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EMMA ALICE HAMM |
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Mrs. Hamm was the daughter and granddaughter of area pioneers. Her mother, Alice Montgomery, was the only child of Orpha and Alpheus McNitt, surveyor for Weld County homesteads after the Civil War. “Prairie Christmas,” the stories Mrs. Montgomery wrote about her childhood, were published by Mrs. Hamm and her brother, the Rev. James Montgomery, and are available through the Longmont Historical Society. Mrs. Hamm’s father, Elmer Linn Montgomery, farm owner and state legislator, came to Longmont from Illinois. Mrs. Hamm relished childhood memories of sledding on the Pratt Street hill, riding in her father’s pony cart and running after the ice wagon on hot days for chips of ice. In her teens, she climbed Longs Peak and played the lead in the class play. She was the first girl elected president of the student body at Longmont High School. At the University of Colorado, she was a member of Kappa Kappa Gamma, the service honorary Mortar Board and Phi Beta Kappa. She graduated in 1932. Until the day of her death, she was gracious, bright and a warm-hearted friend. Emma Alice Montgomery married Richard Hamm, son of a well-known Longmont family, on Sept. 3, 1932. Mr. Hamm, who died in 1988, owned and operated Hamm Weller Hardware and managed the family farms. Emmy and Dick Hamm together supported family, church and the city. The Hamms had a son and two daughters. Their son James Edward married Lee Lochridge. Jim, an Air Force pilot, was shot down in Vietnam in 1968. He was declared Missing in Action. No trace of his whereabouts was found at the end of the war. The Hamms gave a pond and surrounding land to the city of Longmont as a memorial. It was important to them that the Jim Hamm Nature Area should honor all those men from the St. Vrain Valley who lost their lives serving their country in Vietnam. The Hamms’ daughter, Katharine Oliver, lives with her husband, Floyd Oliver Jr., east of Longmont at Meadow Vale Farms. Their daughter Carolyn and her husband H. Anton Tucher live in Palo Alto, Calif. When Letha and William Worcester, close family friends, were killed in an auto accident, the Hamms invited the Worcesters’ 15-year-old daughter to live with them. PiperAnne Worcester has been a daughter to Mrs. Hamm since that time. Emmy Hamm was an enthusiastic community volunteer. Active in the First Congregational United Church of Christ of Longmont, she participated in church activities at the local, state and national levels, including the historic national conference that led to the creation of the United Church of Christ. She was a founding board member of the Longmont Museum, Longmont Head Start, and the St. Vrain Community Council and the Boulder County agency of the War on Poverty. She served the city of Longmont on the library board, on the board of Art in Public Places and with Friends of the Longmont Senior Center. She was an organizing member of the Longmont League of Women Voters and a charter member of Chapter CJ PEO. More recently, she was volunteer coordinator of a multi-agency community visitor program. She campaigned for traffic relief in Longmont in the 1950s and 1960s and for children’s dental health through the Sunshine Club. Several years ago, she provided a scholarship to CU for the daughter of a local farm worker family in honor of her father after reading about the young woman’s accomplishments in the Daily Times-Call. Mrs. Hamm was named Longmont Volunteer of the Year in 1976. She and her husband received an award for community service from the Alumni Association of the University of Colorado. Emmy Hamm enjoyed picnics in the mountains and hikes in search of wildflowers. For many years, she rode her bike with a group of friends around the area. She and a few like-minded women initiated the idea of a city bicycle path that eventually became the St. Vrain Greenway. Mrs. Hamm took her grandchildren and then her great-grandchildren to the Jim Hamm Nature Area to enjoy the view of the Front Range that is Longmont’s hallmark. One of her last community efforts was her work to preserve the pond’s view of the mountains she loved from encroaching development. She provided for her parents’ farm to remain open space by selling it to Boulder County. Mrs. Hamm is survived by Katharine Oliver and her husband Floyd, Carolyn Tucher and her husband Tony, PiperAnne Worcester of Loveland, and Lee Hamm Post and her husband Randy. She is also survived by her grandchildren, Doug Fenton and his wife Ann, Denise Fenton, Jennifer Fenton, Chris Tucher and his wife Sandra, Alison Tucher and her husband Chuck Dyke, Philip Tucher and his wife Karen Engel and Eleanor Ann Tucher, as well as her great-grandchildren, her sister-in-law, Lyn Montgomery of Sun City, Ariz., and her brother-in-law, John Hamm of Menlo Park, Calif. A memorial service will be held Friday, Sept. 19, at 2 p.m. at the First Congregational United Church of Christ, Ninth Avenue at Francis Street, with the Rev. Anne Kear officiating.
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