Joe Henry and Martha Arney Weidemann

This fund was established by Dr. Wanda Weidemann and Ms. Joyce Weidemann in honor of their parents, Joe Henry Weidemann and Martha Evelyn Arney. The Weidemanns were high school sweethearts and were married in 1950. Joe was born in Simpson County, KY and Martha moved there from Clay County, TN when she was eleven. After Joe served two years in the United States Army, they moved to a farm in western Simpson County. In 1994 they left the farm for a new home in Franklin.

Although neither Joe nor Martha attended college, they both valued education and stressed the importance of education to their two daughters. Although he loved farming, Joe decided the income from a 100-acre farm would not finance the education of his two children. He ran for (and won) the office of Tax Commissioner (now Property Valuation Administrator) in Simpson County in 1965. A few years later, Martha would begin work as a cook at West Simpson Elementary School. She became cafeteria manager at West Simpson. When the county elementary schools consolidated, Martha became cafeteria manager at Franklin Elementary School. Martha retired in the late 1980s. Joe retired in 1994 after serving 29 years as Property Valuation Administrator. Joe and Martha were married for 61 years before her death in 2012. Joe died in 2016. Both of their daughters, Wanda and Joyce, hold degrees from Western Kentucky University.

Through this fund, both Joe and Martha’s legacies live on as residents from Simpson County, KY will benefit from the support provided in perpetuity.