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CONSOLIDATED WITH THE LITITZ RECORD 1937 Lititz, Lancaster County, PA. 17543, Thursday, April 12,1984 25 CENTS A COPY: $7.00 PER YEAR BY MAIL
WITHIN LANCASTER COUNTY 24 Pages-No. 3
Local Woman Convicted
In Insurance Fraud Case
The Linuendires, a select choral group from
Linden Hall sing a selection at Sunday's dedication
ceremony.
The Avis Howard Stengel Garden’
Linden Hall Dedicates Garden
To Former Social Dean
A federal grand jury in
Harrisburg Tuesday con /
victed 49-year-old Betty / .
Garner, of 115 Rothsvllle
Station Road, of four counts
of fraud for collecting over
$200,000 in federal life in­surance
funds after having
her husband declared dead
when he was still alive.
Testimony in the case was
heard Monday and Tuesday
in the U.S. District Court in
Harrisburg. A jury of nine
men and three women
returned it$ verdict Tuesday
following over two hours of
deliberation.
According to U.S. District
Judge William Caldwell,
Mrs. Gamer will be sen­tenced
on May 16. She could
receive a maximum sen­tence
of 25 years in prison
and $40,000 in fines.
Mrs. Garner’s attorney
Vincent J. Quinn said this
week that he would appeal
the verdict.
Throughout the case, Mrs.
Garner has maintained her
innocence, saying she did not
know her husband was alive
until late last August.
Local cou r ts had
pronounced her husband,
Bernard Garner, dead in
June 1983, one year after he
disappeared during a fishing
trip in Canada.
Garner had worked for the
Navy Ships Parts Control in
Mechanicsburg, and in June
1983, after he had been
declared legally dead in
Lancaster County Court,
Mrs. Garner collected
$205,000 in federal insurance
benefits. He later showed up
alive, but died on Nov. 13,
1983, of a heart attack in
Lancaster.
During the trial, the
prosecution contended that
Mrs. Garner knew her
husband was alive more
than seven months prior to
her petitioning the court to
have him pronounced dead.
Witnesses in the case
include Garner’s three
daughters who gave con­flicting
testimony regarding
the circumstances of their
father’s reappearance.
Kim Row of Colorado
testified that Mrs. Garner
knew her father was alive as
early as September 1982, but
two other daughters, Jane
and Lisa Garner, Lititz,
corroborated their mother’s
version of the events.
A criminal investigation
by the FBI led to Mrs.
Garner’s four-count in­dictment
in January and her
conviction Tuesday.
From earlier accounts, the
events surrounding the case
are:
Garner left his Rothsville
home on May 21, 1982 for a
weekend fishing trip in
central Canada. He flew into
a wilderness area near Lac
DuMoine, but when the plane
returned to pick him up, the
pilot found only Gamer’s
capsized boat.
When an extensive search
failed to turn up Garner,
police told Mrs. Garner they
suspected a storm had
caused Garner’s boat to
capsize and that he had
drowned.
One month later Mrs.
Gamer filed to collect her
husband’s insurance and on
May 27, 1983 she appeared
before Lancaster County
Orphan’s Court and got an
order declaring her husband
officially dead.
Later, she received
i $205,000 in federal insurance
funds.
Mrs. Garner has main­tained
that her first
knowledge that Garner was
alive came last August in the
form of a phone call from her
brother-in-law in Lewistown,
NY, informing her that
Garner was coming to
Lancaster.
On his arrival in Lan­caster,
Garner moved in
(Turn to Page 15)
By Kathleen King
It was 1931 when Avis
Howard Stengel came to live
at Linden Hall. She was a
widow with three young
children and she had been
offered a place to live with
her husband’s parents, Dr.
and Mrs. F. W. Stengel.
Stengel was then head­master
of the school, a
position he held from 1915 to
1947.
It wasn’t until several
decades later that Mrs.
Stengel left the campus,
retiring at the same time one
of her granddaughters
graduated.
During her years at
Linden Hall she served as
school mother, social dean,
hostess, disciplinarian,
mother and “mostly a
friend.”
And for those 37 years of
dedicated service, the school
on Sunday dedicated a
special part of the grounds to
her - the Avis Howard
Stengel Garden.
Known as the Italian
Gardens, the area had once
been tenderly created and
cared for by Dr. Stengel,
who was an avid hor-ticulturalist.
During her years at the
school, Mrs. Stengel walked
through the garden in­numerable
times on her way
from one building to another.
She said her father-in-law
made the garden “a
beautiful spot.”
“The gazing pool in the
middle had goldfish in it,”
she said, and she recalled
that the family cat would
spend many hours at­tempting
to secure a suc­culent
morsel from the pond.
She said many of the girls
V s ' K c O' ^
Mrs. Avis Howard Stengel
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had their pictures taken in
the garden, which made a
very pretty backdrop, with
its flagstone walks and small
stone fountain.
As social dean Mrs.
Stengel was responsible for
planning many of the ac­tivities
that were highlights
of a young boarding
student’s days - dances with
boys’ schools, May Day,
parties and ceremonies.
Mrs. Stengel, now a
resident at Moravian Manor,
said although there were
strict rules and regulations
at the school, it wasn’t “a
nunnery.” Girls did have to
have chaperones to go “up
town” to Lititz, though, she
recalled.
During the years she was
at Linden Hall her duties
covered many different
areas, being as varied as
planning meals to collecting
food ration coupons during
the Second World War.
At Sunday’s dedication
ceremony, the Stengel
family was represented by
four generations - Mrs.
Stengel h erself, her
daughters, Wildabeth
Stengel Chase and Mimi
Stengel Cooper, both Linden
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Hall alumni; her grand­daughters,
Abby Chase,
Mimi Cooper Snyder, Missy
Cooper Anderson and Lisa
Chase; grandson, John
Cooper, Jr.; and great-grandson,
Rob Snyder, Jr.
Many of the family
members took a part in the
service: Wildabeth Chase
gave a brief history of the
Italian Garden; her sister,
Mimi Stengel Cooper showed
pictures of the Italian
Gardens in its heyday.
Dr. John Cooper, Sr., and
his son, John Cooper, Jr.,
each gave brief talks about
their respective mother-in-law
and grandmother. The
elder Cooper recalled, being
a “Lititz boy” he was not
permitted on the campus as
a youngster, although he
said there were probably
times he was there when he
shouldn’t have been. Cooper,
who is married to one of Mrs.
Stengel’s daughters, com­plimented
his mother-in-law
for her loving nature. The
younger Cooper mentioned
memories of “Nana.”
Even two-year-old Rob
Snyder, Mrs. Stengel’s
greatgrandson, got involved
in the ceremony. It was his
duty to unveil the plaque that
will be placed in the garden.
When it was time to do the
duty, though, he was a
rather reluctant young man
and distinctly told his
mother, “I don’t want to.” (
Mrs. Stengel was modest
about all the attention. “It
should have been dedicated
to Dr. Stengel,” she said.
But it was definitely Avis
Howard Stengel’s day.
A Regular At Warwick Township Meetings
Scott Cummings: 'As Long
As I'm Able, I’ll Be There'
By Jennifer Shenk
It takes people
P e o p le g e ttin g in ­volved...
that’s what War­wick
Township resident W.
Scott Cummings says is in
the special ingredient that
makes local government
work.
And he should know.
For the past four years
Cummings has attended
nearly every meeting of the
Warwick township super­visors
and the township
municipal authority.
It was talk of public water
and sewers coming to the
township that first got
Cummings interested in
local government. That was
more than a decade ago. A
public sewer system has
since been installed in parts
of the township and public
water is again being
discussed.
The 67-year-old Cum­mings,
who lives along Owl
Hill Road with his wife of
In This Issue
Editorial 4
Sports Section 5,6,7,8
Social 10,11
Church 18
Business Directory 20
Classified 22,23
nearly 50 years Cecelia, is
retired from the asbestos
plant in Manheim where he
worked for 38 years and
served as a union official for
19 years.
A resident of the township
for 47 years, Cummings is a
greàt-grandfather, and
spends his time raising
horses, (he used, to give
riding lessons) when not
involved in municipal ac­tivities.
This past Tuesday,
Election Day, Cummings
was busy as minority in­spector
for the Kissel Hill
voting district. Though he is
a registered Democrat
(“one reason I was never
asked to serve in local
government”), Cummings
says he has voted for “just
as many Republicans” over
the years.
“I vote for the person that
I think will do thè best job,”
he said.
Unlike many voters,
Cummings does not believe
his responsibilities as a
citizen of the township end
after casting his ballot. He
urges other residents to
attend public meetings as he
does.
Cummings says it takes
people to make township
officials aware of problems.
“Suppose you were a
supervisor and every time
you had a meeting, the hall
were half to three-quarters
full. Wouldn’t you stop and
wonder what’s wrong?” he
asked.
»Accfltiiig to Cummings,
township meetings used to
be better attended than they
are now.
“We used to have good
tu rn -ou ts at th e se
meetings...but people didn’t
like the answers they were
getting to their questions, so
they gave up and stopped
coming. I didn’t give up,” he
said.
“Even if people don’t want
to ask questions, if they just
sit there and listen — that’s
important,” Cummings said.
(Turn to Page 15)
Scott Cummings, a 47-year resident oi u»atwk.i»
Township, rarely misses a supervisors meeting.
Local Forecasters Choose Mondale By Mildred Spear
In a R ep u b lican
stronghold like Lititz, just
• about the only thing the
Democratic presidential
hopefuls can count on is
sp e c u la tio n . S ince
speculation is the stuff
political campaigns are
made of, we asked shoppers
this week, “What If,” and
“Who do you thing will be the
winning D em o c r a t,
statewide? ” in our poll.
Of the folks we talked to,
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wmmm
Ken Hemming,
“ ...Mondale’s a good
talker ...probably him...”
R.M. Gorton, “ ...It’ll be
Mondale..."
one jokingly suggested
‘‘there are no winning
Democrats,” and one said
"all the thinking people are
Republicans.” One also said,
“the nation is going down the
spout and these jerks are
talking politics... what we
need is a statesman.”
The majority were far less
flam b o y a n t in th e ir
remarks, predicting that
Mondale would carry the
state, although Hart had a
few supporters and some
sympathy. The only Jackson
mentioned in Lititz this week
was Michael.
All of this proves that
Lititz residents have a pretty
accurate view of the political
scene or else have advanced
ESP, although Lancaster
County voters over­whelmingly
“took Hart.”
Local predictors are as good
as the network computers, 11
of 15 predicting Mondale to
win. Voting in the Tuesday
primary was light, with the
Republicans offered fewer
choices than the Democrats.
Michael Stout, visiting a .
C äfM A
Molly Hackman, Li-the
Democrats will vote Hart
..... V _ Jane Groff, “ ...Mon­dale...”
friend in Lititz, thought
Mondale would carry
Pennsylvania although he
would vote for Hart if he
pulled a Democratic lever on
Tuesday. “I like his new
ideas, his youth and his
general presentation,” Stout
said.
A1 Taft, North Water
Street, emphasized, Reagan
will win, but Mondale will
probably be the state’s
Democratic choice. “I’d
rather it were Hart, but I
think Mondale will win,” he
“It’ll be Mondale,” ac­cording
to R.M. Gorton, 321
S. Linden St., and Sandy
Hardican whose antique
shop is at 32 E. Main St.,
echoed Taft’s comment,
"Reagan will win, but 1
expect Mondale will take the
Democratic vote.”
Coleen Gey e r , 564
Hackman 'Road, smilingly
observed, “Hart seems to be
the strong, silent type,” and
gave the Colorado senator
one unequivocal preference
in our poll.
(Turn to Page 24)
in...'
Russell Pettyjohn, “ ...I
think it'll be Mondale...”