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FRONTENAC —
Hard work never hurt anybody, and Josephine Lenassi, Frontenac, is living proof of that. In fact, she believes that’s one big reason why she’ll celebrate her 100th birthday on Sunday.
“That makes her 51 years younger than Kansas,” said her son, John R. Lenassi, currently visiting his mother.
Lenassi is also a walking testimonial to the benefits of having a good healthy breakfast every day.
“I always have oatmeal, a glass of orange juice, half a grapefruit and half a banana,” she said.
She was born Jan. 29, 1912.
“I was born right by Chicken Mary’s in Yale,” Lenassi said.
She was the fourth of five children of Franceska Bogataj Mahorich and Jacob Mahorich, and the first to be born in the United States. Her parents emigrated from the Oberkrain, an area in the old Austrian Empire that is today known as Slovenia. Her primary language was Slovenian until she started school in Yale.
“I still speak a little Austrian,” Lenassi said.
Like many other miners from his corner of Europe, Jacob Mahorich worked in the coal mines. Money was never overly abundant in the home, but Lenassi remembers a happy and healthy childhood.
Tragedy struck in 1926, when Lenassi was 15. Her father was severely injured in a mine accident. He managed to survive another nine months, but finally died of his injuries.
To survive, his widow took the job of janitor at the local two-room schoolhouse. Lenassi remembers her mother rising early each morning during the cold months to start a fire in the potbelly stoves and cleaning the school rooms and blackboards at the end of each day.
In April of 1930, at the age of 18, Lenassi married John Lenassi, a distant neighbor and friend of her older brother Joe.
“We had a short engagement and a long and happy marriage when ended with the death of my husband in December of 1988,” Lenassi said.
Her husband worked for Kraft Cheese for many years and during that time they lived in many places, including Chicago, Dallas and small towns in Kansas, Missouri and Texas. In 1955 they moved to the Los Angeles area and he bought a service station. John Lenassi retired in 1971 and the couple moved to Hemet, Calif., returning to southeast Kansas in 1976.
Throughout their lives together they belonged to the local S.N.P.J. Lodge whenever possible because they loved the food, fellowship and dancing.
During World War II Lenassi went to work for a wholesale distributing company, and the Los Angeles area she worked for an engineering firm which produced diodes and transistors for NASA.
Hard work never hurt anybody, and Josephine Lenassi, Frontenac, is living proof of that. In fact, she believes that’s one big reason why she’ll celebrate her 100th birthday on Sunday.
“That makes her 51 years younger than Kansas,” said her son, John R. Lenassi, currently visiting his mother.
Lenassi is also a walking testimonial to the benefits of having a good healthy breakfast every day.
“I always have oatmeal, a glass of orange juice, half a grapefruit and half a banana,” she said.
She was born Jan. 29, 1912.
“I was born right by Chicken Mary’s in Yale,” Lenassi said.
She was the fourth of five children of Franceska Bogataj Mahorich and Jacob Mahorich, and the first to be born in the United States. Her parents emigrated from the Oberkrain, an area in the old Austrian Empire that is today known as Slovenia. Her primary language was Slovenian until she started school in Yale.
“I still speak a little Austrian,” Lenassi said.
Like many other miners from his corner of Europe, Jacob Mahorich worked in the coal mines. Money was never overly abundant in the home, but Lenassi remembers a happy and healthy childhood.
Tragedy struck in 1926, when Lenassi was 15. Her father was severely injured in a mine accident. He managed to survive another nine months, but finally died of his injuries.
To survive, his widow took the job of janitor at the local two-room schoolhouse. Lenassi remembers her mother rising early each morning during the cold months to start a fire in the potbelly stoves and cleaning the school rooms and blackboards at the end of each day.
In April of 1930, at the age of 18, Lenassi married John Lenassi, a distant neighbor and friend of her older brother Joe.
“We had a short engagement and a long and happy marriage when ended with the death of my husband in December of 1988,” Lenassi said.
Her husband worked for Kraft Cheese for many years and during that time they lived in many places, including Chicago, Dallas and small towns in Kansas, Missouri and Texas. In 1955 they moved to the Los Angeles area and he bought a service station. John Lenassi retired in 1971 and the couple moved to Hemet, Calif., returning to southeast Kansas in 1976.
Throughout their lives together they belonged to the local S.N.P.J. Lodge whenever possible because they loved the food, fellowship and dancing.
During World War II Lenassi went to work for a wholesale distributing company, and the Los Angeles area she worked for an engineering firm which produced diodes and transistors for NASA.
“I was told that some of the items I helped manufacture when to the moon,” Lenassi said.
She’s done a little traveling herself, and took her first commercial airplane flight in the 1950s, coming from California and heading for Kansas City. Unfortunately, the plane’s crew was unable to lower its landing gear, so the plane was diverted to an Air Force base. Foam was laid down on the runway in an attempt to cushion the landing, but it was still bumpy.
“It was scary,” Lenassi said.
But she continued to fly occasionally. Over the years she and her husband traveled to Europe three times and went on cruises to Alaska, the Caribbean and Hawaii.
Her traveling days are over, but Lenassi remains bright and alert, enjoys reading the newspaper every day and is active. She no longer cooks for herself, but insists on doing many other chores.
“I do my own dishes and can still run the vacuum cleaner,” Lenassi said. “I just blow the dust.”
Her son, John, is retired from the U.S. Army. He and wife Odile live part of the year in San Antonio, Texas, and the other part in Europe. They have a daughter, Karin Lenassi.
All three are now visiting Lenassi, and she looks forward to a quiet birthday celebration with family and close friends on Sunday, though she’s not enthusiastic about her French daughter-in-law’s suggestion that a little champagne might be in order for this special occasion.
“I like a little wine, but champagne doesn’t taste good,” Lenassi said.
She takes life one day at a time now, and said she thanks God each day for the gift of this wonderful world and the great and caring people in it.
