John Blankenbaker's Germanna History Notes

Note 386

I am a sentimental person who finds many stories to be interesting.  Some of them are only peripheral to the general subject matter of these notes.  The note today is about Lizzie Longnecker (it would appear there were some Germans in her family), who was born in 1889 and died only last year.  When she was sixty years old and retired from farming, she started quilting, which she kept up for a few decades.  Throughout her 106 years, she was active in the Church of the Brethren.

The Church of the Brethren holds annual auctions to raise funds for disaster relief.  In Lizzie's district in 1989, on her one hundredth birthday, there was an auction to which she had donated the last quilt she made.  Perhaps by prearrangement, she was on stage in her wheelchair when the auctioneer opened the bidding, "Who will give me $10,000 for Lizzie Longnecker's quilt?"  A woman nodded her head. "Who will give me $10,200..."  "Who will give me $10,400?"  Then Lizzie's own son called out $10,600 and the bidding ceased.  Lizzie was slightly overwhelmed; she could remember when bread sold for six cents a loaf.

A spontaneous ovation for her lasted several minutes out of respect for her lifelong devotion to her church and to relief activities.  After it was all over, they brought out a birthday cake, large enough for everyone to have a piece.

When Lizzie was 98 years old, she had had her first banana split. "I could hardly get through that banana split", she said.  "I'll never order another one."

At 102 she had a pacemaker implanted to assist her heart rhythm.  The hospital workers gasped, though, when their computers told them that a two-year old person was the recipient.

Lizzie was born a Hershey, as in the name of the chocolate.  The Church of the Brethren is an Anabaptist group given to living simply.