ANNIE LOUISE CROWE Miss Annie L. Layman Cumberland Times on July 7,1948 [INCORRECT DATE ~ HAND WRITTEN ON ARTICLE. SHOULD BE July 8, 1945]* Miss Annie L. Layman is being honored today by her family, with a picnic and outdoor party at her home in Shaft, in celebration of her ninety-first birthday.  The informal party will be held on the lawn of her home from 3 until 6 o'clock this afternoon at which time her family and friends will be recieved. Mrs. Layman, who was born near Grantsville, July 8,1854, has spent  all of her ninety-one years in Allegany County, living mostly on farms near Midland and Carlos.  She attended the Blucker School near Grantsville, walking four miles each way daily.  The school, then on the National Highway, was torn down many years ago. In reminiscing about her early days, Mrs. Layman has a vivid picture of the stage coaches which stopped promptly at 12 o'clock everyday at Layman's Inn, where she was employed, before her marriage, for the passengers to eat dinner.  Mrs. Layman said the coach would dash up the road, seeming to be flying and suddenly on the stroke of 12, would stop dead still before the door.  It seemed a fascinating sight to her and gave her a daily thrill. Mrs. Layman, who before her marriage to Mr. Layman, on November 5,1873, was Miss Annie Louise Crowe, daughter of Mr. & Mrs. Nelson Crowe, pioneers of Allegany County, is in very good health and wears glasses only for reading and mending, which are her hobbies.  She is actively engaged in light household duties, using a cane at times to get around.  Two years ago she had a severe attack of pneumonia and recovered in three weeks. Up to that time she had never had a gray hair in her head, but due to the fever induced by the disease, she lost her hair, which rapidly grew in again thick and abundant, but came in white. Mrs.Layman is the last one of her generation around her vicinity and her ambition is to live until the war is over so she can welcome her Grandchildren and Great grandchildren home again.  She has lived through three wars, but has never had a son in the service, due to the age limits at the time. She is the Mother of sixteen children, eleven of whom are living.  They are Ernest and George, of Shaft; Robert of Detroit, Michigan, Benjamin, Syracuse, N.Y.; Lawrence, Alexandria, Va., Mrs. Nellie Burns, Mrs. Samuel Neat, and Mrs. Ada Koelker of Cumberland; Mrs. Russell Diehl and Mrs. Fuller Davis of Frostburg and Mrs. Charles J. Wolfe, Hagerstown.  Mr. Layman died in July,1914. Mrs. Layman has eight Grandsons and five Great grandsons in Military service. They include: Raymond, Navy Medical Corps. aboard a Hospital Ship; George, Lawrence, Jr., on duty in the South Pacific; Paul Layman, in the Air Forces; Charles Layman, recently inducted; Major Ernest Layman,Jr., with the Army in Germany; Harvey Diehl, with the Army in France; **John Koelker, USN, in the Atlantic; Jack Avery,Honorably discharged from Army service after serving in the South Pacific; Robert Avery, Army Medical Corps., in Germany; George Layman, recently returned to an Army Hospital from overseas; and Owen and Alvin Layman,Jr., serving with the Army in this country. Two younger sisters of Mrs.Layman, Mrs. Mollie Hawkins, Akron, Oh., former resident of Frostburg, and Mrs. Aurelia DeVore, of Frostburg, are expected for the party this afternoon. Transcribed by Roberta Guenther *Recently (Feb 2008) a copy of the newspaper, containing the article, with date was found. **INCORRECT ~ THIS IS HER SON-IN-LAW'S (JOSEPH H. KOELKER) BROTHER.  Grandson Robt W Koelker served in the USN and grandson Jos. H Koelker, Jr. in the US Army during WWII,   BACK TO FAMILIES