Jennie Mae Comer
b. 1 December 1891, Rensselaer, Jasper County, Indiana, to William Cyrus and Sarah Jane
(Gleason) Comer
d. 2 June 1986, West Chicago, DuPage County, Illinois
m. 1 October 1920, Lafayette, Tippecanoe County, Indiana
Orval Hamilton Crisler
b. 10 October 1893, Mount Ayr, Newton County, Indiana, to William Addison and Clara Delilah (Hopkins) Crisler
d. 17 January 1986, West Chicago, DuPage County, Illinois
Children with Orval Hamilton Crisler:
- William Orval (1922-2005) married Dorothy Helen Olson
- Virginia Mae (b. 1923) married Leslie Alexander Simpson
- John Edward (1924-1994) married June Freida Wilson
- George Hamilton (1925-2000) married (1) Gloria Grover Murray, (2) Barbara Dee Bell
- Emily Jeannette (b. 1927) married Lyle William Seefeldt
Jennie’s father, William Cyrus Comer, was also born in Indiana. Her mother, Sarah Jane “Jennie” Gleason was born in Michigan, but lived in Indiana as a young woman.
Jennie’s mother died following childbirth, and Jennie was sent to her maternal grandparents in Ottawa County, Michigan, to be raised there. She returned to Rensselaer, Jasper County, Indiana, at age nine in 1900 to live with her aunts, Mary and Lizzie Comer, at their boarding house on South Cullen Street. She stayed there until adulthood.
Jennie left Indiana in 1912 to attend nursing school in Chicago but returned again to Rensselaer to work as a registered nurse at Jasper County Hospital following her graduation. There she became re-acquainted with her husband-to-be and former classmate, Orval Hamilton Crisler. They married in 1920 and quickly were parent of five children.
In 1927, the family moved to Waukegan, Illinois. Later they moved to Chicago, then to Glen Ellyn, Illinois. Following her husband’s retirement, they moved to Dunedin, Florida. At her death at age 94, Jennie’s body was returned to Rensselaer, and she is buried there next to her husband of 65 years in Weston Cemetery.
Submitted by:
Leslie S. Hall
Waynesboro, VA
E-mail: geniehall75@gmail.com