Missouri Webster will be 102 years young on New Year’s Day

Mrs. Missouri Isabelle Webster, probably Marion County’s oldest resident, will be 102 years young on New Year’s Day.
If you make friends like Mrs. Webster does, you pile up a lot of them in 102 years, and it was obvious that a lot of folks like Mrs. Webster from the many who came and went during the time the reporter was talking to her one day this week.
Mrs. Webster has had a full life. It began 102 years ago in Fayette County, just south of Bobo near what was then called Stewart’s Creek. Her parents were Mr. and Mrs. Joe
Stewart. Mrs. Webster, who
had 10 children, nine of whom are still liv- ing, really helped raise some 18 children. On the subject of how to live a long life, she seemed to agree with the idea that the best way is to pick long-lived par- ents and grandparents. Her mother she says was born on “Old Christmas Day” ( Jan. 6), lived to be 94. And her mother’s father “lived several years over 100.”
Mrs. Webster’s husband, known as “Uncle Mart,” lived to be 89, when, active as he was at that age, he fell and hurt his back which led to his death
seven months later. She recalled that hard work has been second nature to her, particularly her husband always insisted on feeding everyone who worked for him and who he happened to see around meal- time. Cooking, there- fore, took up a great part of her time, or what time she could spare from taking
care of the children. In addition, in the old days, children began working in the fields pretty early in life. She laughed at the hardship in get- ting shoes for such a large family as folks used to raise. She re- called that her father made shoes for his
entire family, having a shoe last to fit each foot, and the shoes were put together with wooden pegs. One year, she said, being the youngest at the time, she had to go “barefoot” until nearly Christmas.
She can still re- member her first “store bought” pair of shoes which she got when she was nine or 10 years old. Cooking was done in an open fireplace at her home until about 60 years ago when the first cookstove was purchased. It was such an oddity, they set it up out in the yard to try it out before they in- stalled it in the kitchen.
The main treat at Christmas and New Year was food of course, which usually put just that much more work on the women of the house, but one of the extra treats were the apples, which were picked from their own trees, packed in a barrel with wheat brand to preserve them for the winter.
Mrs. Webster said she had never smoked a pipe, but she does use a little snuff every day. A large can lasts her about one year.
Mrs. Webster, 102 years young, seems to be in unusually good health for her age, but said she did not feel like dancing a jig, and wouldn’t even if she did, because, “I never did believe in dancing anyway.”
The reporter figured Mrs. Webster has been too busy for most of her life to do much jig-dancing... but hard work didn’t seem to hurt her.
Maybe we could all use a little more real hard work without it hurting us.