Dec 18, 2012

Wilma Jean Hendrickson, 83, of Eagle, Idaho, formerly of Davistown (Mt. Morris), passed away peacefully Wednesday, December 12, 2012, in Good Samaritan Society-Boise Village, Boise, Idaho.

She was the youngest daughter of the late Charles Paul and Goldie Lillian Gallatin Hendrickson.

Miss Hendrickson was born March 24, 1929, in Dunkard Township, Greene County. She and her older sister, Harriet Elizabeth (Betty) were raised on the small family farm just up Meadow Run Creek from Davistown. With a lot of hard work during the Great Depression, the family had enough to eat from the farm but had very little money. Her family raised their own hogs, chickens and beef, milked two or three cows, raised hay and a had a large garden. They sold milk, butter, eggs and chickens to buy what they needed at the store in Davistown. She loved hunting for and picking wild berries with her mom and sister. The three of them were picking berries the day the dirt road in Davistown was being paved. Having to cross the newly paved road to get home, they placed flat rocks onto the hot pavement and hopped across the road, buckets full of berries and all.

One of her favorite stories of grammar school in Davistown was how she went two years straight without missing a word in spelling. The kids that had not misspelled a word all semester got a dime at the end of it and they would go off to the general store to buy candy. Many in her class thought that she was “bribed” in order to spell well.

She graduated from the former Point Marion High School. She had several exciting stories of riding the school bus from Davistown to Point Marion during the winters on the snow-covered and icy roads. Most days, they arrived at school, but some they did not. She liked to brag that it was during her senior year at Point Marion that she and her girlfriends would walk into town for lunch and eat hamburgers, French fries and milkshakes. She “topped out” at 105 pounds that year. She quickly dropped back down into the 90s when she graduated and went back to eating real food. She was “thin as a rail” her whole life.

After high school, Miss Hendrickson began working for South Penn Telephone Co. in Waynesburg as a telephone operator, a start of a 28-year career. The last eight years of her working career were spent as an operator for West Virginia University in Morgantown, W.Va. Since she was so quiet, shy and polite, one way or another, she ended up working most of those years on the evening or night shift. She had very little opportunity for a social life, and she never married.

Since Miss Hendrickson never learned to drive a car, her parents had to take her wherever she needed to go. At whichever location she worked for the phone company, she would rent a small apartment nearby and usually walked back and forth. On her days off, her father would go for her and she would return to the farm. All her life, the farm was the place she really wanted to be.

When times were hard, part of Miss Hendrickson’s paycheck went to help keep the farm running, but even then, she managed to save her money. In 1955, she had saved enough money to buy the land across the road from the farm up on the hill. All of the years of her youth had been spent dreading the times during thunderstorms in which the creek would rise up under the porch of the old house where she had been raised. Often times, the water would rise so quickly that it would wash the foot bridge out over to the road and the family would be temporarily stranded. As a precaution at the first sound of thunder, day or night, there would be a “mad dash” to cross the bridge. Granddad Gallatin built her a new house up on the hill and she moved her folks in even before it was finished. From the new home, the family would sit safely out on the covered front porch during rainstorm downpours and watch the creek down below rise and not have to worry about it anymore.

In 1977, it was discovered that she had serious colorectal cancer. It took several years to heal from her surgery. A couple of other related surgeries followed. Eventually, it was decided that she could no longer work and she received disability from the university. She stayed on the farm with her folks and lived a quiet peaceful life.

Her mother passed in 1984 and her father in 1988. In her latter years, she was a member of John Corbly Memorial Baptist Church in Garards Fort. She lived by herself “on the hill” until 1991, when she sold her home and moved to Boise, across the street from her sister, Betty, who passed away in 2007.

Shortly after that, it appeared she was having real trouble taking care of her affairs and taking her medications. After a time in the hospital and with new doctors, it was discovered that she had Alzheimer’s disease, just like her dad had. Her nephew, Thomas Ferguson, spent several months attending to her physical needs and then hired Brenda Hamilton to be her home health care worker. She worked wonders, and Miss Hendrickson loved her. She got back to normal health except for the ever advancing Alzheimer’s, until two months ago, when the partially blocked bowel that continued to get worse led her to the hospital and eventually the nursing home. Miss Hendrickson’s kindness and gentleness was certainly felt by the staff at Good Samaritan.

Throughout all the years she lived in Idaho, all she could think about was the valley, home and friends she had left behind in Davistown. She truly loved living in Greene County. As time went by, her mind was robbed of all memories of her years in Idaho. All that she had left was pictures in her mind of a green meadow with a clear creek running through it, a little house on the side of a hill and green tree-covered hills as far as the eye could see.

Surviving, in addition to her nephew, Thomas Ferguson of Boise, are a niece, Sharon Ferguson Remington of Texas; a great-nephew, Jason Remington of Texas; and two cousins, Eileen Stoneking of Bronson, Mich. and Rebecca A. Turner of Crescent Park, Ky.

Family and friends are welcome from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., the hour of service, Friday, December 21, in Yoskovich Funeral Home, 724-966-5500, Martin J. Yoskovich, funeral director, 300 South Vine Street (Route 88), Carmichaels. The Rev. Bruce R. Judy will officiate. Interment will follow in Highland Cemetery, Davistown. For additional information and to sign the online guest book, please visit www.YoskovichFH.com.