It Happened in Crawford County: Jeremy Ray & Leann Grau - keeping a local tradition alive

Jeremy Ray is the son of the late Bobby and Sharon (Bloomfield) Ray. They both passed away at a very young age. After Sharon's passing, Bobby remarried Billie (Bloomfield) Witten.

Jeremy was born and raised in Bucyrus. During high school, he took classes in home remodeling at Pioneer where he graduated in 1995. He worked at Baja as the group leader over the luxury line boats and was one of the last few to leave in 2008 when the business closed. Cooper Enterprise in Shelby was hiring former employees of Baja, and Jeremy became a supervisor in the fixtures and cabinet shop. Since July 2018, Jeremy has been working in plant operations at Avita Hospital Bucyrus as a carpenter.

Leeann Grau is the daughter of Karl Grau and Marsha (Schwartzkopf) Grau. They divorced and Karl remarried Bonnie (Beach) Grau, and Marsha married Thomas Gathright. Leeann started school at Mt. Zion and later moved to town and graduated from Bucyrus High School in 1981. It was a special day because she also had her baby, daughter Jesseca. Leeann’s first job, at 14, was washing dishes at Rocky’s Circus Grill, now Baker’s parking lot. She worked her way up the ladder in life.

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Ties to the Bucyrus Police Department, Anchor Swan

Leeann participated in a youth program and dispatched at Bucyrus Police Department. Next she worked at Anchor Swan as engineering clerk, then as an administrative assistant with PIC Inc. — a federally-funded program that provided education and training. Funding ran out in the PIC program, and she was hired at the old jail on North Walnut Street as a corrections officer. She was assigned to work at the new jail on Stetzer Road while it was still under construction to write the jail policies and procedures.

Leeann was later promoted to sergeant and was responsible for the work release and commissary programs. She moved on to Marion Tech for 20 years, starting as administrative assistant to the vice president before being promoted to manage facilities. Currently, she’s working with the Crawford County Board of Elections as an election clerk. Jeremy Ray works for regularly scheduled elections as a "rover," referring to himself as “Rover Ray.”

Jeremy and Leeann met in October 2001 through her cousin Todd Peppard. During the interview for this story, they both laughed and said, “Well, here we are 22 years later.” Leeann went on to tell the story about acquiring the kettle corn stand.

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And then came the kettle corn stand

She was at the Colonel Crawford Craft show in the fall of 2017, along with her mother. They were standing in the rain for the anticipated bag of kettle corn. The busy woman at the stand said they hoped to sell it. Leeann piped up saying, “I might be interested.” Names were exchanged, and her mom, commenting on the side, said, “What did you just do?”

The owner was Jonny Price. and she told her husband, Bob, “this person is Herb and Nellie Grau’s granddaughter, and she’s interested in buying the stand.” Bob was touched. “Oh my, they were the best friends of my parents; you are just like family," he said.

Leeann was not anxious to mention her kettle corn story to Jeremy when she got home, so it remained in limbo until Bob Price called in March of 2018. He really wanted them to have the stand. He felt like they should have it, and he made them an offer they couldn’t resist. They purchased the stand, and Bob taught them everything they needed to know.

"The ingredients are simple ? the right amount of popcorn, oil, sugar, salt and you need to become one with the kettle while stirring," he told them "Most important, make it with love."

Thus, Jeremy came up with their saying ? "Life is salty. Love is sweet. One kernel at a time."

It was supposed to be a hobby!

The business began with local events and a farmer’s market. Soon after, Leeann was shopping at Pickwick Market. Jeremy asked for the owner, Chris Schimpf. Jeremy asked if he would be interested in carrying their kettle corn. Chris said, “I just placed a call to a large vendor, but would rather stay local, so, yes, I’m very interested."

Kinda funny at this point, says Jeremy. This was on a Sunday and Chris wanted two dozen bags of corn by Thursday. Jeremy thought to himself, “I gotta find the boss lady; she’s going to kill me.” But together, they filled the order for two dozen bags of corn.

Things began to evolve and they’ve had many offers from other businesses. It was supposed to just be a hobby! Right now, they only "pop" local events and for Pickwick, which is growing every year. They are excited because Pickwick recently did a video showing "Sweet Thangs"’ as the third highest of all items sold at the Market; baked goods and produce the top two. They are very thankful to Chris Schimpf and all of the customers who buy their kettle corn.

Jeremy and Leeann especially want to thank their family for helping them, including Leeann’s mom, Marsha, stepdad Thomas, and her dad Karl. They couldn’t operate the business without all their help. Go to their Sweet Thangs Kettle Corn Facebook page for more information.

Go online for more of Mary Fox’s stories and photos on bucyrustelegraphforum.com. If you are interested in sharing a story, write Mary Fox, 931 Marion Road, Bucyrus, OH 44820 or email [email protected].

This article originally appeared on Bucyrus Telegraph-Forum: Two Crawford Countians keeping a local kettle corn tradition alive