Interview with Rachel Wenino April 30, 1998

Rachel is a spry delightful lady who could easily pass for 70 instead of her 90 years.

Father - George (no middle name) Burkett
Mother - Pearl Wolfe.

"Father liked to hunt and fish and enjoyed jokes. He worked for the Culver Military Academy for a while, but mostly he farmed. Like most of the Burketts he believed in education. He taught me the alphabet before I went to school. Only problem was he taught them to me backwards. The teacher wasn't impressed and I had such a hard time learning them the right way. Father also helped me with my arithmetic, especially multiplying. It seems he was always helping me more than my two brothers."

"We attended the Snyder School, a one room school house in West Township. My first teacher was Claude Morelock who lived near the Union Church on Hwy 17. 2nd grade was Burley Cummins, then we had Cecil Reed for three years, he wasn't worth a darn. Left teaching after that. Then we had Mable Mills but she left in December (1919) to marry Dewey Overmyer. They wouldn't let you teach after you were married and they couldn't find another teacher right away so we were bused to Stringtown. We'd ride horses of if you lived close you'd walk to the Snyder School and everyone would get on a horse drawn milk wagon to go to Stringtown School. Then we had Ruth Mock. I attended West High School."

"We took a horse and buggy to school. After Floyd left school it was just me and my little brother Bud. I was a freshman and Bud was in first grade. If Bud was sick I'd just ride the horse and didn't bother with the buggy. We had to take food for the horse and there was a barn behind the school where they stayed."

"Lots of the Burketts moved to South Bend, you could find work there. They wanted my father to go there too, but he never would. He enjoyed fishing around Culver and hunting so we stayed here."

Rachel left school at age 16 when her father got ill. The family moved into town and children had to work to help support the family. Her father died at age 54, when Rachel was 18." He wasn't terribly sick long, just about three days before he died. He had some kind of blockage."

No electric in the house until after her father died. Rachel's brother Floyd got some phone wire and used it to wire the house for electricity. "There was just one light hanging in the center of each room is all. Not many appliances in those days."

" Grandma Wolfe had a well off the back porch. There was no refrigeration then. We'd tie a rope to the milk pail and lowered it into the well to keep cold."

When asked about Christmas Traditions in her family she replied "There really wasn't much. There wasn't even a Christmas Tree but I suppose they could have found one somewhere. We had stockings of course. We usually got games. My little brother Bud was born on Christmas Eve and that year I was really mad at Santa Clause cause I had to help take care of him, while Mother helped in the fields . After we were all older we started having a family get together on Christmas Eve, Bud got gypped for his birthday. After awhile we wanted to stop but the family wanted to keep it going."

" I worked at the Basket Factory, in Plymouth and made $8.50 per week. Later I worked for McCords and made big money $6.25 per day. We worked 10 hour days, 6 days per week. The first year I walked to work. I walked faster in the morning, after working 10 hours you didn't walk quite so fast going home. The second year I bought a Ford Automobile. When you cranked it, it would kick."

Rachel and her husband Tom Wenino enjoyed traveling, a hobby Rachel continued after his death. Some of her most memorable trips were to North Dakota, Ireland, Hawaii and Alaska.

Rachel makes the most beautiful hand made quilts. "I stitch them while watching TV. That's why I don't go to bed early."

Among the heirlooms handed down from her grandmother Rachel (Overmyer) Burkett are a hand made Chest of Drawers, a small table and a baking set, hand carved by Rachel Overmyer's father when she married- a Baking Board, Rolling Pin, Potato Masher and a Butter Paddle. She had to explain to me that after churning the butter, it was placed in a wooden bowl and worked with the butter paddle to separate the buttermilk.

Rachel also shared some of the old Burkett photos with us. One in particular was of Rachel (Overmyer) Burkett and her daughters. I commented on the matching watches that were pinned to their blouses. With a twinkle in her eye she said "you don't think one of those girls got anything without them all having one do you?"

South Bend Tribune
June 13, 2000

"Yes, I can, yes, I can"!
True to her motto, feisty 92 year old still mows lawn
Hometown by Ida Chipman Tribune Correspondent

Plymouth -- It was a pretty day at Pretty Lake.

"I think I will put on some shorts and cut the grass," Rachel Wenino said. "I cut the lake side and Jim (her son) does the front."

The lake side has a steep bank.

"No problem," Rachel said, " I wear ice cleats on my shoes to push the mower up the bank."

After that she might drive into town to do her shopping and perhaps go to an appointment or two at the beauty shop or doctor. "I don't know what I would do if I couldn't drive," she said.

A normal day for the petite woman who does everything.

Rachel is 92-- "and a half,"-- years old, she said proudly, " I'll be 93 in November."

Born Rachel Burkett in 1907, a mile out of Culver, she attended West School. When her father died, the family moved into Plymouth and Rachel first got a job at the basket factory.

"That was for the birds" she said.

She next worked at McCords, from 1924 to 1928. Five days a week, 10 hours a day.

"They didn't want to let me off to get married."

She had met Vernon (known as Tom) on a blind date arranged by a cousin. They were engaged for three years before marrying in 1928.

They lived on Lake Avenue for a short while. The Great Depression came and the couple moved in with Pearl, Rachel's mother, on the corner of Bayless and Hogarth streets. Two sons were born, Bill and Jim.

An expert quilter, Rachel made her first quilt top during the Depression.

"We had no money for blankets. My sisters-in-law taught me how. : Now she makes several a year, meeting weekly with a group of like-minded women of the Church of the Brethren.

In 1946 Tom and Rachel bought the Plymouth Gas and Appliance business, operating it until1965. Tom then worked for Bosworth's Home Shop, retiring in 1972.

The couple remodeled a house at Pretty Lake over a period of years, both of them doing the carpentry and painting. They moved there in 1969. On a fishing trip in Canada, Tom said to Rachel, " I'm sick. We have to go home." He died of cancer four months later, Jan 7, 1977.

" I still miss him," she said. " You think you might outgrow it, but you don't."

Rachel worked for almost eight years as a billing clerk in the Plymouth City office when Buford Ohler was clerk. She retired in 1973.

She likes to travel and has taken numerous trips throughout the United States and abroad.

Four years ago when she was 89, she went to England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales. " I loved that," she said. "We had a wonderful time." She goes with Connie Ullery of Lake of the Woods, who packages American Dream Tours. They have been to Washington, D.C., twice, Hawaii, Alaska and the Northeast.

Rachel enjoys fishing and hunting mushrooms. She has been on the decorating committee of her church for years. " I get off of it and they put me right back" she said.

A teacher told Rachel years ago that the phrase " I can't" never did anything.

" I guess that is my motto," Rachel said. "You can do anything if you make up your mind"

And she does.

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