Carlin was born to Peter Belvo and his wife, Bernadine Stang Belvo in the back of their store, a confectionary, where they lived on Xenia Avenue in Dayton. A first cousin of Sister Dorothy Stang, of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, who was murdered in Brazil in 2005, Carlin grew up surrounded by numerous relatives from both sides of her family.
“My French grandparents’, Peter Belvo Sr. and Catherine, rented a house at the foot of the Indian Mound in Miamisburg where my grandfather worked as a stonemason on Benner Road for 40 years,” said Carlin, who remembers visiting her grandparents, who eventually bought a Miamisburg dairy farm, which came to be known as Belvo Sanitary Dairy.
At the age of 1, Carlin moved with her parents to a farm on Marshall Road in Washington Twp. She was one of 12 students in the Centerville High School graduating class of 1948.
“I was the drum major, but my baton was made of wood, because they took all of the metal for the war effort,” said Carlin, of the World War II years. “I also was in a choral group, and I just loved home economics. I learned to sew all of my clothes and to cook.”
Carlin even sewed costumes for school plays, but after graduating from high school she went on to Comptometer School where she studied equipment used in accounting departments. Her first position was in the payroll department at NCR, where she met her WWII veteran husband, John Carlin. John Carlin, who died in 2004, was a 1942 Chaminade graduate, who worked as an insurance agent and as a butcher in a grocery store before becoming store manager of Phil & Jerry’s Foodarama, a supermarket on Whipp Road that closed in 1988.
“I only worked at NCR for four months, but that was all I needed to meet my husband,” said Carlin, who was delighted by the employee discount she received while working in the accounts payable department at the downtown Rike’s Department Store for two years. “I picked out what I wanted for my wedding there.”
Carlin went on to work in the payroll department at the Dayton Rubber Company, but left after marrying and having her seven children. Her son, Stephen Carlin, is an award-winning member of the military reserves, who graduated from Alter High School and lives in Washington Twp. Her daughter, Janell Carlin Hall, is an Alter graduate, who lives in Carlsbad, Calif., with her husband, Robert, and two children, Ryan and Johnny. Her son, Shawn Carlin, is a CHS graduate, who works for DimcoGrey Corp. and lives in Centerville with his daughter, Ellie, a CHS senior. Her daughter, Lisa Carlin, has two daughters, Becky and Lissa Moniere, and works for Standard Register and lives in Kettering. Her son, Kevin Carlin, is an Alter graduate, who works at Trader Joe’s in San Diego, and has two children, Kenner and Michaela. Her daughter, Christel Carlin Ford, is a nurse living in Peachtree, Ga., with her husband, LTC (retired reserve) Richard Ford, and her three children, Ansel, Landis and Clinton. Daughter Gina Carlin Roesch, a computer programmer, lives in Carlsbad, Calif., with her pilot husband, John.
The Carlins lived in an apartment in Belmont before building a home, designed by family friend, Adam Zengel, on Marshall Road. As the family grew, the Carlins moved to a home on Kings Row and finally to a retirement home they built in Waynesville where they lived until John’s death and Patty’s return to Washington Twp.
“Everyone knew John from Phil & Jerry’s Foodarama and Incarnation and everybody loved him,” said Carlin, who worked in home sales for Tupperware, World Book Encyclopedia and Shaklee, completed a Catholic spiritual Cursillo program, and is currently is part of NAIM, a support group for widows and widowers.
Contact this columnist at (937) 432-9054 or jjbaer@aol.com.
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