Ida May Theurer

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• FindAGrave: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/101873512
• Name: Ida May Bernhardt
• Eby ID Number: Waterloo-229396
• Residence: 1891, Preston (Cambridge), Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; Lutheran
• Residence: 1911, Preston (Cambridge), Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; Lutheran
• Residence: 1933, 867 Hamilton St., Cambridge, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada

Notes:

WIFE OF PRESTON MERCHANT DIES

Mrs. A. R. Bernhardt Succumbs After Year's Illness; Active In Church

Citizens of Preston were grieved last night when they learned of the death shortly after 8.30 o'clock of Mrs. Arthur Bernhardt, Hamilton street. She had been ill for about a year. Born in Freeport, the late Mrs. Bernhardt, whose maiden name was Ida May Theurer, had resided in Preston practically all her life. She was married 25 years ago. A devout member of St. Peter's Lutheren church, the deceased worked untiringly in its interest for many years. She was also a faithful member of the Preston Chapter of the Daughters of the Empire. Besides her parents, Mr. and Mrs. V. Theurer of Preston, there servive her husband, prominent hardware merchant; two daughters Clara and Kathryn; two sons, David and Frank, all at home and two sisters, Mrs. E. J. Kinsey and Miss Emma Theurer, both of Preston. The funeral will be held privately from her late residence, 367 Hamilton street, Sunday afternoon at 2.30 o'clock where service will be held after which interment will be made in the Preston cemetery. Friends are asked to please omit flowers.

Kitchener Daily Record 1 Dec 1933 pg 3

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ERNHARDT Passed away peacefully, on Thursday, November 30th, 1933, Ida May Theurer, beloved wife of Arthur Bernhardt. The funeral (private) will take place from her late residence, 867 Hamilton Street, on Sunday, December 3, at 2.30 p.m. Interment in Preston cemetery. Kindly omit flowers.

Ida married Arthur Robert Bernhardt 25 Aug 1908, Preston (Cambridge), Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada. Arthur (son of Mayor Peter Bernhardt and Caroline Weihe) was born 17 Apr 1881, Galt (Cambridge), Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; died 19 Aug 1976, Preston (Cambridge), Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; was buried , Preston Cemetery, Cambridge, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada. [Group Sheet]

Other Events:

• Eby ID Number: Waterloo-352494

Other Events:

• Eby ID Number: Waterloo-24604
• Honoured: 1991; Order of Ontario
• Hall of Fame - Cambridge: 2002, Cambridge, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada

Notes:

BERNHARDT, Clara

At Freeport Hospital Health Care Village, Kitchener, formerly of 515 Langs Drive, Cambridge, on Saturday, May 1, 1993, in her 82nd year. Dear sister of Frank of Cambridge. Also survived by nieces and nephews. Predeceased by her parents, Arthur and Ida Bernhardt; one sister, Kathryn Hagey (1971) and one brother, David (1993), all of Cambridge. Clara was born in Cambridge (Preston) and was a lifelong resident of the area. A member of St. Peter's Lutheran Church and a recipient of the Order of Ontario in 1991. At the request of Clara, there will be no visitation at the Barthel Funeral Home. 566 Queenston Rd., Cambridge. Cremation has taken place. A memorial service will be held at the Fairview Central Auditorium, 515 Langs Drive, Cambridge, Monday May 10 at 2 p.m. Interment of ashes in Preston Cemetery.

Kitchener-Waterloo Record 4 May 1993 pg A11

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As an adult, Clara May Theurer Bernhardt (1911-1993) would recall her earliest years as being full of fine accomplishments and activities: she could skate, play tennis, practise piano, and care for her younger siblings. Each of these activities would eventually be stripped from her by a debilitating disease. Born in Preston, Ontario, Clara was the eldest of five children. On an autumn evening during her eleventh year, she collapsed at the foot of the stairs on her way to bed. She was diagnosed with polio, a disease that dragged her through months of doubt and hope and confusion, not to mention numerous treatments and visits to the Toronto Hospital for Sick Children. By the time the doctors had given up, Clara was in a wheelchair with a curved spine and all but entirely immobilized limbs. Determined to see his daughter succeed, father Arthur Bernhardt drove Clara to school and carried her into class, but this was only possible until Clara reached the eighth grade. As Preston lacked a high school, and because as streetcars could not accommodate wheelchairs, Clara became increasingly alienated from her peers. Nonetheless she studied hard, thanks to private tutors and extensive reading at home. Determined to write professionally, and to not fall behind her friends, Clara filled her spare time with writing practice. At only seventeen, with pieces already published in places like the GLOBE's "Circle of Young Canada" and with book reviews in the local paper, she received her first pay-cheque for "Eve's Opportunity," a short story in the American magazine GIRLHOOD DAYS. From the death of her mother, to enduring a bout of colitis, to losing out on a promised position writing a social events and women's organizations column, Clara continued to experience setbacks well into her early adult years. Supported by her work on staff with the KITCHENER DAILY RECORD and encouraged by her friendship with newspaperman Gregory Clark, she made it through the Depression. From her growing output of poems she continued to contribute prolifically to Canadian newspapers and magazines and to American religious magazines for children, publications including the CANADIAN HOME JOURNAL and STAR WEEKLY. Her first books were SILENT RHYTHM (1938), with a foreword by Ethelwyn Wetherald*, and NIN NAUNANIM, A SONNET SEQUENCE (1939) in a collaborative volume with four other poets, privately printed in Belleville. Although she never married, Clara carried on a close and fulfilling correspondence before the war with an American she referred to as "John." The two never met because she feared disappointing him with her disabilities. During the war, Clara volunteered as a book critic for the local newspaper, the PRESTONIAN and wrote a Red Cross column called "Red Cross Reminders." As a sign of her compassionate nature, she also conducted a personal mission of mercy which won her some renown: to every relative of an unaccounted-for soldier, she sent a copy of her poem "Missing." Ever frustrated by her physical constraints, Clara fell into a depressive state, but after she began to regain feeling in her legs and when her back and fingers began to straighten, her faith in God was renewed and a visit to Lyndhurst rehabilitation centre was finally possible. After six weeks at Lyndhurst, and hours of painful and exhausting exercise, Clara was able to spend her first weekend alone in Toronto. With a lighter and more mobile wheelchair, she took a road-trip with a friend through Ontario, with stops at Manitoulin Island and Providence Bay in Sudbury. Her autobiography, LADY IN ARMS, for which she was seeking a publisher in 1951, remains in manuscript in her papers at Wilfrid Laurier University. She also published a book of songs entitled TIP TOE TUNES, intended for very young children. She composed the 1967 Centennial Year Hymn for Canadian churches and wrote "Constant Flame," a play for the 50th Anniversary of Waterloo Lutheran Seminary. In 1991, two years before her death, Clara was presented with the Order of Ontario. Ms. Bernhardt died on 1 May 1993 at the Freeport Health Center in Kitchener and her ashes were buried at Preston Cemetery.

Bernhardt, Clara. (2018). SFU Digitized Collections. Retrieved 12 August 2018, from https://digital.lib.sfu.ca/ceww-632/bernhardt-clara

Hall of Fame - Cambridge:
she wrote thousands of poems and had a number of them published in the Canadian Home Journal and the Star Weekly. She had five collections of poems published including "Silent Rhythm", "Far Horizons", "Hidden Music", "Bermuda Interlude" and "I Need You". Miss Bernhardt claimed that it was during the Second World War that she actually learned to write by contributing book reviews to the Prestonian, a local weekly newspaper...<sup>1a

1a</sup>www.cambridge.ca

Other Events:

• Name: Kathryn Hagey
• Residence: Baptist
• Eby ID Number: Waterloo-331477

Notes:

Mrs. A. Leonard Hagey

PRESTON, Mrs. A. Leonard Hagey, 1934 Coronation Blvd., died Monday, at South Waterloo Hospital, Galt. She was 55. The former Kathryn Bernhardt, she was born in Preston, a daughter of Arthur R. Bernhardt and the late Mrs. Bernhardt. She was a member of King St. Baptist Church. Surviving besides her father, are her husband; one son, John at home; one sister, Clara Bernhardt, and two brother's, David and Frank, all of Preston. The body is at Barthel-Stager Funeral Home, until Wednesday noon, when removal will be made to the church for service, at 2 p.m. Interment will be in Hagey's cemetery.

Kitchener-Waterloo Record 15 Jun 1971 pg 27

Kathryn — Arthur Leonard "Leonard" "Len" Hagey. Arthur (son of Arthur Hagey and Mary Jane Tatum) was born 3 Feb 1913, Waterloo Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; died 1 Feb 2014, Cambridge, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada. [Group Sheet]

Other Events:

• Eby ID Number: Waterloo-352496

Frank — Bernice Thur. Bernice (daughter of Henry Joseph "Harry" Thur and Luella Frances "Lue" Bricker) was born CA 1920. [Group Sheet]

Other Events:

• Eby ID Number: Waterloo-352497

Notes:

BERNHARDT, David Arthur

Friday, March 19, 1993, with grace and courage. Dear husband and friend of Virginia; loved father of Nina Harnack, Christopher and Mark, loving grandfather of Jennifer Moore and Jason Harnack; dear brother of Clara and Frank. Cremation has taken place.

Kitchener-Waterloo Record 22 Mar 1993 pg A11

David — Virginia Melanson. [Group Sheet]