Trombone soloist aided arts group in Ottawa Hills

3/1/2010

Doris Trumm, an amateur musician whose devotion to the arts helped found the Ottawa Hills Music and Theater Association, died Saturday at Parkcliff Assisted Living Facility.

She was 88 and suffered from Alzheimer's disease, her son Jim Trumm said.

She was born Doris Fox on July 27, 1921, in Johnstown, Pa. As a student at Temple University, she became a featured trombone soloist with the Marine Corps Band during its weekly wartime radio concerts on KDKA in Pittsburgh, her son said.

"It was a little unusual for a woman perhaps," Mr. Trumm said of his mother's choice of instruments.

She was a soloist for a band on NBC radio's coast-to-coast broadcasts while still in high school.

She continued playing the trombone through her mid-70s, including stints with the National Senior Symphony, an orchestra for musicians 50 years or older. She spent several summers with the symphony at concerts in Rhode Island.

"She was a reasonably talented amateur musician," Mr. Trumm said.

In addition to music, she studied home economics at Temple.

After graduating, she worked as a kindergarten teacher on a military base and later became a home economist for Westinghouse Corp., traveling with the company's chef to tout the advantages of the company's newly developed electric ranges.

"Her job was to train salesmen and give demonstrations with the new electric range," her son said. "At that time this was all new technology."

She met Bruce Trumm in 1956. He was plant manager for Libbey, at that time part of Owens-Illinois Inc. The couple married and in 1962 moved to the Toledo area. He later became president of Riverside Hospital.

Shortly after moving to Ottawa Hills, she recognized a need for a boosters' group to support music and theater programs.

"She and a few other women thought that … that athletics shouldn't get all the support," Mr. Trumm said.

The Ottawa Hills Music and Theater Association was born as the result.

Barbara Siebenaler, the association's president, said Mrs. Trumm was a strong supporter of the arts in the village school system and attended most of her sons' and grandchildren's performances.

"She was a constant presence at concerts and theater productions," Mrs. Siebenaler said.

"You look at people like her and you are thankful that they were there to found the organization," she said.

Her background in home economics in college fueled her interest in nutrition and health, her son said. She took home economics courses at Bowling Green state University in the late 1960s.

After her husband's death in 1984, she became a certified instructor in Body Recall, a program of gentle exercises and stretching to keep the body limber. After training in Berea, Ky., she taught classes to older people in churches and community buildings.

Mrs. Siebenaler said she often saw Mrs. Trumm "walking vigorously" through the village. "If you had seen her walk … I don't think I could have kept up with her."

Mrs. Trumm is survived by sons Frederick, Bruce, and James; daughter Deborah; nine grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.

There is no visitation nor public service. Walker Funeral Homes handled the arrangements.

The family suggests memorials to the Ottawa Hills Music and Therater Association.

Contact: Jim Sielicki at:

jsielicki@theblade.com

or 419-724-6078