Ross County OhArchives Obituaries.....Comer, Ora Miles April 29, 1984
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Ralph W. Cokonougher rcokon@hotmail.com February 14, 2006, 2:43 pm

The following 30 April 1984 obituary of Ora Comer is from the Greenfield Daily Times; Greenfield, Ohio; page 10:

                             COMER.  
            Ora M. Comer, 87, 1579 Wisecup Hill Rd., Lyndon, passed away 5 
p.m. Sunday at his home.
	Born March 24, 1897, in Ross County, he was the son of John and 
Margaret Alice Clouser Comer.  September 18, 1917, he married the former 
Martha Denner.
	Mr.  Comer was a retired farmer.
	Survivors include a son, Harold of Lyndon; two daughters, Mrs. Robert 
(Bernice) Hiles of Greenfield and Mrs. Delbert (Omalee) and Dawes of 
Springboro; a sister, Mrs. Inez Hodson of Martinsville; nine grandchildren; 
and 13 great-grandchildren.
	A great-grandson and two brothers and two sisters, and a son, James 
(June 13, 1942) preceded him in death.
	Funeral service will be 3 p.m. Thursday at Murray's Funeral Home, Rev. 
Charles Sheldon officiating.  Burial will follow in South Salem Cemetery.
	Visitation will be after 4 p.m. Wednesday at the funeral home."


Additional Comments:
       Ora, and his wife "Mattie", lived most of their lives in an old stone 
house on Wisecup Hill in Buckskin Township of Ross County, Ohio.  Their farm 
was next door to the Cokonougher farm.  
        I remember my father telling me that Mattie and Ora had a friendly, 
but heated, running battle about snakes.  Ora, a farmer, liked snakes.  Mattie 
hated and feared them. The snakes were great rat and mice exterminators, so 
Ora made a habit of catching the non-poisoness snakes and turning them loose, 
not only in his corncribs, but also in the attic of his two-story stone 
house.  He knew Mattie didn't like snakes so he never told her when he put one 
in the attic.  As sure as water flows downhill, the snakes would eventually 
find their way to the lower floors, and a very upset Mattie would soon find 
herself staring into the face of  a big, old, scary blacksnake, or some other 
ratsnake.  Down would go the hoe or broom handle and soon the body of a dead 
snake would go flying out the back door.  From what my father told me, when 
Ora would get home from work, he would receive a major piece of Mattie's mind, 
and soon wonder if he was going to be flying out the backdoor too   Still, he 
never ceased putting snakes in the attic, and Mattie never ceased killing them 
on sight.
        I, myself, experienced Ora's love of snakes one summer when I was a 
teenage boy working for him, helping him put in the summer's hay crop.  While 
in the hay field, I saw a large blacksnake.  It appeared to be about 10 feet 
long, and looked very fearsome to me.  I picked up a stick, and in my youthful 
ignorance, I killed the snake.  I was proud of my accomplishment, until my 
father explained to me how Ora felt about snakes, and that Ora had went out of 
his way that very day to especially avoid killing that particular snake.  Ora 
had found the snake laying on top of a hay row, and had halted all work and 
the forward movement of the tractor and haybailer until the snake had moved 
out of the right-away.  I felt really bad about what I had done, especially 
when I saw how bad Ora felt about the death of the snake.  It seemed to me as 
if he was fighting back tears.  Still, Ora never said a harsh word to me about 
the snake, and he was a friend until the end of his days.   And I never looked 
at snakes the same way ever again.
         My family and I visited Mattie and Ora in their home many times.  
Each time we visited, they always welcomed us with friendship, hospitality, 
and warmth.  Ora lacked formal education, but he was a smart as any man I 
knew, and he more than able to hold his own when it came to farm market prices 
prices and knowing when the best time came to buy and sell his crops and 
livestock.

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