by Michelle Korgis-Fitzpatrick
copyright October 2002
Irene Murphy, a past resident of Springfield and Clever, Missouri, now a resident of Memphis, Tennessee, was born in Purdy, MO to William Marriott and Effie Lokey on September 4, 1902. She celebrated her 100th Birthday on September 4th.
Her maternal grandfather was the Reverend Jame Lokey who rode circuit for the Methodist church out of the St. Louis Conference. Jame dedicated the Hurley United Methodist Church, August of 1903. Many of her cousins from both sides of the family lived in or around Barry and Christian Counties. Irene lived in the Purdy or Clever area until 1908 when she moved with her parents to Colorado where they homesteaded.
In order to maintain a homestead, it was required the homestead to have a "sod" house dug into the side of a hill. On this land, her family raised horses, cattle, and grew a vegetable garden. During the winter months, her family lived in the town of Springfield, Colorado.
In 1913, Irene's father became ill and moved to the warmer climate of San Diego, California. The rest of the family moved back to Springfield, Missouri where Irene attended school for a while before moving back to Clever. Her father passed away in 1914.
After her father's death, Irene's family moved back to Colorado to live with relatives; She remained there until 1992. While living near the town of Greeley, she married Jack Murphy. Jack sold cars and trucks for a Ford dealer and played the banjo in a dance band.
They had a good life together and raised two sons. Her husband, Jack died in 1977, and Irene moved to Memphis, Tennessee to live with her youngest son, Jim. Irene is proud to be the grandmother of four grandchildren, one deceased, and five great-grandchildren.
Not only has she been a wife, mother, grandmother and great-grandmother, She has also lived through five different wars; World War I, World War II, Korea War, Vietnam War, and the Gulf War. This includes the Terrorist Attack on New York City one year ago. About the wars, Irene says, "I hated them all."
She says that living through the depression years didn't significantly affect her because her dad always had work and they didn't do without. However, her family was still acutely aware of problems other people where having.
When asked what she thought were significant changes in the world since she was a girl, she responded, "The world has become a much more wicked world. The pace of life is too fast. People are too concerned with material things like, cars, airplanes, TV's, space travel and computers."
Irene believes life is too complicated to allow the happiness they experienced as extended families in the early days. But over all, she loves the idea of having been able to live for one hundred years. She's felt God left her on earth for different purposes at different times.
Her youngest son, Jim lives near the retirement complex that Irene now calls home. Her fellow residents in the retirement home, Heritage Place, says that Irene is an inspiration to them to keep on being independent and live a full life.
Irene still recalls her early days in Missouri - she has fond memories of Clever and Springfield. She says that she has led an exciting life and has always felt, "His will be done" and that is what has sustained and nourished her for all of her one hundred years.
(Published in the U.S. Legacies Magazine, January 2003)
