Fink remembers her home in Allen County
By JENELLE JOHNSON
Family Living Editor
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Register/Jenelle Johnson |
FORT SCOTT — Memories of Easters past and of the years she spent raising her family in rural Moran brought an infectious smile to Ruby Fink’s face.
“Next to my family, Allen County is my pride and joy. It is my home,” said Fink, who moved to Fort Scott several years ago to be closer to her daughters, Irene Kennedy and Marie Barker, and their families.
Fink was born 89 years ago on a farm north of Uniontown. She was the youngest of eight children. “Being the youngest of eight when you are a twin is quite an accomplishment,” she said.
She grew up during the Great Depression era which she said motivated her to become a self-sufficient person.
Fink said her father raised livestock and chickens, planted a large garden each year and had an orchard that provided the family with an abundance fruit with plenty left over for canning.
“We went to town on Saturdays to buy sugar, a product we didn’t raise and the only luxury we could afford,” she said.
Traveling to school in the 1930s would be an adventure to today’s youths, but to Fink it was a long and cold trek to Uniontown.
It was 3 1/2 miles from Fink’s home to school. She and her brothers and sisters rode in a horse drawn buggy with heated bricks wrapped in blankets to keep their feet warm. The children would leave the buggy at their grandparents’ home and walk the final half mile to the schoolhouse.
“It may sound like a scene from ‘Little House on the Prairie’ but times were hard in the 1930s,” she said.
After she was graduated from high school in 1936 she became a housekeeper, working for $1.50 a week.
Fink said she saved her wages and after several years was hired to work at the overall factory in Fort Scott, where she earned $40 a week.
“I thought I was rich when I was making $40 a week. I saved all my money so when I got married we could use the money to furnish our first home,” Fink said.
IN 1941 WHEN SHE was 22 she married A.G. Fink of Redfield in Uniontown’s Methodist Church. The couple were introduced by her brother at an ice cream social.
The young couple moved to a farm they had bought 3 1/2 miles south of Moran where they began a family and raised cattle.
“We lived in the Prairie Rose community and had such wonderful neighbors, who invited me to attend an Open Circle Club meeting with them,” she said.
The club met every two weeks and was a working club of 30 members.
By a working club, she said, “We worked for the hostess whether it was helping her quilt, embroidery, pick out walnut meats or wash windows.”
Throughout the years the club has sustained its membership. They don’t wash windows anymore, she said, but do community service tasks such as take fruit plates to shut-ins during the holidays and assist with bingo games at Moran Manor each month.
Fink has been a member of the club for 67 years. Today, she is an associate member who sends her best wishes to members each month. She does try to attend the Christmas party each year.
“This year’s Open Circle Club’s Christmas party was held in January because of the bad weather and was special for me because my daughters, Irene and Marie, attended with me,” she said.
FINK’S DAUGHTERS attended Prairie Rose School, a one-room schoolhouse about a mile west of their farm, until the it was consolidated with the Moran school district.
Her enjoyment of cooking lead her to a position with the Moran school, and in the early 1950s Fink was instrumental in helping Moran’s school district begin its first hot meal program.
Fink and her husband also established a small catering business.
“I don’t think I could count the number of weddings we catered or how many wedding cakes that I have baked and decorated,” she said.
IN 1987, AFTER 45 years of marriage, Fink lost her husband to a farm accident leaving her alone on the family farm.
Her daughters had moved to Fort Scott to work at Western Insurance Company and encouraged their mother to move from the farm so she could be closer to her family.
Even though her four grandchildren, nine great-grandchildren and one great-great-grandchild keep her busy, Fink’s giving nature still motivates her to find time to volunteer with the Auxiliary at Fort Scott’s Mercy Hospital.
“Mom is a very giving person, whether it is to her family, friends or community,” Barker said.
“I think if you would ask anyone who knows mom they would tell you she has a smile that makes you feel good every time you see her. I know it makes my day a little brighter,” Kennedy said.