105 in 2025: Centenarian still working, driving…thriving
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On a farm just three miles east of Redding, one of Ringgold County’s oldest residents lives on the farm she and her late husband bought after they got married eighty years ago.
Born and raised in Allendale, MO, Denzil D. Monday married his high school sweetheart, Doris Miller, in 1945 after he returned from World War II.
Denzil had managed to save up $3,000 from the $21 a month he earned early on, and the couple made a down payment on the 90-acre parcel of land Doris still calls home.
She worked as a secretary for the Light and Power company in Maryville, while Denzil took care of the farm.
“He had milk cows, I had chickens, and he had brood sows,” said Doris. “We raised them two times a year. Got to where we sold whole milk, they picked it up here and took it to the cheese factory in Bethany.”
Doris was fairly experienced with milk cows, as she grew up taking care of the milking chores.
“When we came home from school we had to do our chores,” said Doris, “bring in the wood, milk the cows. I was the only daughter who milked. My job was to clean the separator. I hated that job.”
She was the third oldest of nine children, with one older brother and sister, one younger sister, and five little brothers.
“I raised the last four,” said Doris.
She still remembers her mom hollering, ‘come and get this baby!’
Now, she’s the only one left.
“I miss them,” says Doris. “We were poor, but we didn’t know it. There was enough of us we played baseball together.”
They grew up learning to read and write in a one-room school house west of Hatfield, MO; the Lincoln Center Country School. The teacher instructed all eight grades, and each desk was big enough to seat 2-3 kids. While the country school didn’t have very many books, Doris recalls reading all of them.
“I’ve always liked to read,” said Doris.
The school was 2-3 miles from where they lived.
“It wasn’t easy, we had to walk,” said Doris.
Then her family moved northeast of Allendale and were even farther away from school. Her dad rented a room in Hatfield for Doris, her older brother and sister to stay during the week while they were in high school. They would bring a week’s worth of food and their own wood to last them the week.
“We didn’t have any money of our own,” said Doris, “we ate a lot of beans and rice, and plenty of bread.”
Doris attended her first two years of high school in Hatfield, and later graduated from Grant City High School.
She got to stay at home the first year after she graduated, and got a job in Grant City. She rode to town with the mail carrier. Then Denzil returned from the war, and the two got married in October of 1945. He worked for a lumber company for awhile until they bought the farm. She continued working for the Power and Light company.
While they had electricity, they didn’t have rural water when they first moved to their farm in IA. They made a deposit to connect to rural water, and used a well and dug a cistern out back of the house until rural water arrived.
Denzil and Doris had two children. Their son, Jerry, was born on April 25, 1948 in Maryville, and grew up on the family farm near Redding. Eight years later, their daughter, Teresa, joined the family.
Denzil and Doris later sold their farm on contract, and moved to Creston. Doris worked at Walmart “doing the cards” a couple days a week.
Jerry was drafted to the US Army in June of 1969 and sent to Vietnam in November as a combat medic with the 101st Airborne. He returned to the US in November 1970 and finished his time in Fort Sam Houston, TX, training medics for combat duty. Jerry received his Silver and Bronze Star for Valor above and beyond expectations ending his career as an E-6. He later passed away while living in Creston, on August 2, 2012.
Denzil passed away in the spring of 1987, and was laid to rest at Kirk Cemetery in Worth County, MO. Doris lived in Creston until 1991, and their farm defaulted back to her.
She decided she might as well start again, brought a double-wide trailer to the farm and moved back to the farmstead.
Doris Monday
Last September, Doris celebrated her 105th birthday, and is peacefully entering 2025 in much the same way she has the last 30 years.
Doris starts each week driving eight miles to her part-time job at Majestic Packaging just north of Grant City, MO. Her daughter, Teresa, owns the packaging business, and Doris is part of a small team that helps bag nuts, bolts, and other small parts for other companies.
They get a paper that lists out which pieces are needed to assemble larger items, and what parts go together. Doris has worked along side her daughter for the last twenty years.
“We work 3-4 days at a time until we get it done,” Doris says, “then they bring us some more the next week.”
On Friday, Doris goes to Grant City for a bible study..
“I do my shopping when I go to town on Friday.”
Teresa and her husband live roughly a mile south of the Iowa/Missouri line, and stop in to visit Doris routinely.
“They take good care of me,” says Doris, “and I’ve got good neighbors.”
She rents the farm out and her neighbors also check in with her on a regular basis.
At 105 years old, Doris still drives to the Baptist church in Allendale on Sundays.
“They let me have a driver’s license,” Doris smiled.
“I grew up going to church every Sunday morning and evening.”
Her earliest Sunday memories take her back to the days when her family traveled to church with a team and a wagon.
Then they got a Ford Model T without a top on it.
“It was progress,” said Doris.
However, she also remembers the wheels balling up with mud and clay and having to get out, take their shoes off, and walk to the top of the hills sometimes.
Good roads were among the top ten changes Doris has experienced over the course of her 105 lifespan.
“You were thankful you could get some place,” Doris said about roads.
Rural water was at the top of Doris’ list of transformational changes through the years.
She recalled getting a telephone and being introduced to the “party line” which allowed you to call in to Redding so they could ring someone’s line for you.
Doris also listed refrigeration, lights and electricity as notable improvements or “progress.”
She attributes her longevity to being at peace with God.
“I feel like I have been blessed,” says Doris. “I have come to the conclusion that there’s no need to worry because God is in control. I feel like he has guided me all the way.”
