Anna Catherine Coffey Getz is the person’s life experiences we will be following in this issue. She is known to most of her friends and Blair County as just “Annie.”
Annie is the fourth child of S.A. Coffey and Mary Slep Coffey. She grew up in Altoona and Sylvan Hills in Hollidaysburg. Annie moved to Tyrone in 1930. Annie’s mother was the daughter of Harry E. Slep, founder of the Altoona Mirror. The Slep family’s heritage originated in Germany. S.A. Coffey’s family was Scotch-Irish.
There were four children in the Coffey family, the first being Arthur “Bud,” next Frances “Frannie” (Klevan), then Cordelia “Delie” (Smiley), and last but in no way the least was Annie (Getz). Annie came into this world on January 12, 1911 in Altoona.
The first Coffey home was located in Altoona at 1017 Howard Ave. As most children did, Annie played with the neighborhood kids. They played all kinds of games and sports; the girls also enjoyed playing with dolls and dressing-up in Mother’s clothes.
One different memory in her childhood that comes to mind is when a man across the street died. The viewing took place in the man’s home. The children had heard a rumor that the man had pennies laying on his eyelids to keep them closed. So a group of children decided they were going to see if the rumor was true or not. The gang of investigators trooped into the house, took a quick peek at the man in the casket, and then ran out as fast as they could.
Annie told me that a wreath with colored crepe hanging on one’s front door meant a member of the household had died. If the person was young, the wreath had crepe of pink or a lighter color, depending on their age. The crepe would become darker in color as the age of the person increased, graduating in darkness to the color of deep purple.
Annie started taking piano lessons at the age of five from Regina Gority, in Altoona and then went to the Barker school of music in Altoona until 1920. Annie’s sister Delie took violin lessons, and Frannie took voice lessons.
Mr. Coffey worked as a clerk in the Pennsylvania Railroad’s Middle Division. In 1920 he was relocated to Harrisburg, and the family followed. While living there, our young Annie went to the Conservatory of Music and took lessons. It was while she was at the Conservatory she gave her first recital, at the age of eleven.
The Coffey family moved back to Altoona when Harry Slep passed away in 1922. The Slep family needed S.A. Coffey to help run the newspaper for the family.
Annie continued her education at the Mary Lyon’s Conservatory in Swarthmore, Pa. from 1926 to 1928. Then in 1929 she went to Ithaca, N.Y. for more musical training.
Annie loved music more than anything else on earth until April 1930. While home on Easter break from the Ithaca Conservatory she attended a charity ball at the Penn Alto Hotel, in Altoona. A young man, Melvin “Meb” Getz, from Tyrone, saw her there and asked her friend, Virginia Beamer, if she could introduce them. The two young people met and a courtship began, with Meb making many trips to Ithaca to visit this girl named Annie. In May of that year Meb asked Annie to be his wife.
On July 7, 1930 Rev. Spear, of the Tyrone Presbyterian Church, married Annie and Meb in the garden of the Coffey family’s home, in Sylvan Hills.
Upon returning from their honeymoon the young couple set up housekeeping above the Getz Market, which was located at 1066 Pennsylvania Ave., in Tyrone. Meb’s dad, Charles U. Getz, owned the store. On December 7, 1931 a new Getz came into the world, and her name was Diane. Meb and Annie soon had another addition to the family, a son Melvin “Pete” Getz, born on March 27, 1933.
Meb and Annie soon outgrew the apartment above the store and moved into a house at 303 W. 10th St.
Annie remembers the “bums” that would come around to your house for a handout of food back in those days. While she was living on 10th St., one particular bum, who the people in the area had named “Bummie,” came around often to her home. Annie was uneasy when Bummie came to her door. The bums came to Annie’s house regularly for handouts. She didn’t know why they picked her home so often, but believed that they somehow had the house marked — knowing she would give them a meal.
Annie loved her job as mother and homemaker. The vocation of being a good mother was taken very seriously by Annie; she made sure the children were exposed to the church, music, and books.
Meb had lost his mother at age thirteen, and his father had remarried. Mildred Campbell was Meb’s new mother. When Charles Getz died, Meb bought Jimmy’s share of the Getz Market business. Annie and Meb were now the proud owners of the Getz Market.
Annie continued to take piano lessons from Gene Dayton, in Tyrone and organ lessons from Mary Wertz, who lived in Bellwood. Annie also studied under Dr. Marshall Bidwell, of Carnegie Hall, in Pittsburgh.
Meb, Annie, and the kids moved one more time and that was to 1507 Madison Ave. in Tyrone. The newly built home had been owned by the Rumberger family, but was sold before the landscaping had been finished. Annie put on her “outside hat” and went to work. Annie put in many flower gardens working on the terrace behind the house. She surrounded the house with shrubs of all kinds and maintained the flower beds and shrubs. Annie also mowed the lawn. She had a lawn mower that had its own personality. Annie called the mower “Esmerelda.”
Meb worked hard at his store and even went on the road to sell some of his wares. One line of items Meb sold was fire equipment. Meb would sell everything a fire company would need to fight fires. The Tyrone fire chief in the early 1950s was John Keefer. Meb had convinced John to buy a safety net to catch people who may have to jump out of a burning building. The new net arrived and the firemen wanted Meb to show them how it worked. John and Meb climbed up in the bell tower of the old Adams school and firemen waited below holding the net. Meb jumped down into the net, and lucky for Meb, the firemen held the net correctly and the net worked.
Meb worked at the store until his retirement in 1965, after being in business for thirty-five years. Then a group of businessmen decided not to stay open evenings anymore. This decision hurt the Getz Market because the farmers who came to town only in the evenings now went to State College and Altoona to shop.
The Getz family went on very few vacations together because Meb would never leave the business for more than a day or so. Annie, however, took her two small children to Glendale, Calif. by train in March 1934 to visit with her mother, who wintered there. Annie decided instead of the four-day train trip home she would fly back to Tyrone. The flight stopped in Omaha, and while they were there a newspaper photographer took the family’s picture. The photographer wanted the picture because the two young children were believed to have been the youngest ever to fly across the continent.
The Getz children, Diane and Pete, grew up doing the normal activities of the other children. Diane married after finishing school and moved to Allentown, Pa. Later on she moved to Sun City West, Ariz., where she still resides with her husband, Raymond Kirwan.
Pete went into the Navy after he finished school, and upon his return went to work for his father at the store. In 1955 Pete married Paula Mannino, a Tyrone girl. Paula worked as a nurse at the Tyrone hospital, where she became head surgical nurse. In 1965 Meb sold the business and his son Pete went to work in State College for Penn State’s food department.
Annie has given much of her time to the community throughout the years. She served as the pianist, as well as being a deacon and an elder, at the Presbyterian Church on Logan Ave., in Tyrone. She played the organ for the Warriors Mark Methodist Church in the 1940s. She played for both Tyrone Hospital dedications and many other celebrations in town. She also played with Fred Waring at the hospital benefit in 1949. In October 1983 Tyrone saluted Fred Waring. Annie was a key organizer and contributor to the program.
Annie taught many Tyrone area children to play the piano. After school the children would walk to her home and wait their turn for lessons. Annie taught lessons for two years to twenty-five pupils. Then in 1951 she had a heart attack. This ended her career teaching piano.
On one of her piano lesson days Annie tells the story of hurrying to get supper into the oven before her student arrived. She was in such a hurry she put the green beans in the pan but forgot to take the green beans out of the can. As she was instructing her student, they heard a large explosion in the kitchen. To her surprise, the oven door on the stove was half off and green beans hung all over the ceiling and walls. This episode is how Annie gained the title of the “Green Bean Queen.”
After Meb retired in 1965, Annie thought that no more holidays would be ruined for the family. She was wrong, for on December 24, 1978 Meb passed away. One of the things Annie remembers Meb saying that last night was, “Here I go ruining another Christmas.”
Annie has simplified her life today. She sold her home on Madison Ave. and moved into the assisted-living wing at Epworth Manor, in Tyrone. Annie still goes to many community functions and to the Presbyterian Church in town. She now plays the piano in the chapel at Epworth Manor and still plays her classics every day. The piano always has been Annie’s greatest therapy.
Annie is a person that you love at first sight, and she makes you smile within the first few minutes you meet her. The silver spoon some may say she was born with can never outshine the heart of pure gold that radiates within her.
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