Remembering her time as a member of a women’s basketball league in 1942, 78-year-old Sarah James states, “It was good recreation because that many years ago there wasn’t that much to do.”

     That is not the case for James anymore.

     Miami students might recognize James as the pleasant, white-haired cashier who works breakfast and lunch at the second register from the left at Shriver Food Court. Other Oxford-area residents may know her from the Farmer’s Market. Many people could have spotted her cheering on the Lady Redhawks in basketball, her self-proclaimed favorite sport. Either way, Sarah James has crossed quite a few paths in her life.

     Born on a farm in Hamilton, Ohio, on March 21, 1924, James has spent the majority of her life in Butler and Hamilton counties. She has three daughters, all of whom still live in the area, and 11 grandchildren. She is devoted to her family and although she doesn’t like to drive anymore, she does the best she can to make it to all of the basketball games where her 11-year-old granddaughter is a cheerleader.

     James has worked at Miami University since March 22, 1972, and even had a small retirement in 1993. However, regularly filling in for absent employees, following her retirement, gradually changed to full winter employment for the past four years. James doesn’t mind though. After her husband passed away several years ago, she decided, “I don’t want to sit at home,” even if her kids think she is crazy.

     Although James has spent the better part of her employment at Miami, she has also held several other jobs.

     “I went to work the day after I graduated high school,” James says that her first job, at Moser’s Safe Co., in Hamilton, Ohio, was one of work and some play. While at Moser’s she joined the company’s women’s basketball team and also became a member of the bowling league. James still has her shorts from her basketball days.

      “They don’t even fit on my 11-year-old’s leg,” she says with a chuckle. “I guess I like em cause they make me feel skinny.”

     After the birth of their first daughter, James quit Moser’s. Following the birth of her third daughter, she returned to the workforce as a cook at a rest home. From there she became a teacher’s aide at Talawanda, then moved to Indian and finally ended up back in Oxford as an employee at Miami.

     Although she has held a variety of jobs, farming has always been the most pronounced profession in her life.

     As a girl she was raised on a farm, primarily “just milk and cows,” she notes. Then she met her husband, a farmer from the area.

     “He farmed from ’49 to ’73, then has to quit cause we couldn’t find a farm to rent anymore,” she says with a sigh.

     She and her husband had always wanted to buy a farm of their own, but never could afford one. Eventually the economic burden became too much, forcing her husband to join Miami’s building and grounds crew in 1974.

     “Anymore,” James says, “if you wanted to start out yourself, you just couldn’t afford to.”

     Without a doubt, James thinks the husband or wife of a farming family would “almost have to have another job or else farm real big” to make ends meet.

     She has noticed a decrease in the amount of farming in Butler County and attributes the majority of it to the unpredictable weather, making any substantial amount of farming almost possible.

     Last summer, her 10 acres of land yielded only four bushels of soybeans, when she would have regularly had 30. “My combine man didn’t even charge me,” she says.
When considering the future of farming, James seems unsure. She has seen a decrease in the young people picking up the profession and has noticed that it generally only appeals to those who have grown up on a farm. She knows it is not work people to for money. “A lot of the time they jut love it…my husband loved it.”

     Although she has little time to dedicate to farming her own land these days, she has stayed active in the farming community through her involvement in 4-H, an agricultural club for youth. She is coordinator of the Farmer’s Market and also serves as a representative for the Farm Bureau.

     In 2001 she was inducted into the 4-H Hall of Fame. The award is the highest honor from the organization and is given to only four people a year.

     “It was a total surprise,” she says, “but very exciting.”

     She has even heard that her picture is hanging up at The Ohio State University’s Extension Office, but has never had an opportunity to see it herself.

     “I figure by the time I get up there, they’ll have taken it down,” she says.

     Her children, grandchildren and great grandchildren are all members of the organization, where she continues to hold a position as an advisor.

     As coordinator for Oxford’s premier Farmer’s Market, located in the Stewart Elementary school parking lot, her job is to organize and sign in all of the local vendors. She must also check to make sure that all of the items sold meet the market’s standards.

     “We don’t want anything that’s not homemade,” she says, “We don’t want flea market stuff.”

     Any Saturday, May through November, rain or shine, one can find James in the Stewart school parking lot, selling her bread, her cousin’s eggs, and depending on the season, a variety of produce from her garden.

     Balancing the farming aspect of her life, James is also involved in a widow group, her church, and worked as a lecture coordinator for the local chapter of the American Association of Retired Persons, or as she refers to it, “the retired people group.” After five years in the position she gave it up because she “just ran out of ideas.”

     When talking with James, it is easy to recognize that she values belonging to a community and nowhere is more important to her than her Miami community.
It might help that one of her daughters works for the university bookstore and her son-in-law is an employee of the building and grounds crew, truly combining family and work, but it is much more.

     She is more devoted to athletic events than most Miami students. She’ll catch a ride with the cook from Shriver and his wife just to make sure she gets to see a basketball game. Get her started and she can reel off a countless list of Miami faculty that she remembers working with on night shifts in the beginning of her career. She even recognizes students who are children of student workers she knew in the mid 70s. Many of her stories though, include Dr. Phillip Shriver, one of Miami’s more well-known presidents.

      “I just have the most respect for that man,” she says.

     James first met Shriver and his family when she was a cook for the university. Her husband also worked on the grounds crew at Lewis Place, the home of all Miami University presidents.

     She recounts a time when she worked a tailgate party at his home and was invited to sit and share a drink with his mother. She says, with a smile on her face, “They’ve just always treated me so nicely.”

     Like so many others, James enjoys the speeches on Miami history Shriver gives several times a year.

     “I love to hear him speak,” she says. “I took two of my grandkids to hear him once tell the story about the boy who disappeared,” referring to the unsolved disappearance of Miami student Ron Tammen.

     However, the speeches that are memorable to her were given at the 150th anniversary of her church and at her retirement party.

      “Now it was just a little retirement party,” she says modestly, “so I was honored.”

     Modest is a word that characterizes Sarah James quite nicely. She is someone who measures success by traditional means, letting job titles take precedence over personal influence. However, measuring success by what one gives, James is more than an average citizen – the kind every community would love to have.

     For all those who have made a lasting impression on her, and there are many, it could be said with much certainty, that she has done the same for them.

Katie Hanlon

Bowling Alone? Not in Oxford.