Nancy Weisswasser Hirsch BA ’68
A block of four 22¢ United States postage stamps was printed in 1987 to honor the art of lace making, and one of these stamps depicts dogwood blossoms in Honiton style lace.1 It was designed by Martha Cook alumna Trenna Edmonson Ruffner (BS Pharmacy, ’58), who started making lace as a leisurely pastime in the early years of her marriage. However, as the years have passed, her skill and dedication truly merit her consideration as a master of weaving these delicate fabrics.
Trenna grew up in Ann Arbor and lived with her family for her first two years as a U-M student. “My father was on the university faculty, so it was a given that I would attend U-M. It wasn’t until my junior year that I realized I had missed something while living at home,” she commented. “It wasn’t much different than high school. I just went to classes and came home.”
“Living at Martha Cook was my first taste of campus life, and I relished it. My time there was one of the most rewarding experiences of my life,” she continued. “I met a lot of wonderful friends there and have kept in touch with several of them.”
One of Trenna’s fond memories of Martha Cook is the nightly sit-down dinners when the Chorister would choose a few songs to sing after each meal. She reminisced, “Though I was dating [her future husband] Jim at the time, I wasn’t that keen about getting married. I assumed I’d be a professional pharmacist, and everyone at Martha Cook knew it, so when my engagement was announced at dinner one night, there was an audible gasp before everyone broke into the traditional engagement song. I wonder if that’s still done.”
“I was interested in a health field career for quite a while and enjoyed all my science classes, especially those that spoke to medicine,” she said of her career goals. After her marriage in 1959, Jim began working on his PhD and Trenna became a retail pharmacist to help pay the bills. Looking into the future, she also took some advanced bacteriology classes. However, this all ended when sons Christopher and then Michael entered the picture, though she did occasionally return to retail pharmacy.
When Jim received his first grant to work on his research doctorate at Cambridge in 1963, the Ruff ners began living in England on and off for three years. That’s where Trenna decided to take a class in lace making while her two boys were in school.
In 1964, the growing family moved to the Detroit area. “That’s where I still live today,” she pointed out proudly. “When we moved here, I decided to take a few more classes and became even more involved as I began meeting other lace makers,” she remarked.
Her interest grew to making lace in a variety of styles and techniques, researching diff erent styles, and studying the history of the craft and its unique identities in different countries.
Trenna uses her expertise to teach lace making and submits original patterns to specialty publications. She also belongs to quite a few international lace-making organizations and travels extensively to attend their conventions. “Because of this, I’ve been places I never would have gone otherwise and made friends I never would have even met,” Trenna stated. During her travels, she has visited many exhibitions, seen diverse innovations, and been fortunate to acquire some original old lace patterns.
Outside of lace making, her interests include reading (she is the member of a local reading club), visiting family members in Washington, D.C., and doing the programming for her church’s jazz concert series, which had been started by her husband.
However, Trenna contends that her life is mainly involved with lace. “I honestly don’t know how it happened that I became so interested in lace. I’ve done other handiwork, but this just really took hold. It’s something I just feel I have to do,” she reflected. "I have lots of ideas I want to work on and share. Like a musician, I just have to play.”
1Named for a town in England where lace making was introduced by Flemish immigrants during the Elizabethan Era.