DORA HAND
(AGE 105)
Dora Hand Celebrates "Wonderful" Birthday At 105
Dora Hand says she just had “the most wonderful birthday party”.
She turned 105 on July 11, 1998.
She smiles and admits that there weren’t parties every
one of those 105 years, “you know” sometimes there were just cards.
The petite silver-haired birthday celebrant was born between
Illinois and Oklahoma in a wagon on July 11, 1893.
One of five children of Benjamin and Rebecca Hooton, she
came with her family to Missouri when she was about seven. She came
to Oklahoma “when it became a state” and lived in Catale from the time
“it was just a post office.”
The last of the Hooton siblings to survive, she recalls,
“I was just a kid when we came to Oklahoma.”
She went to the Mountain View School, and she remembers
it was “way up on a hill” and hard to get to, especially a hard climb for
the youngest children.
Her teacher was dedicated and kind, and often put the
youngest students (including Dora) on her jenny to ride up that steep hill.
Then Dora and her family moved to Kansas for a short time,
and then returned. “I never did know what became of that jenny,” she says.
“She should have been given a pension.”
Other school memories include lots of spelling bees and
the schools being scattered in the countryside, sot that kids really had
to travel to get there. She remembers a Mr. Lee who had a big wagon
that he used to haul hay, and sometimes he used it to take kids to school.
“I guess my folks were pretty hard up” she says.
She remembers that “I had one dress” and she wore it to
church every Sunday- and to pie suppers and other socials.
There were “lots of pie suppers” back then.
Dora had to drop out of school in the sixth grade to work
in the fields.
She doesn’t think the hard work hurt her. In fact,
she attributes her longevity to the fact that she ate good country food,
and “worked outside a lot.”
She says she plowed the fields and drove horses that pulled
the harrow, and she recommends the same – eat good food and get a lot of
outside exercise.
“It’s good to be outside in the sunshine,” she says.
That best birthday party she enjoyed so much at Claremore
Nursing Home included live music for dancing, tablecloths and balloons
in her favorite color – red – and the presence of 11 family members, including
her daughter, Helen Moss, from Arizona, and her grandson from Washington,
D.C. She danced with him at her party.
She counts among her blessings wonderful
children and the very best sons-in-law – who have been good to her children
and to her.
Dancing has long been a favored activity for Dora Hand.
Her list of family activities includes going dancing and to big family
dinners.
She has enjoyed travel too, including a trip to Canada,
and has lived in several states including California and Kansas.
Dora Hand says she doesn’t do as much as she used to,
but she remains active enough to push the furniture around when she wants
to change the arrangement of her room.
“As long as you think you can do it, you can,” she says.
“When you start to say, ‘Oh, no, I can’t’ – You’ve lost
it.”
“I haven’t lost it yet.”
(Article by Dorothy Willman - Claremore Progress – Sunday, August 2,
1998)
Email: Valerie Hooton
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