Senior Spotlight: Myrtle Finney
There is a little town in the middle of a widespread farming community in Minnesota called Roseau, up near the Canadian border. That is where my parents lived when I was born. I joined the family on the 26th day of July 1936. I was the fifth child of what ended up being a family of eight children.
The winters were terribly cold in that part of Minnesota and it was hard on my dad’s health. So in the summer of 1941, after our garden froze again in July, my Dad said that it was time to move.
We moved to Klamath Falls, Oregon, where my dad got a job as a carpenter. It was still not a good place for him so we headed south. We lived in Smartsville for a few months then headed south again. We ended up in Fresno. After renting a one-bedroom house for a while, my dad found a nice old farmhouse at 795 Orange Ave. That is where I grew up.
I went to Winchell Elementary, Roosevelt Junior High and Roosevelt High schools. My class was the last one to go to junior high there. They phased it out as we moved through the grades. Roosevelt was one mile from our house, so that was a nice little walk every day.
Living in Fresno was nice. All of us kids liked to go hiking. I especially liked hiking in Yosemite. We raised a big garden and all of us kids did our share of planting and tending the garden. I loved being part of a big family.
After attending the 4C’s business college, I went to work for Roma Winery. I worked in the accounting department for a while, and then they moved me into the computer department. I became a key punch operator. While working at Roma Winery, I met Estle. We dated for one and a half years and were married on June 24, 1961, at Luther Memorial Lutheran Church.
I became a stay-at-home mother after our first daughter Diane was born. Two years after our second daughter, Linda, was born, Estle got transferred to San Fernando Valley. After our girls were grown, I went back to work. I worked for Sparrow Records until they moved the company to Tennessee, then I went to work for Marty Bell Fine Arts. I loved both of those jobs. When Estle started his own company, Goldwood Products, Inc., and the business began to grow, I decided to join him as his accountant. I loved that job, too.
I loved working, but my favorite job was babysitting my six grandkids while they were little. Estle and I retired and moved back to Clovis on Aug. 31, 2006. When our youngest grandchild was one year old, Linda and her children moved to Clovis. That was nice because I still get to take care of the younger grandkids.
My other hobbies are gardening, playing Words with Friends with my sisters, doing puzzles and most of all, dancing at the Clovis Senior Activity Center every Wednesday from 10 to 11:15 a.m.
This story was originally published December 20, 2015 at 1:28 AM with the headline "Senior Spotlight: Myrtle Finney."