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Ida M Chittum 1918 - 2002

Ida M Chittum of Bloomville, Delaware County, NY was born on April 6, 1918, and died at age 84 years old on December 1, 2002.

Ida M Chittum

Bloomville, Delaware County, NY 13739

April 6, 1918

December 1, 2002

Female

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Ida M Chittum Ida Chittum (1918 - 2002)

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Ida M Chittum's History: 1918 - 2002

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04/6

1918

Birthday

April 6, 1918

Birthdate

Unknown

Birthplace

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12/1

2002

Death

December 1, 2002

Death date

Unknown
Cause of death

Unknown
Death location

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Ida M Chittum lived 12 years longer than the average family member when died at the age of 84.

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Ida M Chittum lived 12 years longer than the average family member when died at the age of 84.

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2 Memories, Stories & Photos about Ida

Samme Chittum

7 favorites

05/03/2025

Ida M Chittum

Author Ida Chittum with Farmer Hoo and the Baboons, one of 13 books she wrote for children and young adults. Her popular Tales of Terror is now available in a handsome second edition and on sale on Amazon, Barnes&Noble and BookBaby's Bookshop.

Date & Place: Not specified or unknown.

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Samme Chittum

7 favorites

05/03/2025

For more insights, check out Ida's website:
IdaChittum.com

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Samme Chittum

7 favorites

05/03/2025

An amazing life story:

In 1970, my mother, soon to be author Ida Mae Chittum, sent the last of five children off to college and taught herself to type at age 52. She got her hands on an old Royal typewriter and sat down to write the stories swirling in her head. She began with funny tales for children. Editors at Highlights and Weekly Reader published her work and rewarded her with small checks that helped her buy a new electric typewriter. She kept writing and publishers kept buying. Soon, she had her own agent with an office on Fifth Avenue in New York City.

She went on to author thirteen books and as many stories and poems for children and young adults, including Farmer Hoo and the Baboons (1971), which won the Lewis Carrol Shelf award, followed by Clabber Biscuits (1972), as well mysteries such as The Hermit Boy (1972) and children's picture books, such as The Cat's Pajamas (1980). Tales of Terror (1975) and The Thing Without a Name (1981) were both collections of short stories, chilling tales of ghosts, murders and monsters set in the Ozarks of Missouri. She became a popular public speaker, visiting schools, libraries and universities, accompanied by her greatest admirer, her spouse and life partner, James R. Chittum.

It was a remarkable feat for a housewife from Findlay, Illinois who had never attended high school. Educated to the eighth grade in a one-room school house in the Ozarks, Ida Mae Hoover was one of ten hardy children who labored alongside their father, a tenant farmer. She did the work of a grown man, culling stones from fields too rocky to be plowed. The only book her parents owned was a Bible, kept out of the reach of small hands. Her only pet was a mule named Leonette, who followed young Ida on her forays into the hills where reclusive men and women lived out their lives with little or no contact with the outside world. There she met and befriended a widow named Sarah. Sarah took her inquisitive visitor to overgrown family plots to introduce her to the dead, whose names were carved on fallen headstones.

Samme Chittum, PhD

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