In 1926 she took a job at the tiny Coal Creek Library in Vinland, Kan. Eighty-two years later, she’s still there.
Smith is 102 now. She wears a hearing aid and needs an oversized pair of magnifying goggles to read. She has to bend over so far to walk her eyes stare straight at the ground.
Others might have retired 30 years ago. Not Smith. She still shows up every Sunday to put in her hours at the 400-square-foot, one-room library 10 miles south of Lawrence.
Sure, she took a break in 1944 to raise her only son, Edwin. But she returned in 1956 and has been there ever since.
Loyalty? Permanence?
Let’s put this in perspective.
Smith was working at the Coal Creek Library — founded in 1859 and now the oldest continuous library in Kansas — when the old millennium turned to the new millennium. She was there when the Internet first came online. She was there for Watergate and Woodstock, when the Beatles played Ed Sullivan, and Sputnik streaked across the night sky. She was there when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, and when FDR announced his New Deal. And when the Great Depression brought soup lines and social strife, she was there as well, helping patrons and shelving books in the very same building that still stands today on the quiet Kansas prairie.
She has been there so long the Kansas Department of Human Resources honored her with an outstanding older worker award as the oldest female worker in Kansas.
That was six years ago.
Ray Wilbur, president of the Coal Creek Library Association, said Smith is one of a kind.
“She’s loyal, she’s diligent, she’s always optimistic and cheerful,” he said. “What’s not to like?”
Green grass of home
Smith was born in a white farmhouse on a hill southwest of Vinland. Her mother gave birth to her in the parlor in 1905 — when homes still had parlors. When Smith was born Teddy Roosevelt was president, Oklahoma wasn’t a state, the average worker made less than $500 a year, and less than 15 percent of all homes had a bathtub. But Smith is not only of another generation, those her know her say, she’s of a completely different mind-set.
Mountains? Oceans?
Smith hasn’t seen them. She’s also never flown in an airplane. The farthest she’s gotten away from Kansas is Nebraska.
It might be nice to see an ocean or fly somewhere sometime, she said. But if she never does, that’s OK, too. For more than a century, Vinland has been her home. She hasn’t needed much else. And so it was that Martha Cutter Kelley Smith never ventured far from her prairie home or the library that gave it meaning. For Smith, the grass was never greener than right under her feet.
At 4 feet 11, Smith is not large. But she’s huge in the hearts of those who love her. Jean Moore, who lives north of Vinland, has known Smith for more than 40 years. They met at the Vinland United Methodist Church, where both are members.
“She’s a good Christian woman,” Moore said. “Every Sunday, even at her age, she gives us an update on what our missionaries are doing. She tells us about one missionary every Sunday.”
Likewise, Moore tells others about Smith. One of her favorite stories is when the church got an elevator about 15 years ago. Smith refused to get in it. Even when the church hosted a 100th birthday celebration for her, Smith remained defiant.
“Her sister said, ‘Let’s go in that elevator,’ ” Moore recalled. “And Martha said, ‘You just go on and get in that elevator. I’m going up the steps!’ And she did. She’s a spunky old gal.”
To reach James A. Fussell, call 816-234-4460 or send e-mail to jfussell@kcstar.com.
Chapel Hill Presbyterian Church
Superior Door Service, Inc.
Garden Valley Nursing & Rehab
Confidential Company
@Nyx.CommentBody@