Coolidge, Calvin (1872-1933)

Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 1933 Jan 11 p. 1

Birth date: 1872 Jul 4

text of obituary:

Former President Called By Death Last Thursday.

Northampton, Mass. — Calvin Coolidge, former president of the United States, died suddenly at his home here last Thursday noon.

Death was said to have been due to heart disease. His body was discovered by Mrs. Coolidge when she returned from a shopping trip. Mr. Coolidge was believed to have been dead about 15 minutes when found.

Mr. Coolidge went to his office in the morning but returned home accompanied by his secretary, about ten o'clock.

The former president had complained of indigestion during the past two or three weeks but had not consulted a physician during the past month.

Funeral services were attended by President Hoover Saturday at Edwards Congregational church — the historic structure on Main street named for Jonathan Edwards long ago. The former President was then laid to rest amid the austere hills of his native Vermont.

Calvin Coolidge was born on Independence Day, July 4, 1872, in Plymouth, a country village in the Vermont hills, the son of John C. and Victoria Moor Coolidge. His father was the village storekeeper as well as a farmer, and so the son had a double trainings under his father's care, plowing and digging in the fields and selling and figuring behind the counter. Here were developed in him the industry, frugality and self-reliance which shaped the course of his life.

Born and reared in the humble surroundings of a Vermont farm, Calvin Coolidge was destined to go by successive steps to the highest and mightiest office of a great nation, to administer its affairs for six years and to terminate his presidential career virtually of his own volition.

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Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 1933 Jan 11 p. 1

text of obituary:

Rev. A. J. Penner Conducts Funeral of Ex-President

A former Kansan and Mennonite officiated at the funeral services for Ex-President Calvin Coolidge last Saturday. He is Rev. Albert J. Penner, who was recently called to the pastorate of the old Jonathan Edwards Congregational church of Northampton, Mass. the church which Mr. and Mrs. Coolidge attended. He is a graduate of Bethel College and is well known here and among Mennonites in general. For a time he served as pastor of a Mennonite church in California. Being pastor of the church Mr. Coolidge attended, it became the duty and privilege of the Rev. Penner to conduct the last rites for the former President after his sudden death at his home in Northampton last Thursday noon.

At the request of Mrs. Coolidge the services in the church were brief. The Rev. Penner read several Scripture passages and led in a prayer, invoking God's comfort on the bereaved family, and also requesting that the memory of the life of the deceased might be a blessing for the nation which he served. From Northampton Mr. Penner accompanied the funeral cortege to the small village of Plymouth, Vt., and officiated at the sort committal services in the inauspicious cemetery where the former President was laid to his final resting place. The services at Northampton in the Edwards church were attended by President Hoover, Vice-President Curtis and other high officials of the nation.

Rev. Albert J. Penner is a son of Mr. and Mrs. Abram Penner of Mountain Lake, Minn., and brother of Mrs. Willis Rich of Bentley, Kansas. He attended Bethel College for a number of years and graduated from the institution in June, 1926. Later he continued his studies in Europe and after his return was appointed to the pastorate of the Jonathan Edwards church in Northampton, Mass.