Twila Stackhouse Carman - 2000
MHS 1924 Graduate
Twila Stackhouse Carman, Minerva High School Class of 1924, was nominated for the Hall of Fame by her son, Dale, and by Marilyn Bartley. Dale listed her occupation as wife, mother, nurse, writer and broadcaster.
Twila was born on her family's fruit farm near Kensington. After her marriage to Chalmer Carman, who was also a member of the Class of 1924, she worked for Dr. Taylor at his clinic in East Rochester. Following the birth of her two sons, Dale and Don, and during World War II, she assisted Dr. Whiteleather when he performed home baby deliveries.
Next, Twila became the Minerva correspondent for The Canton Repository and continued this until her death. She also wrote feature articles for publications such as The Ford Times. She published a book of poetry called A Miracle for Breakfast that was published in 1948 and a pamphlet called "Buried Treasures in Ohio? Yes." As a newspaper writer, she made the AP news with "Miracle, the Asbestos Cat."
In 1953 she became affiliated with radio station WAND in Canton. Later she moved to WSOM of Salem and did a daily newscast from Minerva and about Minerva until her death in 1986. As a broadcast journalist, she turned out 100,000 words per year. Three of the people who substituted for Twila in her broadcasts, Richard Brock, Thomas Carnahan and Roger Bartley, all second her nomination, as does Carol Whiteleather Thomas.
Two tributes to her life were and are as follows: "Our number one citizen," said former Mayor Dick Mount, "she was not only active in developing the city, but in boosting all our citizens.”
“She was the most caring and understanding person I ever knew," said Harold Wunderle.
"Twila was an innovator, a journalist, a writer of prose and poetry, one never afraid to scan new horizons, a world traveler who would never foresake her modest home, her hometown, and her myriad friends," said Bartley.
Her interest in flying dated from her childhood on her father's Carroll County farm. When she would see planes flying overhead she wished they would land and take her with them. Her first flight was in 1927 in a barnstormer's plane, and she went on to log more than 127,000 air miles traveling to Alaska, Africa, the Holy Land and Hawaii. In 1983, to salute her interest in the frontier of the sky, two hundred of her friends surprised her with $1,645 to go to Florida to cover the launch of the first woman into space, Sally Ride, on the Challenger STS-7 for The Canton Repository.
In all her travels and experiences, Twila said, "My favorite place is right here. This is what gives me my biggest thrill." The Canton Repository chose her as the first person in the series of important contributors to the area. Twila was an institution in Minerva. A visit to her home could be something of a tour of an art gallery (she was an oil painting student of Jean Callerdine Browne), perhaps a history lesson, or it could mean the perusal of a chapter of the latest book she was putting together. You could count on it being a porch swing, apple pie, and ice cream type get together.
Twila is very proud of Minerva and her roots in Minerva, pointing out that the town was founded by the Whitacres and Taylors. Her mother was a Whitacre.