Jerry, left, and Connie Black are volunteers at the Old Jail Museum in Warsaw.

WARSAW — Jerry Black was a reserve sheriff’s deputy for Kosciusko County and was familiar with the old jail before the Justice Building was built. His wife, Connie, always had an interest in genealogy and began volunteering when the old jail became the museum for the Kosciusko County Historical Society.

Now the couple volunteers their time to help the Old Jail Museum.

Jerry was born in Noble County but moved to Warsaw at a young age and grew up in the city. He graduated from Warsaw High School in 1965.

Connie grew up in Mentone and graduated from Mentone High School in 1967.

While in high school and for a while thereafter, Jerry worked at the old Owens grocery store on Market Street in Warsaw. He was a grocery bagger at first and then later an order clerk. Connie was working for the United Telephone Company.

It was the era of the Vietnam War and Jerry was drafted into service for the U.S. Army where he spent two years, one of which was in Vietnam. During his time in Vietnam, Jerry and Connie exchanged pen pal letters. The two started dating a few months after Jerry’s term of service with the Army ended in July 1969.

By March 1970, the two were engaged and were married that same year in September. Jerry, who earned a two-year accounting degree from International Business College in Fort Wayne, went to work in March 1970 for Zimmer in the accounting department that was located on North Detroit Street in Warsaw.

Connie worked for United Telephone until 1972 when their first child was born and she became a stay at home mother. Ten years later in 1982 she began volunteering at the Old Jail Museum. “I did the 1 to 4 shift on Sunday for a while (the museum was open Sundays at that time) but then they closed Sundays and I moved to Thursday afternoons,” she said.

Jerry remained at Zimmer for nearly 33 years, retiring in 2002. He then began volunteering at the museum. “I was a reserve sheriff’s deputy for five years at the old jail (1976 to 1981) part of the time,” he said, noting he was a reserve deputy for 25 years total. “I liked the connection to our history,” he added.

Both Jerry and Connie helped with the Beacon cemetery project where burials throughout the county were documented on the county’s Beacon web page. Connie took photographs of headstones and Jerry helped with the mapping, primarily at three of the cemeteries.

Presently Connie helps in the genealogy library with adding obituaries to the Beacon site and also indexing the obituaries. Eventually genealogy researchers will be able to not only see the headstone information, but also an obituary.

Jerry continues to use his accounting skills to serve as treasurer for the historical society, which also means he is on the board of directors. “I also help with building maintenance,” he said, including moving displays, replacing light bulbs and whatever else is needed.

The Blacks enjoy traveling and have done so extensively in the United States, as well as to Australia, New Zealand, Canada and others. A recent trip was an Alaskan cruise last spring.

They live a few miles south of Warsaw and daughter, Amy Black, lives nearby. Son Jon lives in Indianapolis. Jerry and Connie have four grandchildren.