Betty schoenbaum biography
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In Loving Memory of Betty Schoenbaum
Wife of the late founder of Shoney’s impacted thousands of lives, dozens of organizations
By Gayle Guynup
Social editor
By Matthew Sauer
Executive Editor
Posted Jul 31, 2018 at 8:50 PM Updated at 8:27 AM
SARASOTA — A philanthropist who gave a collective hug to thousands of Southwest Florida residents, some in person and others through her enormous giving, died Tuesday after an intrepid life.
Betty Schoenbaum, approaching her 101st birthday next month, passed away surrounded by her family.
Whether it was through the thousands of scholarships she has given, the work of the Glasser-Schoenbaum Human Services Center or that of the Salvation Army, there is no doubt about the tremendous impact that Betty Schoenbaum had on countless lives — first through a philanthropic partnership with her late husband, Alex — and later on her own.
Her daughter Joann Miller summed up her mother’s life succinctly: “A century of good works.”
“My mother alway
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Eternal Life Through Improving Lives
The world looked remarkably different in 1918. The United States only just got involved in World War I. Dixieland jazz enjoyed radio play for the first time. Woodrow efternamn lived in the vit House and Montana elected the first female congressman in U.S. history. It was to this world that Betty Frank was born, one of conflict and change, but the coming century treated her well. She was talented dancer and with looks enough to model through college and talent enough to tap at the RKO on Broadway. She went to college and got her “Mrs.”—the mål of the day. She met an Ohio State football player from West Virginin, an All American named Alex Schoenbaum, on the first day of school and would follow him back to Charleston. There, he started a little restaurant that turned into a very big restaurant chain. If the name Schoenbaum never rang bell for you before you came to Sarasota, the name Shoney’s likely did and still does.
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Betty Schoenbaum | 1917-2018: Ohio State alumna, wife of Shoney’s founder helped many through gifts
SARASOTA, Fla. — Betty Schoenbaum, who gave millions of dollars for education and social services as the wife of the founder of the Shoney’s restaurant chain, died Tuesday one month shy of her 101st birthday.
A Dayton native, Schoenbaum met her future husband, Alex Schoenbaum, on her first day of classes at Ohio State University. After graduation, the couple married, and after World War II, Alex Schoenbaum started a drive-thru near a bowling alley in Charleston, West Virginia, that grew into the 2,000-restaurant chain Shoney’s.
Amid the financial success of the restaurant chain, the Schoenbaums became generous benefactors to many organizations, including Ohio State University. Buildings in both the Fisher School of Business and at the Woody Hayes Athletic Facility are named for the couple.
Betty Schoenbaum continued her philanthropy to central Ohio and Ohio State after her husba