Lela Is honored to be selected as the Parade Marshal for the 2022 Fredericktown Tomato Show Parade. Lela (Oswalt) Hathaway was born at home on April 11, 1939. She attended Fredericktown Schools, graduating in 1957. On June 19, 1960, she married Darel Hathaway. They have two sons, Dan and Kimber (Kim). Lela has five grandchildren, two step-grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.
This year's Parade Marshal has always been very active in her school and community. In high school, Lela was President of the Fredericktown HI Teens. She was also a member of Berlin Grange. Lela was an active member of 4-H for nine years. After she and Darel married, Lela was very active on the farm plus she worked at the school as a secretary. On the farm, she helped Darel with planting, harvesting and taking care of the livestock they had at the time. Country living and farming have been a big part of Lela's life and a great enjoyment for her.
Community involvement and leadership have always been in Lela's blood. She has spent many years as an active member in many volunteer groups such as FSA County Committee, the Knox County Farm Bureau, the Knox County Visitors' Bureau, the Zoning Board of Middlebury Township and the Porkette Food stands. Currently, Lela is a member of the Red Hatters' Club. She's a past President of the Knox County Farm Bureau as well as the Fredericktown Alumni Committee. She also organized the Heart of Ohio Tour at the Hathaway Farm.
These days you will likely find Lela running the concession stand at any one of the many athletic events in the Fredericktown area. Sometimes, it's more than one concession at a time. She is "the person in charge." She is very active and busy organizing the concessions for football, volleyball, basketball, baseball, softball, track and wrestling events, at both the middle school and high school levels. She's the buyer, cook, organizer of volunteers, leader of setting up, seller and clean up gal. Lela transports food and snacks to locations inside the schools as well as the outdoor concession stands at baseball, softball and football fields. Often there is more than one sport needing concessions at the same time! She doesn't even take much time off during the summer. She provides the same concession support for the Willie Davis Football program as well as Little League. Lela's love for her grandkids and her community is what has kept her involved all these years but she will be the first to tell you that she hasn't done It alone and gives credit to the many volunteers who have helped her over years. She always welcomes more volunteers.
Lela's curiosity about the world around her has led her to travel both in the U.S. and abroad. When her husband, Darel, was on the Farm Credit Board, they traveled to Brazil and found agriculture in the country very interesting. Also, Lela and Darel frequently traveled to Arizona to visit Lela's family plus they enjoyed fishing trips to Canada, with friends.
Since Darel's passing in 2010, Lela has found a traveling partner and friend in Phyllis Shira. Together, they have been to Europe, Alaska, Arizona as well as other locations throughout the U.S. When traveling, Lela knows no strangers and as local residents can attest to, she easily strikes up conversations with others.
Lela's grandkids are very important to her and you can often find one of them at her kitchen table talking about everything from soup to nuts.
Her organization of, plus preparing and serving concession food, adds up to thousands of "behind the scene" hours. In fact, Lela usually misses the Tomato Show Parade due to her volunteer "job."
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