Bowlin
Submitted photo
ST. PARIS – Pony Wagon Days will begin on Thursday evening, Sept. 5 with a parade that includes three grand marshals.
The festival continues through Saturday, capped off by Old Fashioned Days on Sunday, Sept. 8.
The “Queens Court of Grand Marshals” for Pony Wagon Days includes three ladies from St. Paris (listed in alphabetical order of surname): Joyce Bowlin, Virginia Shafer and Jeanne Thompson.
Pony Wagon Days parade will be held on Thursday, Sept. 5 with festivities starting at 6 p.m. Following the parade there will be a basket auction in the municipal building. All are welcome to attend.
The Pony Wagon Days Festival will be held Saturday, Sept. 7 in the area of 370 E. Main St.
In addition to a list of events happening on the Saturday of the festival (see accompanying graphic), there will also be chicken ’n noodle lunch held at the St. Paris First Baptist Church from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Donations will be accepted.
Old Fashioned Days on Sunday, Sept. 8 will be held at 510 S. Washington St. with pony wagon rides, homemade ice cream, and live local entertainment.
Listed below are the biographies of the “Queens Court of Grand Marshals” including Bowlin, Shafer and Thompson:
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Joyce Bowlin was born in Williamsburg, Kentucky on Nov. 23, 1941. She lived on a farm with her family until she moved to St. Paris in the early 1960’s to become a sixth grade teacher at Graham South elementary.
Joyce married her college sweetheart, Bob Bowlin, on June 6, 1964 and left teaching in 1967 after the birth of her son, Eric, to stay home with him. Her daughter, Theresa, was born in 1970. She enjoyed her years at home with her children and being a support to her husband, Bob, who was a lifelong teacher at Miami East and coach of several sports both at Miami East and Graham. Bob also served as a St. Paris Village Council member and eventually mayor until his unexpected death in 1996.
Joyce returned to full time teaching in 1981 at Graham South where she taught sixth and third grades until her retirement. Joyce loved all of her students and fellow teachers. She served in several leadership roles in her years at Graham South and still served after retirement as a Junior Achievement teacher for the third grade classrooms at the newer Graham Elementary for many more years.
Joyce organizes the retired elementary teachers monthly lunch and enjoys seeing her many friends and laughing at so many fond memories they shared together.
She has always been a champion for education and enjoys seeing kids learn and thrive. Her family has honored her for the last several years with a scholarship given in her name to a student athlete from Graham – The Joyce Bowlin family scholarship.
Bob and Joyce became active attendees of the First Baptist Church in St. Paris and developed many lifelong friendships with others in the community.
Joyce has faithfully served for many years at the Baptist church as a nursery/preschool Sunday School teacher, women’s ministry leader, Food for the Soul volunteer, and countless hours of service in whatever capacity anyone in the church has needed. She loves her church family and is always there with a meal or kind word to those who have been sick or lost a loved one.
Joyce served on the Federation of Churches for many years and still assists with special projects like the Angel Tree drive at Christmas time, the annual Easter egg hunt, and Vacation Bible School. Joyce attends the Our Town meetings to help however she can, volunteers for the St. Paris food pantry, attends the city council meetings, and faithfully serves on the Pony Wagon Days committee. She specifically spearheads the annual Pony Wagon Days Golf Scramble and oversees the basket auction held during the Pony Wagon Days festival.
She loves her community and serves as a faithful volunteer not for accolades but because it brings her joy. She has impacted and continues to impact many people with her time, talent, and treasures.
Joyce loves to spend quality time with her kids, four grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren. She is proud of her family and continues to inspire them with her zest for life and service to others. She is forever a Kentucky girl at heart and an avid UK fan but she is blessed to have lived for so many years in St. Paris.
Virginia (Ginny) Shafer was born on July 1, 1923 to Hazel (Rhodehamel) and Floy H. Parsons at the Miami Valley Hospital in Dayton, Ohio. Mother and Dad met at Botts Dancing School and married on Jan. 1, 1921. They sold their home in Dayton and bought a farm on West Road in St. Paris in 1924. Ginny grew up here in the local community.
Ginny graduated from Christiansburg Jackson High School in 1941. She met her husband, Don, while waitressing at the Top Hat. They dated and then married on July 11, 1942.
Don was a printer for the St. Paris Dispatch and then went to work at the Springfield News and Sun paper where he retired. Ginny worked as a waitress at the Top Hat in 1941 and then went to work at Traylor’s Clothing Store in St. Paris. She later worked at Wright Patterson Air Force base from 1942 to 1947 and as a librarian for the St. Paris library from 1947 to 1953.
After 11 years and many prayers, Ginny and her husband were blessed to have six wonderful children: David (1953), Cynthia (1954), Kevin (1955), Rick (1957), Greg (1959), and Susan (1960). Ginny loved her children so and her good friend, Valentine Roberts, gifted her with a rocking chair to carry around wherever she wanted to sit and rock her babies. She has many fond memories of taking her babies for walks in the buggy stroller and then a big wagon that she pulled all over town. The children enjoyed many games like croquet, basketball, pool, and the sand box. The family home had a basement where the kids had their toy barns and farm animals to play with as well as two pianos in the house for lessons from Irene Moore. Don was a scout master and all of the kids participated in Girl and Boy Scouts. Each child had a paper route delivering local papers from Urbana, Piqua, Springfield, and Troy. Don would drive and the whole family would deliver the Sunday morning papers around town.
After delivering the papers, it was Sunday School and church time at the St. Paris United Methodist Church. Ginny and Don were lifetime attendees and volunteered their time as youth group leaders and nursery workers. Each child was baptized in the same christening gown made by Don’s mother.
Ginny was involved in Eastern Star and will receive her 80-year pin in September 2024. She has been blessed to live for the past 101 years in St. Paris and celebrates her family with six children, 14 grandchildren, and 11 great-grandchildren.
Jeanne Thompson has been a resident of St. Paris virtually her entire life. Now 92, she was born in Greenville, Ohio, the first child of Jack and Geraldine Fueston. In 1934, when Jeanne was 2, the family moved to St. Paris when her father was asked to manage the Kroger store on South Springfield Street.
The Fuestons lived in a house on Poplar Street close to where the Pony Wagon Museum stands today. In those days, railroad tracks ran behind their house. In the depths of the Great Depression, homeless men would hop off freight trains and seek food from residents living along the tracks. “My mother would always prepare a plate of food for them, and they would eat on the porch,” Jeanne recalled. “I had to stay inside.”
Jeanne attended Johnson-St. Paris School, where she was a cheerleader and 1950 homecoming queen. She also was active in 4-H, Girl Scouts, and a bowling league. At school she became friends with a boy one year ahead of her: Darrell Thompson. After Jeanne graduated from high school in 1950, she went to work at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, where she managed personnel files.
On New Year’s Eve 1950, Jeanne and Darrell were married at St. Paris Methodist Church. “I picked that date so he would never forget our anniversary,” Jeanne joked.
When Darrell and his brother Bud took over The Appliance Shop from their father, Harold Thompson, in 1957, Jeanne joined the business and managed its finances until the brothers retired in 2003. During that time, she raised two children – daughter Diane (Jess) and son Darren – was an active member of St. Paris Methodist Church and Eastern Star, participated in a bowling league, and played in a euchre card club that remains active decades later.
Jeanne and Darrell were married 73 years before his death in July 2024. A sister, Jayne Jones, died in 2014. Jeanne has three grandchildren – Jaclyn (Dave) Murray, Jennifer (Chris) DeMarco, and Janelle (Daniel) Bey – and seven great-grandchildren: Jessica and Matthew Murray; Kelsey, Carter, and Hunter DeMarco; and Evelyn and Joseph Bey.
Jeanne says she is honored to be a co-grand marshal of the parade. “My memories of the Pony Wagon parade and Fall Festival go back decades, and I’ve never missed a parade. It’s always a highlight of the year.”
