Latah County
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Mrs. Happie Wilson, who would have been 106 years old March 1, died Monday,
February 23, at the Paradise Villa in Moscow, where she had been a resident for
the past 16 years. She was Latah County's oldest citizen and also one of the
eldest persons in the state and nation.
She had been a member of the
Genesee community since 1903.
Mrs. Wilson was born March 1, 1870, at
Masontown, Pennsylvania, the daughter of David and Mary (Stahl) Mason. She came
to the Genesee area in 1900 staying with relatives who were homesteading near
the Lewiston Hill.
It was shortly thereafter that she met a Genesee
farmer, Milton Wilson and the two were married in Genesee October 28, 1903. The
couple set up housekeeping on the old Church place which is now owned and farmed
by Jim Busch, and then in 1912 they bought the Charles Spurbeck farm house east
of town where their son Lloyd now lives. Mr. Wilson farmed until his sudden
death from a heart attack in 1935. She continued to stay on at the farm for
several years and then purchased a home in the east part of Genesee where she
lived until 1955 when she built a new home one block north of Main Street.
Mrs. Wilson's life centered around her family and her church, The Genesee
Community Church. She was an active member of the church since its organization
and also was active in the Women's Fellowship. Rev. Melford Knight, a former
pastor, made his home with Mrs. Wilson for many years.
She was the mother
of two sons, Frank H. Wilson, who owned and operated Wilson's Drug Store until
his death in 1967, and Lloyd, who farms east of Genesee. Other survivors are
four grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.
It is difficult to accept the fact that Mrs. Wilson is gone, even
though she had lived in the nursing home for the past 16 years, those who knew
her and had felt the strength of her character and charm just somehow seemed to
assume that "Happie is just over to Moscow for a while and will be back soon."
At least that was the case for myself, for I had been her neighbor for several
years.
She was really a remarkable lady and, to use a much overused term,
to know her was to love her. She was well past 80 when she built the house close
to town and she took as much pride and interest in it as a young girl. She
worked in the yard and her small flower garden each day the weather and seasons
would permit and even would attempt to mow her yard if someone wasn't there to
take over the job. She fell and broke her hip the first time while moving garden
hose while watering her lawn. A lot of the time she'd get upset with you if you
tried to do too much for her or if someone told her "maybe youd' [sic] better
not do that Mrs. Wilson."
A flood of memories come back when you think of
Mrs. Wilson...I could never bring myself to call her "Happie"...I remember the
old 1935 Plymouth coupe she drove until about 1955 when her eyesight became too
poor. The town breathed a sigh of relief when she gave up driving; she respected
very few stop signs and absolutely no curbs. You just saw her coming and reacted
accordingly.
She was always keenly interested in what went on in both the
town and the world and she'd often stop me on my way home to talk about
everything from the high school ball team to politics. That was another
remarkable trait of her's [sic], she never lived in the past as so many older
people do, she always had ideas about the present and plans for the future.
But maybe the remembrance of Mrs. Wilson that will always remain with me and
was typical of what kind of person she really was, concerned a big, worthless
stray dog that came around the house one day. Animals often seem to have this
instinctive ability to discover good, kindly people, and the dog recognized this
quality in Mrs. Wilson, who promptly name him "Hobo" and cared and loved him as
she did all of God's creatures. In turn, this animal reacted to Happie Wilson as
everyone else did, he loved and respected her. Old "Hobo" is gone and now so is
Mrs. Wilson. But the love those remaining have for her and her memory will be
with us for a long, long time.
--Bill
Funeral services
were held Thursday afternoon at 2:00 p.m. from the Community church with the
Rev. Bryce McProud officiating.
Larry Gee, soloist will sing, "Crossing
the Bar," and "It Is No Secret," accompanied by organist Charlotte Johnson.
Pallbearers will be Kenneth Aherin, Thor Gilje, Everett Wishard, Glen
Brazier, Chester Qualey, and John Baldus.
Honorary: Wayne Hampton, Elmer
Kraut, Ernest Qualey, Henry Schlueter, Michael Dwyer, Ed. Bielenberg, Lloyd
Esser, Gene Grieser, Wm. A. Roth, Dan Aherin, Wayne Roach, and Don Jain, of
Bovill.
Burial in Genesee City cemetery.
Shorts of Moscow are
[sic] in charge of the arrangements.
Unknown newspaper, Thursday, February 26, 1976
Transcribed by Jill Leonard Nock
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