EX-BLUFF MERCHANT'S GENEROSITY RECALLED

POPLAR BLUFF, Mo. -- The highest compliment in Yiddish that one can give a person is to call him a mensch -- a real human being, a nice person.

Wally Hartman, who died Sunday at the age 89, was a mensch.

"He was a wonderful, great guy," said attorney Jasper Edmundson. "Everybody loved him. He was involved in a lot of things. The last two checks he wrote were to Haven House and the Rescue Mission. That shows a little bit about him."

John Lawson, whose wife, Joan, worked for Hartman at his women's clothing store for 12 years, said, Hartman "probably helped a lot of people here in need and was never given any credit for doing that. He did not want any recognition for helping those people. He would do a lot for the underprivileged; he was very generous to them."

Hartman was born June 21, 1911, in Chicago. He met his wife, the former Ruby Miller, in Los Angeles.

Edmundson said that one year Charles Miller of Poplar Bluff took his family to Los Angeles for a vacation, and Hartman was working at a hotel there, probably as an elevator operator.

"He met Ruby, they fell in love and he married her and came back and they made Poplar Bluff their home," Edmundson said. "They lived here ever since. I picked him up at the airport many times and he would talk for 30 minutes about how good it was to be back in Poplar Bluff."

He went to work for his father-in-law at Charles Miller's Toggery, one of the most exclusive women's stores in town.

"I absolutely loved Wally," said Evelyn Whitworth, who with her husband, Guy, ran Gift Chest Jewelers on the same Main Street .

When Whitworth was in high school, she worked as a proofreader for the Daily American Republic.

"I took the ads around to get them OK'd, and I used to go in and show him the ads," she recalled. "I was in awe of the place and the fashions. It was quite exciting to go in there because you always could recognize people shopping at Miller's."

Louie Snider remembered when his father opened a grocery store in 1945 or 1946 Hartman was one of the first merchants to come off Main Street to "wish us good luck."

Later, Hartman served with Snider on the board of directors of the Community Development Corp. when it was formed in 1989. He remained on the board until his death.

Sam Giambelluca Hartman's business advice over morning coffee at Belnap Drug Store.

"He and his wife, Ruby, liked my spaghetti and meatballs," Giambelluca said. "Once a month we would have them over and give them a spaghetti feast."

John Lawson recalled when his wife, Joan, went to New York for Hartman on a buying trip, Hartman "made arrangements for me to meet her in New York without her ever knowing. The first Broadway play I ever saw was on that trip. Those are the kinds of things he would do."

Hartman was of the Jewish faith.

He is survived by his son, Roger of Reno, Nev., a daughter Allison Levy of Phoenix, Ariz.; a sister, Clara Brenner of Chicago; and seven grandchildren.