Keeping good-natured to 106 years
Hazel Frances Hays Cross will celebrate her 106th birthday on December 19, 2021. Hazel currently lives at the Good Samaritan Rest Home in Arapahoe, and enjoys visiting with friends, family and the staff.
Hazel was born north of Edison, along Turkey Creek, in a house her dad built in the country before he was married. They later moved one mile east of Edison to be closer to a school we could attend that provided a high school. She is the 4th child of seven children born to Tom and Nora Hays. She married Leo Cross on December 19, 1931, and they raised five children, Carol Jean, Mona LaRee, Forrest Fredrick, Frank Dean, and Wanda Nadine. She only knew Leo about one year after meeting him at the dance pavilion in Oxford. He asked her to marry him the day before her 16th birthday. The next day they drove to McCook and were married at the Red Willow Courthouse.
For the first six months of their marriage they lived with Leo’s parents, and later moved into a one room house, which they called ‘the little house’ south of the big farm house. Frank, Leo’s dad, had bought a three room house and removed the two outside rooms giving one room to Leo and Hazel, and the other room to brother Ray for his farmhouse. Hazel’s ‘little house’ had a bed and a kitchen stove. Eventually they built a small counter and a cabinet for a clothes closet. In 1937, before the second baby was born, they added a second room, and early in 1939 they moved into the Big House, when Leo’s parents moved into Arapahoe. She recalls that the Big House had two bedrooms, a living room and kitchen and a bathroom with a tub. There was no running water, but they did have Delco batteries for lighting, and were one of the first families to have an electric milking machine. The windmill pumped water into a cistern, and then they could pump water into the house. “In 1951 we put a basement under the house when electricity was available in the rural areas. We couldn’t belive the sight the night the electricty was first turned on, looking out over the whole countryside and seeing all the lights.”
When asked about vacations, Hazel said that when the children were young, they didn’t go on any vacations.”We were so hard up. It was enough just to buy the necessities. However, one time Leo said if it rained onehalf inch we would go to the mountains tomorrow. I looked at the clouds and didn’t think it was going to rain much, so I poured some water into the rain gauge. The next morning Leo looked at the rain gauge and it read 2 1/2 inches. He called a neighbor to ask how much rain he’d gotten and he said 1/2 inch. I don’t think we went to Colorado.”
In 1966 they moved into Edison and rented a house for $60 a month, and in 1971 they moved into the house at 806 6th Street in Arapahoe, which had been her in-laws home. She moved to Prairie Pines in 1996, and has lived at the Good Samaritan Home since 2013.
Relating memories of their mom, Carol Jean and Wanda remember her in the kitchen when she cooked on the coal range. She baked homemade bread three or four times a week, raised a big garden, as well as all the canning she did, all the chickens she dressed and fried, and the cows that were milked twice a day. They recall the milk was used in several ways - they had some for drinking, sold the cream, fed the calves, and made slop for the pigs. “Mom would also make her own butter and cottage cheese,” stated Wanda. All of the Cross children attended District 5 Turkey Creek school and graduated from Arapahoe High School.
Hazel said, “After the kids were gone, we would sit in the porch and wait for a car to come by. We just looked down the road thinking somebody would come.” However, in their years together, Hazel and Leo took a number of trips to California, where son Fred lived and to Oregon and Washington. They traveled to Branson, MO, Georgia, Alabama, Kentucky, Minnesota, New York, Vermont and Pennsylvania. She has seen both oceans, but never got her feet wet in either one.
Leo and Hazel celebrated their 60t wedding anniversary in 1991 and Leo passed away in 1998. Their family has grown to include 17 grandkids, 29 grea grandchildren and 21 1/2 great great grandchildren. The family planned to celebrate her 105th birthday but with t Covid pandemic it was cancelled. As th Good Samaritan Home closes in Arapahoe at the end of this year Hazel will be moving to the Elwood Care Home whe she has a granddaughter on staff. If you would like to send this wonderful lady birthday card, her current address is Hzel Cross, 601 Main St., Good Samarita Arapahoe NE 68922.
When asked if she could be anyone famous who would it be, Hazel replied, “I have no desire to be like anyone else just be myself.” Hazel would like to be rememered for her good nature. She w always happiest when the days’ work was done. She feels her greatest accomplishment has been raising a family, helping with grandchildren and apprecating that she gets to see the great grea grandchildren grow up. Her favorite place is Home Sweet Home. She says, “ like to be away, but I’m always glad to get hoome. Home is where your hat is.
Most of this story was written with excerpts from a unique book titled, ‘Grandma, Tell Me Your Story’, which was written with stories and pictures of Hazel’s life, by her granddaughter, Tracia tenBensel Kennedy.
