The Skyland post. [volume] (West Jefferson, N.C.) 193?-1988, 1935-01-24
Woman, 1O8 Years Old,
Likes & Good Old Ways


Malone, N. High up in the
snow-clad hills Of Dickinson there
lives an old lady who has just cele-
brated the 1OSth anniversary of her
birth.
Mrs. Joseph Gokey is believed to be
the lost living dauhter of the Ameri-
can Revolution in New York state.
Her father wore the red jacket of the
British.
Warmly enthroned in a great bed,
with a CHEEKY fire cracking in an
old-fashioned box stove, she received
on this birthday the fluctuations of
most Of her 142 living descendants,
incfuding f6 Of the 18th generation.
A visitor who is ushered into the
presence of Mrs. Gokey receives at
once the impression that here is a
pioneer type, woman of the soil, a
woman who not only helped to clear
the land but who performed every
single farm operation herself. Yet
through all her toll and worry she
has retained a sparkle of humor at
108, a zest in life, a keen interest in
the everyday doings of herchildren
and their children.
"You want to take my picture ?"
The centenarian had been awakened
gently from mid-afternoon MAJ" My
goodness, what for? Who wants to
see this old facet"
Then she beckoned to a grand
daughter and whispered in her ear.
She wanted to primp up bit for the
picture. She was demanding her best
lace cap!
Mrs. Gokey is broad-minded per-
son but she draws the line on flap
pers. Let none of her grandchildren
approach her. bedside with telltale
smears of lipstick!
eve never believed in painting my
face" she said. "And I don't care for
bobbed hair. / think when a woman
paints her face and cuts her hair she
loses something of her womanhood."
Then she smiled. "But I guess I'm
too old-fashioned for these times"
Her father, Barthelme Lareau, liv-
ed to 116. Mrs. Gokey was born in
Rouses Point, N. Y, in 1927. She was
born on the American side of the
northern boundary only because her
Canadian parents, then in the midst
of a series of frontier skirmishes,
CHANGED to be there.
Barthelme Lareau was one of those
sturdy Canadians who fought the ad-
vance of Montgomery and Arnold in
to Quebec. Mrs. Gokey was asked if
her father ever fought on the Ameri-
can side.
"No, he wore the red jacket" she
replied. "But his brother, Uncle John,
fought with General Philip Schuyler
and took part in the deafeat of Bur-
goyne."
She recalls wildly hearing her par
ents tell about those stirring days.
They lived in log cabin, and return
ing to it after the war, they picked
two quarts of lead bullets from the
logs. She married Joseph Gokey at
LaColle, Quebec, when she was Is,
and they started on trek across the
northern wilderness requiring 10 days
by ox-team. There were only a fur
trading post at Chateaugay, oldest
town in Franklin county. When they
reached Dickinson, they settled on
what is still the Kokey place.
Up to about three years ago, Mrs.
Gokey insisted on being active. She
knitted socks for her son and did
other little tasks. In summer she is
able to move about a bit, but in win
ter, as a precaution, she remains in
OCus uC1 AuCAALU1y 10 1Ciu0Ah0OAy SACoAs
Her eyesight is good; she has never
worn eyeglasses.
She has never heard a radio or seen
a movie. One of her greatest thrills
was to see an airplane wingling its
way over the land to which she came
by ox-team.
Mrs. Gokey was glad to see prohi-
bition repealed.
II was opposed to it from the
start" she said. "There was lots more
drunkenness than there was before
prohibition and much more hypocrisy.
/ can remember" she smiled, "when
good liquor sold for 40 cents gal
lon"
Mrs. Gokey gave birth to 10 chill
dren, and there are five surviving,
George, Dennis, Milford and Frank