“I love the parade, still today,” said Gore. “As kids we would see friends we didn’t see everyday, and friends came from out of town to see the festival. We got free strawberries, and it was a lot of fun. It is bigger now, but it isn’t any better as far as I go.”

After a few days in the hospital, Gore is recovering and hopes to attend the festival this year.

“I always meet family members at Fletcher Park now, it’s so beautiful,” she said.

When she began writing a column in the Democrat Journal about her church and community of Rock Springs, the paper gave columnists paper and a stamped envelope to mail it in.

“”They didn’t pay us but we got a free paper with all the news and information in it,” said Gore.

With technology she mailed it in, until this year.

“People used to call me with their news. I would tell about trips they were on, then when times changed we would share after they returned so people didn’t know they were gone,” she said.

Energetic and active, she enjoys gardening and mowing her lawn. She planted corn before having to be hospitalized.

“I’ve got corn coming up two inches high, if I live I’ll get to eat it. My son and grandson will pick it for me. I’m thankful I’ve got children,” she said.

Her son has offered to mow many times, finally telling her his friends ask why he doesn’t mow for her.

“Tell them I want to mow it, it’s my property, so I will,” she said.

Thankful and blessed is how Gore feels about her life. “God kept me healthy and I give God thanks for everything I had,” said Gore.

Above: Violet Gore with her Rock Springs Church family.

Courtesy photo

While she loves gardening, the mother of five did not like to cook.

“I had to cook all the time. My husband worked on the farm so I made lunch every day. My mother was a wonderful cook,” Gore said.

Their five children are: Sherry Kay Lineman, Donna Diane Goodwin Gibbs, Lelan Ross Gore, Lisa Ann Lester and Denise Sue Ellis.

“I have 12 grands and 37 great grands so far, and more coming,” she said.

She’s had adventures.

 “We were kind of poor, but went to Colorado for fishing every summer and slept I in the back of our truck; there was no money for a motel.”

She also traveled to Italy in 2009 with three of her four daughters to visit her grandson Bob Garrett and his family.

“We went to Rome and to all the historic places,” she said. “I was amazed by all the famous stained glass windows. We had a ball.” 

Advice to people retiring is stay busy.

“Don’t sit down in a recliner and just sit there, get up and do something for somebody,” she said.

Gore was active in the community attending monthly birthday parties at the nursing home, involved in Women’s Home Demonstration Club serving as president several years and was at church about four times a week.

Do work you love.

“My granddaughter Haley Kester came to take care of me today. She said she had a job offer but it really wasn’t what she wanted to do. I told her it’s bad enough to get up and go to work, you need to enjoy it,” Gore said. 

Most of all, she wants to tell people about Jesus. “Ask Jesus to forgive  them for their sins so they can go to heaven with Jesus and me and not to hell where they won’t burn up but they’ll burn forever and forever,” Gore said.