Alice LaVern Rohrer

Alice LaVern (Rupel) Rohrer, 101, passed away at Timbercrest Senior Living Community, North Manchester, Indiana, on February 16, 2026.

She was born March 31, 1924 in Walkerton, Indiana to (Alfred) Byron Rupel and (Eliza) Edith Rohrer Rupel. She was one of five girls, including her identical twin. During the Great Depression, the girls helped save the family farm and were raised with a frugal “can-do” attitude. They had stories of picking blueberries as well as picking small cucumbers to sell to the Heinz Company. Alice graduated from Manchester College, in North Manchester, Indiana in 1947 with a degree in home economics. She taught school for several years, including managing a school cafeteria. In the early 1950s, she established the home economics department at Ashland College, Ashland, Ohio.

Alice met (Martin) Alpheus Rohrer at Manchester College and married him on July 1, 1950. He took his bride to his home in North Lima, in eastern Ohio. They were married for 62 years until his passing on December 26, 2012. They had four children. Alice was an accomplished seamstress and taught her children to sew. In 1972, the family took a memorable vacation spending 53 days traveling by RV to visit America’s western national parks and her sister, Lois, in Oregon. Alice was an avid gardener who got the whole family involved in her gardening adventures. She grew a wide variety of vegetables and preserved them to feed the family. The family planted an annual commercial vegetable garden including over 400 tomato plants, an abundant number of cucumbers, peas, green beans, and corn with staggered maturity dates, selling to local farm markets. All of this gardening led to her holding an Ohio canning license in order to legally sell her canned goods in the community. When she was in her 90s, as a Timbercrest resident, Alice and her twin sister were still growing vegetables for marketing at the North Manchester Farmers’ Market.

Immersed in the local church, Zion Hill Church of the Brethren, Alice was a deaconess, recording clerk for business meetings, church historian, Women’s Fellowship participant, church building designer, Sunday School superintendent, and Vacation Bible School superintendent. In 1972, she wrote and directed a play celebrating the centennial year at Zion Hill Church. Alice also wrote and directed a community pageant highlighting the history of North Lima, Ohio, during America’s Bicentennial celebration in 1976. She was a facilitator for Friendly Town, placing urban Cleveland children with rural families for a cross-cultural experience.

In 2010, Alice coordinated the sale of the farm and the move to bring her husband and herself back to Indiana. They moved into a neighborhood home at Timbercrest. Eventually, she lived in assisted living and then in healthcare.

Alice is survived by her children, Stanley (Drema) Rohrer, Beavercreek, Ohio; Edith Rohrer, Warsaw, Indiana; Thelma Rohrer, North Manchester, Indiana; and Norman (Melinda) Rohrer, Verona, Wisconsin. She is survived by four grandsons, Scott (Kaitlin), Todd, Nate (Dani), and Luke; and three great-grandchildren, Emma, Henry, and William. Alice is preceded in death by her parents, her husband Alpheus, her sisters, Lois (Rupel) Tuinstra, Annabel Rupel, Glea (Rupel) Smith, her twin sister Esther Rupel, and son-in-law James Adams.

Services will be private. Burial will be in Zion Hill Cemetery, Columbiana, OH. Arrangements are entrusted to McKee Mortuary, 1401 State Road 114 West, North Manchester, Indiana.

For those who wish to honor the memory of Alice Rohrer, memorial gifts may be given to Heifer International, 1 World Ave., Little Rock, AR 72202 or a charity of your choice.