Her mother, Agnes (Heuer) Walker was a homemaker and German immigrant from Osnabrück, Saxony. Her father Frederick Walker was a first generation American with German parents employed as a blacksmith by Warner Elevator Company.
After growing up in Cincinnati and Bellevue, Kentucky, she briefly attended Miami University in 1917 and was working as a school teacher in Ross by 1918. There she met Carl E. Engel Sr., a farmer, whom she married on June 25, 1918 in Hamilton County.
Carl brought her back to the farm he operated with his brother J. Adoph Engel in Ross Twp. and by 1937 Engel was serving on the Ross Twp. School Board. In that position, she was instrumental in the consolidation of Ross Twp.’s schoolhouses and the construction of a modern school building for the township, which now serves as the Ross Intermediate School and board offices.
She remained on the school board for 16 years and often said that one of her proudest moments was being able to hand her daughter, Phyllis (Engel) Worthman, her high school diploma as part of the first graduating class of the new school. Carl and Luella also raised two other children, Carl E. Engel, Jr. and Gwendolyn (Engel) Frazee.
While living in Ross, Engel helped establish 4-H in the county, including starting a 4-H radio club. Additionally, she was involved for over 50 years with the Butler County Farm Bureau and Hanover Grange, was a member of the Butler Rural Electric Cooperative, and was the only female farm director in Ohio to serve in the National Farm Directors Association.
With the start of World War II, Engel volunteered to serve as a radio operator as part of the War Emergency Radio Service, which operated a dozen 2-way radio sets across the county for Civil Defense. After working with John Slade during the war, Engel became a radio personality on WMOH, and also later on WPFB and WRFD, hosting their “Farm Hour” program in the 1940’s and 1950’s and becoming the station’s director of women’s activities.
Engel joined the board of the Hamilton Safety Council in 1946 and began doing public speaking engagements on home and farm safety. She remained involved with the organization for most of her life, and found a niche teaching defensive driving classes for local women.
From 1948 to 1949 Engel was appointed the chair of the County Division of the Community Chest, working to raise funds to support community members in need. This organization later evolved into Butler County United Way.
The Engels moved to Hamilton in 1952, purchasing a home on Verlynn Avenue and joining Zion Lutheran Church.
Engel stayed extremely busy throughout the 1950’s and 1960’s, remaining involved with the various county agricultural organizations she was a part of while also joining several other organizations. She served as president of Hamilton Business & Professional Women’s Club and Fairfield Homemakers at various times and was also a longtime member of Altrusa International.
In 1951, Engel merged all of her personal and professional interests to found Opportunity Mart, which was located at 231 Main St. The idea behind the Mart was to create a place to sell items created by local hobbyists and allow them to collect 85% of the profit. The storefront was open for about a decade and had over 150 hobbyists contributing to its inventory at its peak.
Along with being a YWCA board member, and teaching nutrition classes for the YWCA, she was also board president of the Salvation Army on three separate occasions for a total of 15 years. A lounge at the Salvation Army was dedicated to her in recognition of her service to the organization.
When Engel took a job with the Division of Aid to the Aged, she found a new direction for her enthusiasm. She helped to create the Murstein House, donated by Wilmer’s owner William Murstein, served as a founder of Senior Citizens, and was later elected to the board of Council on Aging.
One of her greatest life achievements was being appointed by President Richard Nixon to be a delegate to the 1971 White House Conference on Aging representing Ohio.
If that wasn’t enough, she also served as an officer of the Hamilton Adult Education and Training Council, was the Home Economics chair of the Co-operative Extension Service, founded a local chapter of the non-academic charitable sorority Epsilon Sigma Alpha, chaired Butler County Republican Women, served as a trustee of the Miami Valley Humane Society’s dog shelter, and helped organize the Butler County Board of Mental Health.
Engel also beat breast cancer, having survived a radical mastectomy. When asked by the Hamilton Journal-News for advice to give to cancer patients, she responded, “Don’t accept defeat and always look forward to tomorrow.”
In her free time, whatever little of it there likely was, Engel enjoyed bowling, painting china, crocheting, and gardening. At the conclusion of the 1974 Butler County Fair, while now retired and in their later years, Engel and her husband were named the healthiest senior citizens in the county.
Carl passed away on Sept. 5, 1980. Engel died 11 years later, on Aug. 20, 1991, after a life spent in service to her community. They are buried together in Rose Hill Memorial Park.
Brad Spurlock is the manager of the Smith Library of Regional History and Cummins Local History Room, Lane Libraries. A certified archivist, Brad has over a decade of experience working with local history, maintaining archival collections and collaborating on community history projects.
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