Longtime Durango resident Margaret Turnell turns 102 on Monday. Her family, arriving Friday evening and through the weekend, is planning a neighborhood celebration.
Turnell is sharp. She spends her days being “lazy,” as she puts it, occasionally cooking vegetable soups, visiting with friends and family, quilting, and reflecting on fond memories. In her early years, she lived a farm girl’s life in Hood County, Texas. She said she was 5 when she started working in the fields owned by her father, a dryland farmer.
“I did everything that was to be done on a farm,” she said. “We had pigs, we had cows, we had milk cows, we had horses, we had mules.”
Born in 1923, Turnell was 7 when the United States and the world sank into the Great Depression. She said that in all her years, she’s never seen an economic meltdown as severe as the Great Depression, and she never wants her children to experience anything like it.
“That was a bad time for everybody. It wasn’t just us,” she said. “Oh my, that’s been a long time ago.”
World War II brought hard times, as well. She said her family moved around the country during the war until landing in Durango, where she’s lived ever since.
“It was pretty well depressed then, too, because we were rationed,” she said. “We couldn’t buy sugar, we couldn’t buy a lot of stuff. We had to use ration coupons and everything. But, you know what? We managed. We got along. Mama always had a big garden and we canned a lot.”
Turnell said she doesn’t consider her 102nd birthday as significant as her 100th, when her family threw a big party with more than 200 people in attendance. On Monday, she’ll see her two surviving sons, their wives and her grandchildren. She said she is blessed to have so many friends, although a good number have passed away.
“I have such good memories,” she said. “That’s about all we can do when we get this age anyway – is memories.”
Turnell worked at Woolworth’s on Main Avenue in Durango for 36 years. She said her wage wasn’t very high, but she made a lot of friends. Occasionally, she’ll see a friend at the grocery store. But Durango has grown, and so many new people live in town that running into friends at the store isn’t as common as it used to be.
She said she is a longtime member of Overland Church in Durango, formerly Southern Baptist Church.
“It’s been a good life. We’ve had our ups and downs, but that’s just part of life,” she said. “If we didn’t have the downs, what would be the purpose? I’ve seen my good days and I’ve seen my bad days, but we try to think about the good days.”
cburney@durangoherald.com
