News, Citizen Profile, Edna Ford Poole, LaSalle Parish, La. ********************************************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ********************************************** Submitted by Craig Franklin and The Jena Times From the Jena Times - Olla Tullos Signal, Jena, LA Oct. 10, 2001, Page 9B Thank You to the Times -Signal for allowing the following to be added to the Archives. A Times-Signal feature "Citizen Profile" A Very Special Salute Edna Ford Poole – Citizen Profile Sheis perhaps the oldest person in LaSalle Parish; in fact, she is even 12 years older than the parish itself. In just a little over a week, Mrs. Edna Ford Poole will celebrate her 103rd birthday having lived through the best and worst times in American history. Mrs. Poole, a resident of Golden Age Nursing Center in Jena since 1996, was born October 21, 1898, at Nickel. Her parents were Jack and Lucy Ratcliff Ford and Mrs. Poole was a self-professed "daddy's girl." "I followed on my daddy's heels," she said during an interview last Wednesday. "My mother passed away when I was two years old so I never knew her to remember her." Mrs. Poole was one of five children, though her older sister died at a very young age. During those early years, Nickel was a part of Catahoula Parish, and the Ford children attended school at the one room schoolhouse located in Aimoch. The family attended church at the old Aimwell Baptist Church, which was located on a hill close by to where the Camp Swan ballpark is today. "They built the church there originally because there was water at that location," said Mrs. Poole's son, Moses. While she was in school early on, they started attending school at the two- room schoolhouse, which was located where Oscar Wright had his store in Aimwell. They soon started attending church there as well."We walked about five miles to and from church and school," Mrs. Poole said. Mrs. Poole said that she learned how to do many things at an early age, such as cooking and cleaning. She said she probably started cooking when she was about 10 years old, and since that time there is no telling how many homemade biscuits she has made. "We had many chores to do," she said. "We'd have to get the stove wood up on the porch, milk the cows, hoe the garden, and cut the grass in the yard with a hoe and clean the yard with the brush broom." Like most families during those years, the Fords lived on a farm and raised or grew most of the food they had to eat. "The only kind of transportation we had was either walking or by horseback," Mrs. Poole recalled. "My dad had a big red stallion horse called Red, and we would ride him." The horse was used for more than just transportation, as it was one means used in hunting wild animals. Mrs. Poole remembers many times her dad coming back from a hunt dragging a hog that he had killed. "When we would kill a hog or a cow, we would divide the meat up so that all the neighbors could have some also," she said. "We didn't have any way to preserve meat, we had no ice or refrigerators, so we had to eat it before it spoiled. In fact, the only time we ever had ice was when it snowed." By the time Mrs. Poole reached her 16th birthday, another Nickel resident had caught her eye. Mr. Jessie M. Poole also lived in the community and on February 23, 1915, the two were married. They kept there home in the same community and started raising a family. Eventually, the Poole's would have five sons and one daughter: Jessie, Levon, Moses, Nelson and daughter Irma. All of the children are still living except Nelson, and Mrs. Poole's only daughter now lives with her at Golden Age Nursing Home. "She was a strict mother," recalled Moses. "Every time we'd leave the house we'd get orders – ‘Don't climb trees, don't go in the creek, etc.' and when we disobeyed, she did the disciplining. We were fed a lot of peach tree tea, getting whippings with cane switches." Although she was strict, her son said her children wouldn't have turned out as good as they did if she hadn't of been. He also said that there were many other aspects about his mother when he was growing up that overshadowing all the whippings. "She was a good mother," he continued, "and she was a praying mother. I remember many times she'd wake me up at night praying." When WWII broke out in the 1940's, all five of the Poole sons were called upon to serve their country. "We probably wouldn't have made it through had it not been for the prayers of our mother," he said. "She lifted up a many a prayers for us." The Poole's made sure their children were brought up in church and taught them the importance of respecting the place of worship. Mrs. Poole was extremely faithful to her church, taught Sunday School for many years, and has one memory that stands above the rest. "When the kids were babies, I use to love to sit out on the front porch and rock them in the rocking chairs," she said. "While we were rocking I'd sing ‘Amazing Grace' and ‘How Firm A Foundation.'" In March of 1959, after all of her children had grown and left home, Mr. Poole passed away. It was a tough time for Mrs. Poole, losing her husband of 44 years, but she put her trust in the one she'd been trusting most of her life – Jesus. Until her husband died, Mrs. Poole had never driven an automobile. Mr. Poole would do all of the driving for the family, but after he died, Mrs. Poole found she needed a way to get to church and to visit family around the community. So she decided to learn how to drive the family truck. So at the age of 61, Mrs. Poole learned how to drive. She drove her late husband's old manual stick-shift truck, with the shifter on the column, around the community doing her various tasks. She would continue to drive for many years in this fashion, despite the fact that she never obtained an official drivers license. Even though she was alone in the family home place, Mrs. Poole did not complain. In fact, she loved her home so much that she would seldom leave. "Even if she would come and spend the night with us, she'd get up right after breakfast and go home," Moses said. Her son said that she has always like living away from "town", and it was extremely hard for her to leave her home place to come and live at Golden Age. In 1996, Mrs. Poole fell and broke her leg. Because of her age then, 98, it was decided that she needed twenty-four hour a day care. And for the past five years she has called the nursing center home. On Sunday, October 21, a small birthday dinner will be held for Mrs. Poole with many of her family members attending. She will officially turn 103. During the century-plus of her life, Mrs. Poole has seen nearly everything change in the world. When she was born, William McKinley was one year into his first term as President of the United States. McKinley was the third President of the country to die by an assassin's bullet. Also when she was born, Murphy James Foster, grandfather of current Louisiana Governor Mike Foster, was in the midst of his second term as Governor of Louisiana. He held that position from 1892-1900. In 1898, Nickel was in Catahoula Parish, as LaSalle Parish had not yet been created. Mrs. Poole remembers when LaSalle was formed in 1910, when she was 12 years old. She has lived through many changes in this country, including the end of the Spanish-American War, World War I, World War II, Korean War, Vietnam War, and the Persian Gulf War. She was living when John F. Kennedy was shot in Dallas, Texas, when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, and when terrorists launched America into its current war with the attacks on the New York City World Trade Center towers and the United States Pentagon. She was also here during the Great Depression, the flood of 1927, the advent of the airplane and most every other modern convenience taken for granted today. To Mrs. Poole though, October 21 will be just another birthday. In fact, she really didn't know what all the fuse was about and why a newspaperman would want to interview her. More than once she told the newspaper that the only reason she was doing "this" was to help out the interviewer. "I'm just doing this to help you out," she told the reporter. "I'm not doing this for the publicity." And that's Mrs. Poole. Never one to seek the spotlight, always content to stay behind the scenes and quietly do her service for the Lord. She says she doesn't know why God has allowed her to live as long as she has, but leaves all of that to Him. No matter what her age though, she'll just keep doing what she's been doing for all of her life – serving her Savior. If you're at the Golden Age Nursing Center next Sunday, October 21, stop by and wish Mrs. Edna Poole a happy 103rd birthday. You'll not only be meeting one of LaSalle's oldest residents, you'll also be meeting one of LaSalle's finest residents. Happy Birthday to this week's Citizen Profile, Mrs. Edna Poole. Caption under Photo: 103 years old…Mrs. Edna Poole will celebrate her 103rd birthday October 21, at Golden Age Nursing Center in Jena. But don't let her age fool you, she is still as sharp as a tack, and doesn't let anything get by her. Read about her life and the many events that she has lived through in this week's Citizen Profile.