Velma Arline Frey Kamp was born to Aaron and Anna Frey in 1926 on a farm near Pettisville, Ohio and returned to her maker May 27, 2019.
She graduated high school in Pettisville and received a Bachelor of Arts from Goshen College in Goshen, IN. After college she taught Home Economics at Pettisville High School and in Hudsonville, MI, where she met her husband Charles Kamp. Velma had a touch for handwork. She especially loved sewing and teaching sewing.
She and Charles, a Presbyterian minister, lived in many towns, and everywhere she went, she planted flowers and large vegetable gardens; his career took them to South Branch and New Brunswick, New Jersey; Deshler, Ohio; Evansville, Indiana; Morton, Illinois; College Corner, Ridgeville Corners, and finally Archbold, Ohio. She even planted flowers in a courtyard at Fairlawn Haven, where she spent her final five years. Velma loved to walk in the woods discovering springtime wildflowers, indigo buntings and morel mushrooms.
In college she sang with the Goshen College choir under the direction of the legendary Dr. Mary Oyer, and for the rest of her life she joined her local community choruses and church choirs and always listened to classical music. The award-winning quilts that she designed are treasured by her daughters. After retirement she and Charles volunteered at Care and Share, and Velma was a fixture of the Tatter Club at the Sauder quilt shop where she made many quilts for charity auctions.
She was a member of Zion Mennonite Church when it was founded, she married Charles there in 1959, and when Charles retired, they came back to her home area where she happily joined the Zion choir. Velma’s final years in Archbold were enriched by the love and attention of her nieces, nephews, and extended family, and many treasured friends.
She was preceded in death by her husband, Charles H. Kamp, and by all of her eleven siblings: Aurelius, Grace, Ivah, Bertha, Agnes, Elias, Jesse, Dale, Violet, Ada, and Mary Louise. She is survived by her three daughters and their families: Elizabeth (Kamp) Graham and Brad Graham; Marianne Kamp, Michael Brose and Elaine Brose; and Rebeccah Kamp (“mom loves me the most”), Jon Bakija, Miriam Bakija and Jude Bakija. We, her daughters, cherish the memory of our beloved mother, and we are so grateful that she could spend her final years in Archbold, close to our cousins whose visits brought her joy.
Visitation will take place at Short’s Funeral Home, Archbold, Ohio, on Friday May 31, 2-7:30 pm. Interment will take place Saturday, June 1, 10 am at Pettisville Cemetery, and the memorial service will be at Zion Mennonite Church, Archbold, at 11 am. Donations in Velma’s memory can be made to Zion Mennonite Church.
