SNAPSHOTS

Hardin “Wilkie” Wilkerson celebrated his 90th birthday last Sunday with a party at the Columbia Country Club, where he has been a member for more than 20 years. He was joined by 50 of his friends, including Juanita Sprinkle and Sally Robinson, who planned the special occasion.

Born in Leitchfield, Ky., in high school he played baseball and basketball and continued at Phillips University in Enid, Okla. He signed a minor league contract with the Cleveland Indians and also coached basketball for two years at Enid Memorial High School. After his service in the Air Force during World War II and the Korean War, he obtained bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Phillips University and while there met his future wife, Ravone. They married in 1943 and enjoyed 59 years together before her death in 2002.

The other love of his life was Stephens College, where he spent nearly 40 years working with students and parents. He began his career there in 1966 as director of financial aid and was director of admissions three different times. Between the periods he was called back to the Stephens campus, he and Ravone lived in Dallas for 25 years. While in Dallas, he would travel through Oklahoma, New Mexico and Texas visiting high school students who were interested in attending Stephens. Obviously an outstanding recruiter, in 1988, the H.E. Wilkerson Award was established honoring him for his exemplary service and is now given annually to a staff member or alumna for outstanding service to the Stephens College admissions office. Wilkie retired in 1992; however, he remains a loyal friend of the college.

He continues to be active at First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), where he has served as deacon and elder. Senior minister John Yonker and his wife, Sarah, celebrated with Wilkie along with Marceline Shamberger, Millie Bolman, Raymond and Beuna Lansford, Bill Crawford, Eldon Drennen, Marvin and Royanne Tracy, and Nelson and Lorene Trickey.

A longtime member of Kiwanis since 1949, he attends meetings each week with his friends and tablemates Tom Shrout, Bill Taft, and Lloyd and Ruthanna Turner. Other Kiwanians attending the party were Ray and Jean McClure, Gary and Carol Smith, John and Janice Haralson, Robert and Mary Lu Parks, and current President Jim Bowman, who spoke of Wilkie’s leadership in the club.

 Also on hand for this special occasion were Addison Myers, Ken and Melissa Applegate, Joe and Jane Corcoran, Pat and Lois Daughtery, Al and Alice Delmez, David and Linda Duffy, Don and Gayle Johnson, Roy and Eldora Keller, Floyd and Joyce Marcum, Sharon Lynch, Ron Sterchi, Tom Martz, Ed and Doris Wiggins, and Lynn and Linda Wiggins. Pianist Ken Kehner provided music for the event, and Bill Taft, who was limited to five minutes’ speaking time, welcomed the new member to the 90-year club — no dues required.

Wilkie continues to be a sports enthusiast, supporting the MU Tigers, Houston Astros, Kansas City Royals and St. Louis Cardinals. He also enjoys being part of a group that meets at the Senior Center on Wednesdays “to tell jokes and lies” and every Tuesday and Friday spends time with his friend and companion, Juanita Sprinkle.

He requested no presents for his birthday, saying, “Just friends being there was present enough. That party was one of the highlights of my life.”    

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San Francisco was destroyed in an earthquake, the teddy bear craze was sweeping the country, Orville and Wilbur Wright were granted a patent for a “flying machine,” Kellogg’s corn flakes settled in Battle Creek, Mich., and in 1906 in Missouri, Margaret “Maggie” Jacobs was born near Rocheport. To commemorate Maggie’s 102nd birthday, a little party was held Sept. 9 at The Bluffs, where she is a resident. Special guests were friends Mildred Moreau and Lola Asbury.

As Maggie puts it, she “has lived in and out and around Columbia” for most of her life, except in 1930, when she lived in Louisiana and Tennessee with her husband, Bill, who found a job there building highways. Maggie worked as a shirt folder at Dorn Cloney Laundry before her marriage and later was a cook at Strawn School. When her husband had a truck line hauling livestock to St. Louis, she would drive the 18-wheeler on the return trip so he could sleep in the back on the way home.

After Bill’s death in 1989, she moved from their home in Midway to the Terrace, then lived with Mildred Moreau for six years before moving to the Bluffs three years ago. The couple had two sons, both now deceased.

 One of Maggie’s earliest memories goes back to 1911, when she would travel with her uncle in a covered wagon from Boone County to Cedar County, along with two horses and a buggy, going to help her father on the family farm.

A popular resident at The Bluffs, Maggie knows everybody by name. Her hearing is amazingly good, even over the phone, and she only wears glasses to read, something she enjoys doing every day “because I didn’t have time to read when I was younger.” What are her favorite books? “Ohhh my … the romance novels.”

Whether fact or fiction, at 100-plus, Maggie still finds a way to fill her life with love.

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Snapshots is a potpourri of life on the local scene. You give us the ingredients…we’ll stir them together in this column. To report special occasions, travel tidbits, snippets of even questionable social value or any gossip in good taste, call Irene at 815-1721…we’ll talk. Items may also be mailed to Snapshots, c/o the Tribune; dropped off in the newsroom; or e-mailed to ihaskins@tribmail.com. Include daytime phone number and photo identifications. All pictures will be returned.

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