Monday's Internet Edition, September 06, 2010.
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| 100th BIRTHDAY- Audra Shave celebrated her 100th birthday last Saturday at Dove Hill Care Center and Villas with family and friends. She grew up in south Hamilton County. After marrying Pink Shave in 1925, the couple tried to make a living farming here, but with the Depression in full force they found that impossible. They moved to West Texas in 1934 to the “oil patch.” They moved about for a few years from job to job, but in 1939 they settled permanently in the town of Sundown. Pink eventually retired from Exxon Oil Company. He died in 1990, and 11 years ago Audra moved to Hamilton to be closer to her niece Lurine Wilson and her husband Alton (Plank) Wilson. She was able to live inde-pendently at home until two years ago when she moved to Dove Hill. Staff Photo |
The 100-year-young resident of Dove Hill Care Center could probably win a game of Jeopardy just by recalling the century of history she has witnessed.
And when her “giggle box gets turned over,” she sounds more like a school girl than a senior citizen.
Audra Mason Shave was born on June 1, 1908. She attributes her longev-ity to clean living. “I didn’t smoke and I didn’t drink,” she said.
She is the fifth of sixth children – older sisters and brothers Ora, Albert, Vernon and Velma, and younger sister Leona – and what she remembers most about her childhood is the laughter.
“Grandpa came every day to see Papa,” she re-members. “He had to rap on the door two or three times before anyone an-swered. He said, ‘Jimmy’s bunch makes more noise than any other group I know.’
“Mama would be laughing with us, but Papa just sat there; he was a serious-minded person. But once my giggle box got turned over, there was just no stopping it!”
When they weren’t laughing together, Audra said she and her siblings fought.
“We fought for and against each other,” she said. “When we all got to fighting or laughing, it was really noisy.
“We were all spoiled but not like Leona,” she says, recalling her baby sister. “She had a fever, so they would let her get away with murder!”
Velma was only 18 months older than Audra, who was healthy and large for her age.
“A lot of the time I out-weighed her, and we dressed alike and looked like twins.”
The Shave children walked almost everywhere they went. They attended the little country school at Vista Mountain where there were two teachers.
“There was about six of us who started school the same year and finished the same year,” she said. “I think that school went through about seventh grade.”
If they had far to go, they went in a wagon, then they later bought a hack.
“We traveled in the hack until Papa bought a car in 1918,” she said. “Lord! We thought we were rich! We had a lot of fun.”
Audra married Pink Shave in 1925 when she was 17 years old. They were married 65 years be-fore his death in 1990.
“He had to be a good man to put up with me,” she said. “We enjoyed life. We went lots of places. We saw a lot of cemeteries and ballparks.”
One year they went on a car trip with another couple through Houston to the East Coast and back through St. Louis in time to see the World Series.
Pink loved baseball, so Audra learned to love it as well. Even though they didn’t have children, they attended all of the school sporting events.
She also loved doing “handwork” like knitting, which is her favorite. She can also crochet, but says it takes too long, and adds, “I never was much good at tatting, but then I never found much use for it ei-ther.”
Audra grew up in the Baptist church, and they went to Sunday school every week, no questions asked. The kids were taught to follow the straight and narrow path, and the parents made sure they did. They took baths on Saturday night and went to Sunday school the next morning. The preacher only came once a month, but there was Sun-day school every week.
As an adult, Audra remained active in her church, where she almost always ended up with kitchen duty. Is she a good cook? “Why, no, I’m not a good cook! I just always ended up doing the kitchen stuff.” She doesn’t know how she always ended up “on” kitchen duty, but she never learned how to get “off,” and was never pro-moted to greeter at the church.
Audra doesn’t like talking about herself, but if she had advice for today’s generation, it would be, “Always be nice, and obey your parents. Try to be a better person.”
She hopes that she will be remembered as a kind and good person with a good outlook on life.
Judging from the group that threw her a birthday celebration last weekend at Dove Hill, including niece Lurine Wilson of Hamilton, Audra Shave will be remembered as just that.