Webster’s Emogene Davis Turns 100 On Monday
October 22, 2016 at 5:01 a.m.
Webster’s Emogene Davis Turns 100 On Monday
By Deb McAuliffe Sprong-
And reaching that milestone certainly hasn’t kept her down.
The North Webster woman lives on her own and, depending on whom you talk to, is “stubborn” (Emogene herself) or “independent” (Tom Davis, who lives next door to his mother).
For example, Tom says Emogene “absolutely refuses” to use the lift chair the family bought her. She prefers to relax in her favorite armchair, and if she wants go someplace, “she’ll just push and push and push until she gets up,” Tom said.
“You just have to get up and go,” Emogene added.
Emogene was born Oct. 24, 1916, in Rushville, and moved with her family to Gas City when she was 5.
“It was a wonderful place for me,” she said. “Back then there was not as many rules or regulations.”
She remembers stopping to chat with her 80-year-old doctor as she walked to town. Her father would give her a nickel to spend at the store, which had a glass case full of candy.
“You can’t imagine how long it took me to spend that nickel,” she said.
She met her husband, Clark, at the skating rink in Fairmount, and they were married March 27, 1937.
The young couple lived in Marion, and Emogene remembers getting by on less at the end of the Great Depression. Clark’s father raised potatoes, she said, so he would give them the “little bitty” potatoes that were left over after sorting. On Sundays, they’d spend 5 cents for a big pork chop.
“Some Sundays we’d go to the restaurant and spend 50 cents for a chicken dinner, but we couldn’t go every Sunday,” she said.
Emogene worked for a time in the Marion telephone office, first as an operator, then as a supervisor. But when she got pregnant, she had to leave her job.
A year later, she says, they called her to fill in on vacations. She had one word for them: “No!”
Tom fills in the rest of the story: “They wouldn’t let her work when she was pregnant, so she wasn’t going to help ’em out,” he said, quoting his father.
Clark and Emogene started the Davis Drive-In in North Webster in the 1950s, “but that was his idea, not mine,” Emogene said. “I hated every minute of it.”
However, the family business “made a wonderful place for the boys to work,” she said. Sons Tom and Dick made $10 a week, “more than any other boy in town.”
The couple started ?Joyland Mobile Home Park in North Webster in the late 1960s, and Emogene helped with the park until it was sold in the 1980s.
“I used to mow the whole park every day but Saturday,” she said.
Emogene is grateful for her long life, but “I liked it better when I was younger,” she said. “You didn’t make as much money but you could do more with it.”
Emogene and Clark traveled to Fort Myers, Fla., every winter for more than 30 years. Clark died in 1996.
She’s kept pretty busy through her retirement. She spent a lot of time crocheting and doing other handiwork. She made Christmas ornaments for all of her kids and grandkids every year, personalizing each ornament with the person’s name and the year.
Emogene is also quite the euchre player. She said she used to play every day at the North Webster Community Center, and now, “whenever we can get her to play, she’ll play,” Tom said. “She’s still got it.”
The family has planned a celebration for Emogene’s birthday from 1 to 3 p.m. Sunday at North Webster Community Center, 301 N. ?Main St.
And reaching that milestone certainly hasn’t kept her down.
The North Webster woman lives on her own and, depending on whom you talk to, is “stubborn” (Emogene herself) or “independent” (Tom Davis, who lives next door to his mother).
For example, Tom says Emogene “absolutely refuses” to use the lift chair the family bought her. She prefers to relax in her favorite armchair, and if she wants go someplace, “she’ll just push and push and push until she gets up,” Tom said.
“You just have to get up and go,” Emogene added.
Emogene was born Oct. 24, 1916, in Rushville, and moved with her family to Gas City when she was 5.
“It was a wonderful place for me,” she said. “Back then there was not as many rules or regulations.”
She remembers stopping to chat with her 80-year-old doctor as she walked to town. Her father would give her a nickel to spend at the store, which had a glass case full of candy.
“You can’t imagine how long it took me to spend that nickel,” she said.
She met her husband, Clark, at the skating rink in Fairmount, and they were married March 27, 1937.
The young couple lived in Marion, and Emogene remembers getting by on less at the end of the Great Depression. Clark’s father raised potatoes, she said, so he would give them the “little bitty” potatoes that were left over after sorting. On Sundays, they’d spend 5 cents for a big pork chop.
“Some Sundays we’d go to the restaurant and spend 50 cents for a chicken dinner, but we couldn’t go every Sunday,” she said.
Emogene worked for a time in the Marion telephone office, first as an operator, then as a supervisor. But when she got pregnant, she had to leave her job.
A year later, she says, they called her to fill in on vacations. She had one word for them: “No!”
Tom fills in the rest of the story: “They wouldn’t let her work when she was pregnant, so she wasn’t going to help ’em out,” he said, quoting his father.
Clark and Emogene started the Davis Drive-In in North Webster in the 1950s, “but that was his idea, not mine,” Emogene said. “I hated every minute of it.”
However, the family business “made a wonderful place for the boys to work,” she said. Sons Tom and Dick made $10 a week, “more than any other boy in town.”
The couple started ?Joyland Mobile Home Park in North Webster in the late 1960s, and Emogene helped with the park until it was sold in the 1980s.
“I used to mow the whole park every day but Saturday,” she said.
Emogene is grateful for her long life, but “I liked it better when I was younger,” she said. “You didn’t make as much money but you could do more with it.”
Emogene and Clark traveled to Fort Myers, Fla., every winter for more than 30 years. Clark died in 1996.
She’s kept pretty busy through her retirement. She spent a lot of time crocheting and doing other handiwork. She made Christmas ornaments for all of her kids and grandkids every year, personalizing each ornament with the person’s name and the year.
Emogene is also quite the euchre player. She said she used to play every day at the North Webster Community Center, and now, “whenever we can get her to play, she’ll play,” Tom said. “She’s still got it.”
The family has planned a celebration for Emogene’s birthday from 1 to 3 p.m. Sunday at North Webster Community Center, 301 N. ?Main St.
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