two-year Army stint.

They then lived in Celina, Ohio, for a year after he took a teaching and coaching job, and returned to northwest Ohio, where he became a teacher and assistant football and basketball coach at DeVilbiss. Mr. Pittman went on to become the school's head football coach and athletic director. The couple made their home in Sylvania.

In addition to her volunteer activities, Mrs. Pittman over the years worked in a physical therapist's office and in a bead shop.

During the football season, she was very active with her husband's team, keeping all the Tigers' statistics and becoming very knowledgeable about the game.

She loved golf. She and her husband had a winter home in Sarasota, Fla., on a golf course where they played. In 1998, they won the club's couples championship.

Mrs. Pittman served as president and tournament chairman of the Toledo Golf Club, which plays out of Ottawa Park.

In 1989, she played ProAm golf with LPGA star Meg Mallon.

She also enjoyed knitting, dogs, and spending time with her grandchildren.

Surviving are her husband, Dale; sons, Scott and Jeff, and four grandchildren.

Services will be at 1:30 p.m. tomorrow in the Foth-Dorfmeyer Funeral Home, 3815 Sylvania Ave., where the body will be after 3 p.m. today.

The family requests tributes to Ebeid Hospice Residence, 5200 Harroun Rd., Sylvania, Ohio 43560.