Notes:

Store at 11th and Walnut Streets, Washington, Indiana.

Obituaries:
Rolla Harrison Gines, 90, formerly of 1015 W. Walnut, died at the Washington Nursing Ceneter today at 8:00 a.m. (3/12/79). Born in Sumner, Illinois January 19, 1889, he was the son of John W. and Mary (Burgett) Gines.
For more than 60 years, he operated a grocery at 1015 W. Walnut, retiring in 1965. He was educated in the Sumner schools. He was a member of the Free Methodist Church and was a charter member of the Washington Kiwanis Club.
Surviving are two sons, Forrest and Edwin Gines, Washington; five grandchildren; five great-grandchildren; a sister, Mrs. Dorothy Riggs, Los Angeles; and a brother, Herald Gines, Washington. A daughter, Mrs. Nelline Godwin, two sisters and two brothers preceded him in death.
Funeral arrangements are pending at the Gill Chapel.

Services for Rolla H. Gines will be at 1:30 p.m. Friday at the Gill Chapel with the Rev. Ralph Bright as minister. Burial wil be in Bethany Cemetery. Friends may call Thursday from 2 - 5 and 7 - 9 p.m. (3/16/79).

Service for Rolla H. Gines were Friday at 1:30 p.m. at the Gill Chapel with burial in Bethany cemetery. The Rev. Ralph Bright officiated adn casket bearers were Roland Harris, Howard Blevins, Delmon Shake, Bruce Rogers, Fritz Garland and Rollie Gress.


Newspaper article from Valley Advance, Vol. 2, No. 26, Vincennes, IN, March 3, 1966.

WASHINGTON MAN NOTES 50TH YEAR AS GROCER by Larry Rodimel and David Snow

Mr. Rolla H. Gines, Washington, IN grocer, this year observes his 50th year in the neighborhood grocery business.
Mr. Gines is 77 years old and a native of Illinois. He was first introduced to the grocery business at a store established by his father in Vincennes at Second and Lyndale streets.
He told The Valley Advance that his basic knowledge of the grocery business came from those 10 years with his father.
In 1916, Mr. Gines and his brother, Oral, ventured forth in the business world with an establishment of their own at 400 West Main Street in Washington. They had only 500 dollars in cash and a 40-acre farm, given to them by their father, with which to begin their business.
After three successful years, they moved to a larger store at 1415 McCormick Avenue. It wasn't until 1926 that Mr. Gines began business for himself at 1015 West Walnut Street. Gines' Grocery has remained at this location for the past 40 years. (Oral returned to the farm at that time. He died in 1962.)
Changes have crept gradually into the grocery business over the years, Mr. Gines said. Once, a man's word was all that was needed for credit purchasing; today, however, the businessman has to check with a clearinghouse (credit bureau) for each new person's credit rating, he noted. Also, at one time, sugar and beans were stored in large barrels from which the grocer would dip the desired amount for each customer. "Now, these and other items are packaged in small individual containers for convenience," Gines mused. "Coffee was once ground fresh by the grocer; it is pre-ground or 'instant' today," he added.
Mr. Gines also remembers the days of horse and wagon delivery and fears, likewise, that the time of the small neighborhood grocery is limited due to what he called the "overwhelming success of super markets."
The major local change Mr. Gines witnessed, however, was the loss of his neighborhood customers because of the move...section by section over the years...of the B. & O. Railroad shops, the major employer of the area...Washington's West End. Diesels meant the erosion of the shops' usefulness. And that usefulness was once of major significance what with the shops equidistant from Cincinnati, Ohio and St. Louis, MO.
When asked what he would do if he had a chance to repeat his career, Mr. Gines replied that "it was by chance that I became involved in the grocery business, but I am thankful that I did have such an opportunity,."
He also said that he has considered retirement many times since he reached the age of 65, 12 years ago. "In fact," he said "I might retire any day."
The impression gained by The Valley Advance is that he loves the business too much to leave it.

There are two pictures along with the article.
(1) Taken inside the store: Mr. Gines gazes pensively out his store front as he recalls highlights of his 50 years as a grocer. He was interviewed and photographed by VU Journalism students on assignment with theValley Advance last week.
(2) This is the Gines' grocery located on the corner of West Walnut and 11th streets in Washington. A striking building in its day it still reflects a friendly atmosphere of the neighborhood grocery store of days gone by. (Valley Advance Photo)

Rolla married FITZGERALD Cora on 27 Dec 1910 in Divorced.. Cora was born on 19 Jan 1890; died in Mar 1943 in Francisco, IN. [Group Sheet]

Notes:

Index to Birth Records: Knox County, In. 1882-1920, Vol. 1, A-G, W.P.A. Ch.21 P. 112.

Edith married GODWIN Harold Bert on 22 Oct 1932. Harold was born on 24 Aug 1910 in Washington, Davies County, Indiana; died in in Sunday prior to May 8, 1988; was buried in Oak Grove Cem, Washington, IN. [Group Sheet]

Notes:

Newspaper article probably in a Washington, Indiana newspaper or perhaps a San Diego, California paper.

LOCAL MAN EXPERIENCES 'LIFE AFTER DEATH' by Ron Arvin

"There is a great sense of peace, no fear, no confusion...I never felt so good.."

Thus have many persons described what happens during the near-death experience. They tell of a sense of floating, a feeling of release of all pain, a great white light, and some even extend their experiences into five stages.
Edwin Gines of Washington knows first hand of earlier phases of the experiences which researchers have found common in hundreds of individuals who have approached a "clinical" death.
Dr. Kenneth Ring, a professor of psychology at the University of Connecticut, from interviews with 102 men and women, has concluded that the near-death phenomenon is, indeed, a new stage of growth, a spiritual rebirth that permits an individual a new zest and appreciation of life. Gines and his wife Fern will attest to that theory.
Gines' experience began Dec. 19, 1978 and in succeeding weeks he was to undergo not only the near-death moments but other traumatic conditions which were partially concealed from him by his family until after he was recovering from open heart surgery.
On a visit in San Diego, the Gines' daughter, Gaetana Kratzer, convinced her father he did not appear well and insisted he enter Mercy Hospital and Medical Center for tests. These tests determined that while he had experienced no pain, he had in fact suffered a serious heart attack.
On December 29 Ed was feeling great, preparing to leave the hospital, when suddenly severe pain hit his chest and arm. He reached for the call button and remembered hearing the nurse answer immediately.
It later developed the instant response by the nurse and the fortuitous proximity fo two doctors (who were planning to visit Gines before his dismissal) saved his life. Within a short time he had electric shock...back to life.
"I had a feeling of floating higher and higher," Gines recalls. "It was beautiful and the most peaceful situation you could imagine. I was so happy and peaceful.
When the electric shock treatment took effect, I kept asing the doctors...why?...why? They wanted to know what I meant. My answer was: Why did you bring me back? I was feeling so good, so peaceful, and now I'm back and feeling all this pain."
If one is to follow documented cases (i.e. Kubler-Ross On Dearh and Dying) Gines was through the first stages - a feeling of incredible peacefulness, something which has no equal; then the feeling of detachment, of floating out-of-the-body.
Some accounts have told of being like a spectator, watching nurses and doctors working over their bodies, as if from a balcony looking down,
Gines' experience was abruptly terminated by the electric shock treatment.

Other stages, described by some persons but not by Gines, include the peaceful movement into a tunnel-like opening; then a brilliant gold-yellow light, very warm but never hurtful to the eyes; and finally a distinct calling, not necessarily a voice, in which one is told "Your life is not finished...go back."
Linked with the distinct impressions of the rising higher and higher was the appearance when he regained consciousness of the the hospital chaplain, Sister Mary La Salellette, of the Sisters of Mercy, whose kindly face, enshrouded in white, became Ed's"guardian angel" from there on.
Two more heart attacks the same day kept Ed in the hospital's intensive care for 26 days, then he was released to be prepared for open heart surgery.
The family kept from him many of the details of a shooting at a school where his daughter Gaetana, a speech therapist, was teaching. A teen-ager killed the school principal and custodian, and wounded eight children. Ed did not know for weeks Gaetana had gone from her room to drag inside an injured child, and then huddled over the child in life-saving efforts. Later the door through which she had exited was found riddled with bullets.
Finally, after he was recovering from surgery, he had to return home early because of the death of his father.
The religious aspects of near-death experiences are also being examined by scholars who say one's own religious beliefs affect their interpretation of the near-death moments.
"It is a faith-strengthening thing. Certainly we do not want to die, but we do not fear death," Ed and Fern say.
This is the conclusion of many whom scholars have interviewed: They say what they have experienced will come again and their time has simply been postponed.
Researchers are looking into all facets, such as could these stories have been induced by anesthesia, but as in Gines case, anesthesia sometimes has not been used at the time of the experience. Ed and Fern have recalled their own experiences with anesthesia and Ed says the sensation is not the same as the experience in San Diego.


There is a picture of Ed and Fern Gines sitting on a couch sharing a newspaper. The caption reads: Ed and Fern Gines read a newspaper account of a shooting in a San Diego school where their daughter was teaching. Ed was in a San Diego hospital at the time and almost died of a heart attach, experiencing the first stage of "life after death."

Edwin married FITZGERALD Fern. Fern was born on 18 Oct 1916 in Montgomery, Indiana; died in in Washington, IN.; was buried in Bethany Christian Ch. Cementery. [Group Sheet]

Forrest married CARLISLE Virginia. [Group Sheet]

Forrest married CARLISLE Virginia. [Group Sheet]

Cheryl married OSHA Robert Edwin. [Group Sheet]

Gaetana married PATTON Michael. [Group Sheet]

Daniel married GRANNON Cheryl. [Group Sheet]