I Just Happen to be 100 Years Old, That’s All
Faith Kimball Black turned 100 years old on December 19, 2007. Her friends at
Faith’s family was originally in the newspaper printing business. “I was born in northern Michigan on the northern peninsula of Lake Superior, clear up by the Canadian border,” says Faith. “My father was a printer in Pennsylvania before my parents moved to Michigan. At that time, every town had weekly newspapers and my father had his own weekly newspaper in Ontonagon, Michigan. The town existed at that time because of the copper mines and the Diamond Match Company. I guess it was a wicked place to live, with horrible snowstorms in the winter. It was tough times. After about 10 years of that, my father’s health wasn’t good. He had what we called bronchitis. Looking back now, I’m sure it was an allergic reaction to what they were doing in the printing office, but nobody knew about it then. They used gasoline to clean up the hand set type and didn’t worry about ventilation.”
“So at that time, when I was about two or three years old, there was quite a push to move west,” says Faith. The watchword of Manifest Destiny and nineteenth- and early twentieth-century America was the phrase popularized by New York Tribune editor Horace Greeley: “Go West young man, and grow up with the country.”
“One of my mother’s relatives had immigrated to the west coast; my father had a brother who had gone to Alaska. My mother was gently brought up in an ordinary, middle class family and had not been exposed to the world very much, so it was quite an experience,” says Faith. “We visited Albuquerque, southern California, Seattle and Portland. We finally settled in Klamath Falls, which was an outpost in those days. It was a town based on lumber mills, and box factories, and potatoes. We left Klamath Falls around 1920, after WW I was over. We came to the Willamette Valley, and I’ve been here ever since.”
“We settled Independence and my father had a weekly newspaper there. He was there until just shortly before WW II, and then he retired. I went to Independence High School and the University of Oregon, and graduated when I was 19 ½. You know, in those days they had one way of solving some of the crowding in the schools—they just pushed the kids along a little faster!”
“My parents valued an education because my mother had gone to a Normal School, which was a school for training teachers, and taught school in Pennsylvania. My father just had a high school education. Looking back at it, they were most interested to see that I got education. My father told me one time he’d never have anything to leave me, but he’d at least leave me educated.”
“So, after I got through college, I worked a couple of years on our newspaper, but it wasn’t what I really wanted to do. My father said he would give me another year of college, and I said, “Well, I’d like to go to a secretarial college. So I went to Columbia University in New York City. I lived at the International House and I had the time of my life. I’m so glad I did that. It was in 1929 and 1930, the year the stock market fell apart.”
“After I graduated, I wanted to work someplace else other than Independence, but I was the only child, so I came home. I got the job of Executive Secretary to the President of the Oregon Normal School,” says Faith. Oregon Normal School, now Western Oregon University in Monmouth, was at that time a two-year vocational school for teachers. “I was there 14 years and I worked for three presidents. Then the last year, which was the third year of World War II, I took the job of Dean of Women, and lived in the women’s dorm.”
The Corvallis area was home to Camp Adair during World War II, and the servicemen stationed there needed recreational opportunities. So the girls at Oregon Normal School were asked to come to the Camp Adair dances or parties. “Once a week, we loaded one school bus with girls and went out to the dances,” says Faith. The girls really didn’t want to go since their own boyfriends were off to war somewhere, and it was the worst winter we’d ever had. But somebody had to chaperone those girls. When I couldn’t get somebody to go, I’d go. And we had quite a few experiences out there.”
“At that time, there was also food rationing,” adds Faith. “It was hard to keep interesting food on a college campus. We went out and picked fruit at the time. There used to be lots of prunes, and prunes would be left on the ground after they harvested what they wanted. We couldn’t buy the stuff. There was a girl from Dallas on campus whose father owned a fruit dryer. I called him up and said ‘I understand that this is outside of war regulations, but can you help us with the fruit?’ He said, ‘Yes, I’m willing to take a chance.’ Our grounds men went out with a truck that was about to fall apart, and we picked up the fruit and dried them and oh my, they were good prunes.”
Faith had married John E. Black of McMinnville and Roseburg in 1935. “We lived in a small, old, remodeled home until World War II erupted,” says Faith. When John was stationed at Fort Lewis during World War II, Faith quit her job to join him there. Their son, an only child, was born at Fort Lewis. After the war, they decided not to return to Independence, so they moved to Salem in 1946. Faith has lived in Salem ever since.
Faith’s husband passed away in 1992. “We had 57 years together,” says Faith. “We had our 50th anniversary, a quiet affair with friends left over from the same vintage as ours. Then four years ago, my son died of a massive heart attack. It was an unexpected thing, with no warning. But I’m blessed with a very charming daughter-in-law, Ruth, and one grandson, Adrian.”
Faith is also blessed with good genes, in addition to practicing good health habits. “What my husband used to say was, ‘Just do things in moderation’. And I think maybe I was fortunate that I never began smoking. I don’t drink; it’s not in my lifestyle anymore. I’ve always been active. I used to walk and walk when we went camping or when we were out, and that’s the best exercise.
She is reluctant, however, to give advice about being healthy to others. “I really haven’t any advice. It’s luck. My mother lived to be 90, my father didn’t do so well but then men don’t anyway, but he lived to be in his late 70s. I’ve been very fortunate – when I was a child, I had every disease that came along and I haven’t had anything much since. I must have gotten my immune system working early.”
Faith started weaving 60 years ago. She has been weaving at Mission Mill Museum when weaving classes first started there in the 1980’s. Originally, weaving classes and workshops in Salem were located at the Bush House site. “We had a spot on a balcony with the potters working down below so we were well covered with dust. We all went home and made little covers to throw over the looms,” says Faith. “The Salem Art Association kept the weaving classes going until we moved to the Museum, where we have more space.
Faith has been given a special parking space at Mission Mill Museum, but doesn’t always use it—she prefers to walk as much as possible without using a cane or other assistance. “I try to come for parts of three days a week,” says Faith. “After awhile I get tired and I just don’t do as well and it shows. So I quit, or do something else.”
“We have our Annual Handweaver’s Sale the first weekend in October. We have done it for 21 years; now it’s a Salem Fiberarts Guild Project,” says Faith. “There are a lot of talented weavers who can weave the material for clothing and then can make the garments. This is a wonderful place to work because if you want help, one of your friends undoubtedly has had the same problem and can offer assistance. And then you see all the beautiful weaving that the other people have done, and you just get so inspired that you keep going. I think of all of our families and friends who have been supplied with dish towels, scarves, towels, shawls, placemats, and table runners. You can make those for other people but if you have say, 100 towels, there won’t be two alike unless somebody makes them that way. So you have the satisfaction of making things that nobody else has.”
Faith has always tried to have a good attitude. “You have to take things in stride in life. There have been lots of times that were bad and times that were good.”
“I am reluctant about being the focus of attention, because there are many people here who are far better weavers than I am. I just happen to be 100 years old, that’s all,” says Faith. “The last 15 years have been interesting to see what can be done by renovation —piece by piece. It’s a lot to maintain. It’s a miracle that we have Mission Mill Museum, and I hope it will continue.”
