Photograph
Catalog Number
2019.1.1036Description
Colored photograph showing the Cumerford Restaurant. The photo shows the outside of the restaurant and what appears to be an inside photo of the restaurant. It is thought the restaurant was located at 27 W. 8th Street.History
Cumerford's Restaurant was located at 27 West 8th Street in 1947 (see city directory). It had been Keefer's Restaurant prior to this time. The 1945 Holland city directory shows that Ralph Cumerford (1912-1989) was manager of Keefer's. Ralph ran Cumerford's Restaurant until about 1974.He lived in Holland at 689 Van Raalte Ave (1967 and 1986 city directories) with his wife Joan. Ralph married Joan Speet (1913-1995) in Holland, MI on 4-12-1935. Both are buried in Pilgrim Home Cemetery.
Randall P. "Randy" Vande Water was born in Zeeland, MI on 3-5-1930 to Bill and Kathryn (Kitty Van Ry) Vande Water. The Vande Waters moved to Holland in 1937. He graduated from Holland High School in 1948 and Hope College in 1952.
He edited the Fort Bliss, TX News from 1952-1954 during the Korean conflict and announced the Fourth Army Boxing Tournament on the Armed Forces Radio Network. In 1948 he started announcing The Holland Evening Sentinel local news on WHTC, continuing through his college years.
He spent 4 decades at the Holland Sentinel working as sports editor, city editor, editorial page editor, and managing editor. Randy also authored or co-authored several books on Holland area history.
During those years Vande Water gave numerous illustrated lectures to civic, church and college groups on various subjects relating to the area’s history. He authored a four-volume series of Holland Happenings, Heroes and Hot Shots, Millennium Memories, Holland the Tulip Town, Zeeland, A Walk Through Time, 100 Years of Hope College Basketball, A Century of Heinz Holland, Holland Furnace Co. and the Holland American Band.
Randall (Randy) P. Vande Water, age 88, of Holland, passed away Friday, June 22, 2018.