USA: Two Prairie Village ladies turn 100

. COLUMBUS, Nebraska / Columbus Telegram / January 15, 2009 By Eric Freeman Bessie Irish and Ruth Sherfey have 200 years of experience between them. The two centenarians were greeted as the guests of honor at the regular monthly birthday party held at Prairie Village Retirement Center Wednesday. Nearly 50 people attended. In addition to cake and entertainment provided by accordion player Tony Dolezal, the women each received a birthday card signed by President George Bush and First Lady Laura Bush. Bessie Irish (Zarek) was born in Richland Jan. 23, 1909, and has been a life-long resident in the area. “I always say I was born on the railroad tracks because my father was the railroad foreman in Richland,” Irish said. “Our family moved to a 160-acre farm about 12 miles west of Genoa when I was 3 years old.” Irish attended District 49 country school and remembers the days when the Genoa Indian Industrial School was in operation there. “When I was younger, I walked the mile to school,” Irish said. “But when I got older, I thought it was pretty neat to be the first in our class to ride a horse to school.” Irish said she would ride to school and stake her horse for the day. Later, as more of the students rode to school, a barn was built on school property to shelter the animals. Irish attended country school with nine other students and graduated eighth grade at age 12. “Back in those days you didn’t have to go to school if you didn’t want to, and I didn’t want to go to high school, so I didn’t go,” Irish said. “After the eighth grade, I stayed home and milked the cows and fed the chickens and helped my mother in the house.” Irish said at about the age of 16 she started working in Genoa providing child care and doing domestic work for families in town. She said she was married at 18 to Noah Leslie, a railroad man who was a telegraph operator at the train station. The two had a son named Winford. Irish said when Winford was 3 years old, her husband died in an automobile accident, leaving Irish and her son behind as the Great Depression came to the country. “It was hard, but we got by somehow,” she said. Irish remarried in 1934 to Ross Irish. Ross was a widower who brought three children to the marriage ��” a son, Allen, and two daughters, DonnaLou and Alice. Allen Irish resides in Columbus. DonnaLou and her family live in Omaha, and Alice resides in Florida. Winford is deceased. The couple did not have any other children together. Irish said Ross was a barber all his life except for a short period during World War II. “I remember we both worked together at that ordinance plant in Mead,” she said. “Then after the war we moved back to Columbus, and Ross went back to being a barber at the Thurston Hotel.” Ross Irish died in 1993. Irish moved to Prairie Village Retirement Center in 1997 where she spends her days, watching television, playing bridge and reading the newspaper. Irish still prepares her breakfast and noon meal, and she said she still does all her own “paperwork” and pays her own bills. “I’m in very good health. I’ve got good eyes and good hearing, and my mind is clear,” she said. Irish said her greatest annoyance these days is the cell phone technology. “It seems to me that people these days have to be on their telephones from morning to night talking to people across the country, but we ignore our neighbors across the street,” she said. “At 100 years old, the only calls I get anymore are from people trying to sell me something.” Irish is a faithful member of the United Methodist Church. She faithfully attends the services at Prairie Village. “I have it nice here,” Irish said. “I have good friends here, and I’m never lonely or depressed. It’s next to heaven, which is where I’ll be going next.” Ruth Sherfey (Gustafson) was born Jan. 18, 1909, on a farm near Ithaca to Charles and Emma Gustafson. “I was born on my grandfather’s homestead,” Sherfey said. “He and my grandmother came from Illinois in a covered wagon with six children and lived in a dug-out home when they first came to Nebraska.” Sherfey attended District 30 country school with about 30 classmates. She recalls walking about a mile and a half to school each day. After graduating high school in 1927, Sherfey taught school for a short time and then attended a year of college where she received religious training. Sherfey was married to Lester Sherfey in 1938, and the couple had three children ��” Judith (Judi), Charles and Joy. “After Lester graduated college (at) UNL with his agronomy degree, he worked for the soil conservation service, and we moved around quite a bit,” Sherfey said. The family lived in Oklahoma, Wyoming and several cities in Nebraska. “My husband died in 1979 while we were living in Ogallala,” she said. “I lived there for 25 years, and then in 1997 my daughter, Joy, wanted me to be closer to her, and so I moved to Columbus in 1997. “I remember one of the happiest days of my life was my first day of school, holding hands with my sister on our walk to the school,” she said. “I can still hear the meadowlarks singing when I think of that day.” Another of Sherfey’s fond memories is of the family’s first car. It was a Model T Ford that had to be started by cranking the starter on the front. She said it was a happy day when they got a new car equipped with a self starter. “We got that car with a self starter, and a friend of ours liked to call that a ‘commencer,’” she said. “When the battery would die on that car they would push it down the hill to get it started again.” Sherfey said technological advances in her lifetime are one thing she appreciates the most. “If you divide life into four parts, I’m in the last quarter of my life,” Sherfey said. “This is the best and most enjoyable part for me. Things have gotten so much better since I was a young girl with all the new technology. “My advise is that people should be the best person they can be and help others because by helping others you always help yourself.” © 2008 Columbus Telegram