Monday After: Canton woman was pioneer in the Stark working world

Irene Hambach-Blohm of Meyers Lake, a lifelong resident of the Canton-Massillon area, was a businesswoman at a time when it wasn't common for individuals of her gender to be career women.

Model. Real estate agent. Hotel manager. Government worker. Restaurant manager. Now 95, she worked at all those careers, after toiling at other jobs as a young woman at a laundry, for a theater, and in the office of the local telephone company.

"One thing led to another, and opportunities presented themselves," she said. "And I was grateful for every opportunity given to me."

Hambach-Blohm has lived a long life, one filled with accomplishments that would qualify her as a pioneer in the history of Stark County working women. Modestly, she deflects such recognition.

"I've had a lot of people point that out," she acknowledges. "I didn't dwell on it. I just tried to work as hard as I could to do the job."

One job stood out from the others and offers her the most satisfaction. She looks back at the years she ran Bachelli's Italian Villa restaurants in both Massillon and Canton − along with Bubba's BBQ − with her husband, Canton Police Capt. Jim Hambach, as her most fulfilling.

"My restaurants were run by my family," she recalled. "We were in Massillon eight years and Canton for 21. All my family worked at the restaurants at one time or another. It was a wonderful thing. I worked hard, but I got to see my family there."

Began working as teenager

Hambach-Blohm got an early start in the Canton area work force.

Her first job as a teenager was working in a laundry as World War II began.

"Canton Laundry came to our school – Garfield Grade School – and asked for people to work," she remembered. "We weren't even 14, but all the men had gone into service and women had to take their jobs. It was just for that one summer."

As a youth she worked in the entertainment field, working at Deuber Theater while going to Lincoln High School.

"I knew some other girls there," she said. "I worked there through high school."

After graduating in 1946, she was employed at Ohio Bell Telephone, gaining knowledge of utility companies.

"I met my husband there," she recalled. "He worked for Western Electric in the same building and I cashed his paycheck every week."

After she had children, Hambach-Blohm decided she didn't want to be away from home for a full-time job.

"So I got my real estate license and sold estate."

She could work her own hours around the needs of her home buyers.

During her younger years, she also worked in the world of modeling, doing commercial work for a Cleveland television station and appearing in brochures for such local businesses as Diebold.

"It was kind of exciting," she remembered.

Early in the 1960s, Hambach-Blohm became experienced in the operation of golf courses, first working in the office at Brookside Country Club and then managing the course's pro shop.

Then she gained knowledge of the hotel business, specifically the Onesto Hotel, where she eventually was promoted to hotel manager.

Additionally, Hambach-Blohm worked four years for the State of Ohio's Department of Agriculture as a food, dairy and drug inspector.

"I got the job with the state through a customer at the hotel," said Hambach-Blohm. "They were bringing on five women from all over the state and I was appointed from my area. I don't think they ever had women before that. And it was a good wage – a man's wage."

Finally, she turned her attention, with her husband Jim Hambach, to learning and succeeding in the restaurant business.

Family opens restaurants

"In 1977, Irene then used her business experience to open her own business," explained her son, Jack Hambach of Florida, in an email sent to The Canton Repository suggesting a story about his mother for Women's History Month. "She, along with her husband, Jim, who was still working as a Canton Police officer at the time, purchased a small restaurant in Massillon, formerly known as The New Venice Gardens. She and Jim completely renovated the building and turned it into Bachelli's Italian Villa Restaurant."

Their first day sales were less than $50, said the younger Hambach. But that business would grow exponentially.

"Irene managed every aspect of the business such as creating the restaurant theme, kitchen design, creating menus, and she even cooked nearly all of the items on the menu. Jim and Irene took their small startup business and created a restaurant that was so popular that reservations were almost a must, especially on weekends.  The Massillon location of Bachelli's was a very popular spot in the late '70s and early '80s after Massillon football games, especially the annual McKinley-Massillon games."

Irene Hambach opened a second Bachelli's restaurant location on Whipple Avenue NW in Canton in 1983, starting with a small, 10-table dining room, her son noted.

"Later on, she added a larger dining room and the Village Corner gift shop, adjacent to the (Canton) Bachelli's Restaurant building," he wrote. "Eventually, the gift shop was replaced with a country and western themed restaurant, Bubba's BBQ. Irene managed and even continued to cook in the restaurant up until the early 2000's when she and Jim retired and sold the businesses."

Long hours spent at work

In a telephone interview, her son noted that everyone in the family pitched in at the restaurants. "We had other jobs, but if there was a need, if something had to be done, or if someone called off, we stepped up." He recalled his mother always was the guiding voice.

"Mom was in charge. She had the ideas and we made sure they happened," he said. "She always had a project going. She appreciated advice, but in the end, she did what she wanted, and it worked.

"And she was very good at relating to her employees. They were like family to her. She expected a lot of them, but they were motivated (by the way she treated them)."

Hambach said his parents spent long hours at the restaurant, sometimes working from dawn to the restaurant's late-night closing.

"They were absolutely married to that business," said Hambach. "Both my parents were committed to the restaurants. But they found a way to spend time with the family. They pretty much were business and family."

So, there was a feeling of upheaval for Hambach-Blohm when the restaurants were sold in 2002. Her lifestyle suddenly slowed down.

"It was tough to retire," she now admits. "The first three or four years after I retired I couldn't help thinking, 'I should be doing something.' Finally, I got used to it and I'm perfectly happy now."

Activities with family helped her make the adjustment. She has three sons – Jim, Jeff, Jack and Jon – with seven grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren.

Her husband died in 2013 at age 87.

She remarried Paul Blohm, a man she knew from high school, in 2019, but sadly he too passed. Still, the union added two cherished stepchildren, Paula and Barb, to her extended family.

Irene Hambach-Blohm, now 95, can look gratefully back on a career of accomplishment and a life filled with business success.

Inarguably, the lives of individuals such as Irene Hambach-Blohm can be considered the reason why Women's History Month was designated.

Reach Gary at gary.brown.rep@gmail.com. On Twitter: @gbrownREP.

This article originally appeared on The Alliance Review: Canton's Irene-Hambach-Blohm was a pioneer among Stark women