A friendly face in Rolling Meadows

The Jewel Foods store in Rolling Meadows opened in 1956, one year after the city incorporated, and Nancy Ruth Martin was among its first employees.

Mrs. Martin was classified as an "office person," whose duties ran the gamut from running the front-end desk, scheduling and bookkeeping, to cashiering during peak shopping periods.

But to loyal customers, she was a friendly face, a neighbor whom they sought out when they shopped at the store.

Now they are mourning Mrs. Martin's passing. The 50-year resident of Rolling Meadows, most recently of Arlington Heights, passed away Sunday. She was 87.

"Everybody in town knew her," says Lisa Leark, personnel coordinator at the Jewel Foods store in Rolling Meadows. "Everybody who came in called her by her first name."

Mrs. Martin worked in the store from the time her children were little, through their adulthood, retiring in her early 70s, only to come back two years later to help run the bulk food department. She finally retired for good, in 1995, co-workers say.

Family members say Mrs. Martin loved her job for its proximity and for all the interaction it offered with local residents.

"My mother walked to work every day," says her daughter, Georgia Von Schaumburg, of Palatine. "From our house to the store, it was a half-mile. She walked there and back, no matter what the shift was that she worked."

Living and working in Rolling Meadows was a way of life for Mrs. Martin, and her husband, D. Richard. The couple moved to the Northwest suburb in 1955, the same year Rolling Meadows incorporated, and they were the first family in their neighborhood to have a phone.

"We lived at the north end of town, and neighbors used to come to our house to make and receive calls," Von Schaumburg adds.

Mr. Martin found work in the city's public works department, where his daughter says, he helped to get the Rolling Meadows Park District and its neighborhood pool up and running.

"We were a Rolling Meadows family, through and through," Von Schaumburg says. "My dad worked for the city and my mom worked for the Jewel."

The couple also was among the first members of the Community Church of Rolling Meadows, attending early worship services in a local barn before they raised enough money to build a church.

Mrs. Martin was preceded in death by her husband. Besides her daughter, she is survived by two sons, including David (Bonnie) of Brookfield, Wis., and John of Philadelphia, as well as three grandchildren.

Services have been held.