Editor’s note: Each year, the Brown County Democrat celebrates some aspect of Brown County history in our Founders Day section, also known as “Yesteryear.” This year — as we’ve done for the past several years — we’re writing about residents who are about 80 or older, who define “Brown County character” in some way. Nominations came from the community. Submit suggestions for next year’s section to [email protected].
The values of hard work, community and faith are three things that Wanda Lawson knows well.
Born in January of 1936 at home in Leopold, Indiana, Wanda grew up watching her mother and father work hard in many ways.
When she was 3, her father, Vern Rohl, contracted tuberculosis and had to be in a sanitarium for three years. They removed some of his ribs, and when doctors allowed him to come home for a bit on weekends, Wanda, her four brothers and one sister had to sterilize everything he ate from and touched.
“None of us kids had it after that,” Wanda said, “so I guess we did a good job.”
[sc:text-divider text-divider-title=”Story continues below gallery” ]The Rohls lived in Perry County, and Wanda said that they were very poor. Wanda now volunteers at the Brown County History Center and said that she likes to work in the pioneer cabin since she’s familiar with “that kind of life.”
“We had no electricity, we used the washboard, hung the clothes on the line, summer, winter — anytime we had laundry.”
When her father came out of the sanitarium, he was very weak. Wanda’s mother, Elsie, did her best to keep their garden so they had food in the winter. Two of her three older brothers helped on the farm, the other leaving for the Army when he was able.
“I can remember her yet, to this day, she was in that garden behind a single-horse plow,” Wanda said. “Plowing that big garden, doing everything with the tools and things like that.”
After a time, her mother went to work at a cotton gin factory. “That was hard on her,” she said.
The Rohls moved to Martinsville, where they bought a little restaurant and grocery store, complete with gas pumps outside. “We all pitched in and helped with that,” Wanda said. She and her sister helped in the restaurant and her younger brother helped their father in the grocery store.
One evening, a young Brown County man had an accident just down the road on State Road 37. The young man, Frank Lawson, and three of his friends stopped at the restaurant for a cup of coffee and fresh cherry pie.
“He sat down and we got to talking, joking and carrying on,” Wanda said. “We were just attracted to each other right then and there.”
Frank asked Wanda if he could come back the next day. Wanda, who was almost 15, told him that she’d have to ask her parents. He was 19.
“He didn’t realize how young I was,” she said. “I was really mature, worked hard all my life. I asked mom, and said, ‘I don’t think it’ll be any harm, it’ll be alright. He’s a likeable guy.’”
Before Frank arrived the next day, one of his friends came by the store, but Wanda said she “ran him off.” Frank arrived in the afternoon and spent time with her family. They double dated with her brother and his bride for a summer and spent time at their store.
“(My parents) were okay with Frank after that,” she said. “I got aggravated one day and said to my sister, ‘Does he come here to see me or does he come to visit with Dad?’”
The couple married on her 17th birthday in 1953.
Frank joined the Army not long after they were married. Their son, Chuck, was born in October 1953 at Camp Atterbury Hospital.
Frank served two years in the Army, while Wanda and her newborn lived with her parents, who’d moved to Indianapolis. When Frank returned in 1955, they moved into a small, two-room place just south of Fruitdale on 135 North.
“It didn’t have anything but the two rooms,” she said. “No heat. It had electricity, but that was about it. At least we had a place that when my husband got out that we started building and adding onto it.”
Frank and Wanda put in a well. “I’ll never forget,” she said. Frank dug the well by hand in the winter time. “I was out there with a pulley and a bucket. I’d pull it up to the top and dump it. My hands got so cold I was almost in tears.”
She didn’t say anything because she knew what hard work was.
Frank began working for a railroad company, covering lines from Bargersville to Bloomington.
Wanda began working at Sarkes Tarzian in 1957, which made the first portable televisions. Her job was to place a handle on the top of the metal box. Ever social, Wanda would complete a task, then go down the assembly line to talk to her coworkers. “I’d visit with everybody in ear’s reach.”
Leaving Sarkes Tarzian, she began to draw $20 a month in unemployment. The last time she went to draw, someone told her that they had a job for her, but wouldn’t tell her where it was. She got an interview, and when she got the address, it was Eli Lilly and Company. She didn’t know whether or not to take it, thinking about babysitting, transportation and other factors. Frank supported her, and since she’d be working toward retirement, Wanda decided to do it.
For the first 15 years, Wanda worked in production, standing on cement floors, using the machinery at her station to make medicine.
“I loved it,” she said. “It was hard work, but I loved the people I was with.” She carpooled for 13 years with a group from Morgantown.
“(The driver) called it a ‘chick van’ because of all the women that rode with him,” Wanda remembered. “He was a character.”
One of the powders she had to use to fill capsules caused an allergic reaction and put nodules on her voice box. She had surgery to remove them. “To this day I have trouble with talking,” she said. They moved Wanda to capsule filling, polishing pills with a cheesecloth and pulling out “scags” (defective pills). Then she moved to wet finish, where ampules and liquids were made.
One of the supervisors she rode with worked in the lab and reached out to Wanda for some help. “I never went to school for science, didn’t even have that when we went to school,” she said. But the supervisor assured her that Wanda could learn everything she needed to in the lab within a month. Wanda turned her down the first year.
“Then I thought, ‘Here I am, standing on my feet and legs and I have an opportunity to try something good, new and different,’” she said. “’And she thinks I can do it.’”
Wanda took the job and loved it. “I was so glad I did it,” she said. “There was so much more freedom.” She was given a pager for her last five years at Lilly. “When it went off, I knew they needed me.”
If she got a call that allowed her to be home by midnight, she would come home. If not, she’d stay at her sister’s and sleep a few hours. If it was 3 or 4 in the morning, she’d lay her head down and rest at her desk.
She retired in 1991, and that’s when she became quite active in the Brown County scene.
Wanda has played euchre with the same group of ladies since 1965, meeting at each other’s homes and also Hotel Nashville for a special luncheon every week. She has also been involved with the Ladies Guild at St. Agnes Catholic Church, baking for annual bazaars and making paper products for fundraisers. She helped start Silver Sneakers at the YMCA, joined Tri Kappa four years ago, has been a member of the Pioneer Women at the Brown County History Center and helps volunteer at Silver Linings women’s shelter.
“I’ve got a lot of friends,” she said.
This network has been a great support for Lawson, especially in times of need in her own life. She said that last year, she nearly lost her life, after an unpleasant experience after knee surgery led to nearly three months in hospitals and rehabilitation centers.
“I don’t know how many people I had praying for me,” she said. “I was determined to get well.”
She has great neighbors, and her granddaughter, Ronna, lives just five minutes away. During COVID quarantine, she would bring anything Wanda needed to her. “We’d talk from the door,” Wanda said.
Wanda said she didn’t want to be a hindrance to her granddaughter, but Ronna told her she was quarantining, should Wanda need any care. “’If you get sick, I want to be able to come take care of you,’” she said.
That helpful nature was passed down through generations in the Lawson family. It was always an open home.
The Lawsons, with 13- and 11-year-old sons, Chuck and Ronnie, built their home just off Railroad Road in the fall of 1965. As soon as spring started, Wanda said, the boys wanted out of the cramped one-room trailer they all shared while building. The whole family moved in their new home in May 1966, and Wanda is there still.
Over the years, their home on the hill has seen many different guests. A few years after they built the home, Wanda’s sister and her two sons came to stay for what they thought would be a few months. They were there for three years.
Frank’s father came to live with them too, and was there for 11 years.
More recently, Wanda was asked by someone if a woman in a domestic abuse situation could come stay. Thinking she might not do it, Wanda said she asked herself: “What would Jesus do?”
The answer was yes, so she took the woman in.
The Lawson home was built on what was once Rural Route 3, but in the late 1970s, it became Lawson Road. Since the school bus and postal carrier came down the road for the Lawsons, and they did the work on it, the road sign bore their name.
Wanda has a love of travel that has taken her to China, the Holy Lands, South America, the Philippines, and on repeated visits to Alaska and Europe. This love, she says, was inspired by tagging along to her father’s “star route” in Tell City, delivering mail with him.
Despite her wanderlust, Wanda said that she wouldn’t live anywhere else but Brown County.
“I don’t ever want to move from here,” she said.
Wanda now shares the home with her dog, Max now, who guards against squirrels.
Frank passed away in 2001, then their oldest son, Chuck, in 2002. Wanda had said “no more” to anything living on the property. Eventually, she called her friend, Jane, at the humane society.
“I told her it’s pretty lonesome around here, and I missed my dogs,” she said. Three months after that, Wanda answered the call that there was a dog for her.
“When I walked in, I spoke to (Max) and he literally jumped in my arms,” she said. “I said, ‘Where do I sign the papers?’”
Even though she’s been through many trials, Wanda said she’s tried to be “pretty upbeat,” allowing her faith to carry her through a lot.
“You’ve got to have faith in the Lord,” she said. “I honestly don’t think I’d have made it through. I believe my faith has carried me through a lot.”
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Born: Jan. 28, 1936 near Leopold, Indiana.
Spouse: Frank, who died in 2001. Married Jan. 28, 1953.
Children: Two sons, Chuck and Ron. She also has five grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren.
Siblings: Four brothers and one sister. Her sister lives in Fishers and one brother lives in suburban Indianapolis.
Occupations: Retired from Eli Lilly; also built televisions at Sarkes Tarzian.
Hobbies: Involved in community groups and organizations like Tri Kappa, the Brown County History Center Pioneer Women, the Ladies Guild at St. Agnes and Silver Linings; traveling; euchre club.
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