Edna E. Rahm

Edna E. Rahm, 100, of Ephrata, died peacefully on Saturday, September 6, 2014. She had celebrated her 100th birthday with her friends and family in April. Edna was the daughter of late John Sherman and Lillian Kauffman Zimmerman. Her father founded a company that still produces natural peanut butter and retails nuts, dried fruits, candies, and coffee. Edna graduated from Susquehanna Township High School and Shippensburg College. During WWII she met her late husband Ben Rahm while he was stationed at Indiantown Gap. They married in the Chapel of the Transfiguration in Grant Teton National Park on August 4, 1946, and lived in a log cabin in his home state of Wyoming. Four years later they brought their growing family to Pennsylvania, first to Harrisburg and then to Lancaster. Ben established a grocery store and then a retail business in candy, dried fruits, and nuts. As her daughters entered school, Edna returned to teaching elementary school and finished her career at Wickersham Elementary School in Lancaster with 27 years of total teaching service. The couple retired in 1974 and spent many happy years wintering in Ocala, Florida, and the rest of each year traveling across the United States in their motor home. They especially enjoyed returning to Wyoming and also loved flying to Europe, particularly Switzerland, the home of Ben’s father. The Rahm’s were long time residents of Ephrata Manor. In appreciation for their care, Edna recently donated a new Rodgers 578 organ for the Donecker Chapel in the Manor. Ben and Edna were former members of St. James Episcopal Church and St. Andrews UCC in Lancaster, and Edna recently joined Bethany UCC in Ephrata. Edna is survived by two daughters: Mary Ellen, wife of John Bradley, III of Landisville, and Margaret, wife of Daniel Kepner of Lancaster, two granddaughters: Kirsten Albert and Kate Rineer, and four great grandchildren: Hannah and Levi Albert, Ella and Isaac Rineer. She was preceded in death by her husband, Ben and three siblings: John S. Zimmerman, Magdalene S. Zimmerman Myers and Kenneth F. Zimmerman. A memorial service will be held at Ephrata Manor, 99 Bethany Road, Ephrata, PA on Friday, September 12, 2014 at 10:00 a.m. in Donecker Chapel. Interment will be in Pinedale, Wyoming at the convenience of the family. In lieu of flowers, please send memorial gifts to the UCC Homes Benevolent Fund, 30 N. 31st Street, Camp Hill, PA 17011.

Edna E. Rahm

September 8, 2014