Theodora “Tippy” Bach was born at home in Solders Grove, a small village in rural Wisconsin on October 16, 1918.  Being a second generation immigrant, she spoke Norwegian the first six years of her life.  An honors student throughout, she worked her way through LaCrosse state teaching college, where she met her husband of 68 years, Jacob Bach, in the school’s theater company. She married Jake in 1942 and then suffered through the horror of WWII, not knowing if her husband would return. She was one of the “Rosie the Riveters” who did her part for the war effort while her husband flew patrols in the Pacific Theater. In 1951, Tippy and Jake moved to Carbondale, Illinois where she continued to raised her family. She was active in the Garden Club and served as a life-long member of the Beta Sigma Phi Sorority. In 1961, she earned a Master’s degree in Speech Pathology from SIU-C. She then commuted to three different grade schools, assisting children with speech defects as a district wide Speech Pathologist. In 1964 she took a job a high school English teacher and as a coach for the speech and debate teams. When Tippy retired, she and her husband literally traveled the world from the Far East to the entire European continent. Tippy lived to the ripe old age of 100 years, six months, and two days.