Photo Record
Images
Additional Images [5]
Metadata
Object ID |
2022.3.8 |
Title |
Mildred Stuchell Rogers (January 2, 1900 -- June 22, 2000). Mildred Stuchell Rogers (January 2, 1900 -- June 22, 2000). |
Description |
Mildred Stuchell Rogers (January 2, 1900 -- June 22, 2000). There are 11 photos attached to this record: 1. Mildred ca. age 10 with bow in her hair. 2. Mildred ca. age 21. 3. Mildred and Jack Rogers wedding portrait, June 3, 1935. 4. Rogers House 1357 Dewey. 5. Jack, Edna, Mildred in sleigh at Rogers House. 6. Baker City transfer of property to Baker County for construction of the present Baker County Library at 2000 Resort, 1970. 7. Library foyer display in honor of Mildred Stuchell Rogers' mother, Edna B. Stuchell. 8. Portrait of Mildred ca. age 70. 9. Plaque placed by Mildred in honor of her mother, Edna Gardner Stuchell, 1970. 10. Portrait of Mildred at ca. age 80. 11. Mildred on her 100th birthday. Standing: Bob Harrell, Bob Jr. & wife Becky, Linda Harrell Mack, Amanda Mack next to her mother Linda, Wannie Mackenzie. On couch: Edna Rogers Harrell, Mildred Stuchell Rogers, her great-grandson Duncan, & his mother Beth Harrell Mackenzie. Mildred Fay Rogers was born in Baker City to John Wesley Stuchell and Edna Brodie Gardner Stuchell on the second day of the twentieth century, January 2, 1900. (See Record 2022.3.3 for more information about Edna Brodie Gardner Stuchell.) (See Record 2022.2.4 for more information about John Wesley Stuchell.) Mildred's public school education began with five years at Tiedemann Elementary School, followed by six years at the Central School (site of today's Middle School). In 1917 Mildred and her classmates were the first to graduate from the brand new Baker High School located on Washington Street. Mildred continued her education by attending and graduating from two years of Business School at Baker Business College located on the second floor of the Shoemaker Building on the southwest corner of Court and 1st streets. Mildred married John "Jack" Beresford Rogers on June 3, 1935, in Baker, when Jack was visiting his home town after over a decade working at National City Bank in New York City. After the wedding the couple made Rye, NY, their home located within a few miles of the border with Connecticut. Jack commuted via train to his work at National City Bank. (See Record 2022.3.6 for more information about Jack Rogers.) On April 24, 1937, their only child, Edna Elizabeth Rogers, was born in Rye, New York. But her parents decided Baker would me a better place to raise Edna. In 1938 they returned to Baker, which became their permanent home. Jack applied his extensive bank experience by going to work supervising his father-in-law J.W. Stuchell's extensive wholesale grocery business. When Mildred was 16 years old, she began playing golf at Baker's first golf course which was located on the east side of town near Baker's first swimming pool with water warmed by Sam'O Hot Spring, named for Sam Ottenheimer, who owned the property. Mildred was a frequent competitor at golf tournaments following in the shoes of her father, who also loved the sport. After 71 years Mildred gave up golf. In her honor the Golf Club declared a "Mildred Rogers Golf Day." Mildred had a playful side. After Mildred and Jack returned from Hawaii, she taught Hula lessons in her living room. She was notorious for telling jokes, especially the slightly off-color ones, which she was still telling in the last three years of her life at Meadowbrook assisted living home in Baker City. In honor of her father, Mildred established the J.W. Stuchell Scholarship for graduating seniors at Baker High School. In remembrance of her husband, Jack Rogers, she established a Professor of Banking and Finance Chair at the University of Oregon. When the Carnegie Library, built in 1910, was no longer adequate as a full-service library, in 1970 Mildred donated $280,000 towards construction of today's Baker County Public Library in honor of her mother, Edna B.Stuchell, who died in 1967. (See attached photo of the Library entrance way.) Mildred also contributed substantially to construction of another important Baker City facility, Sam-O-Swim Center, which opened in 1983. In 1999 Mildred facilitated construction of the Mildred F. Rogers Fellowship Hall, a wing on the north side of the Presbyterian Church. When Mildred's daughter Edna was very young, she would call her mother "Mimi." Gradually "Mimi" became her accepted nickname. Mildred did not like the normal diminutive "Millie." As a young child, Mildred used to enjoy watching two firemen exercise a team of white horses named Brig and Eagle hitched to the city's fire engine come flying passed her house on 2nd Street, followed by a gaggle of neighborhood kids and dogs trying to keep up. After several blocks the show was over and the kids would ride on the fire engine back to the Fire Station behind City Hall. Millie caddied for her golfing father, until, in 1917, she was the first woman golfer allowed to play on the old golf course on the east side of Baker. Not until the 70's did golfer Mildred finally wore a pair of pants. She admitted, "Yes, this is pretty comfortable for playing golf." In 1987 the Golf Club established "Mildred F. Rogers Golf Day" in her honor. Not fond of "new-fangled" gadgets, Mildred resisted getting a microwave, until her family gave her one as a gift. Then she loved it. Mildred loved jokes and enjoyed telling them. One of her favorites: A golfer and his friends were playing golf one day, when a funeral procession passed by. The man respectfully removed his hat and bowed his head until they passed. His golf partner commented, "That was certainly a reverent thing to do." He replied, "Well, after all, we were married for fifty years." Another of Mildred's favorite jokes was no doubt spoken tongue-in-cheek: When Mildred was pregnant with Edna Elizabeth in New York, she went into labor and sat down on the curbside. A policeman, who saw her in pain with her husband bending over her, asked if the man was molesting her. She replied, "No, but he did nine months ago." In the last year of her life, Mildred, who enjoyed holding her recently-born great-grandchild, Duncan Riley, would sing him songs like "Let me call you sweetheart" and "You are my sunshine". Mildred's philosophy of life was borrowed from Will Rogers: "Greet each day with a sense of humor. Laughter is the best medicine for a long and happy life. He who laughs………lasts." |
Date |
July 31,2022 |
Place |
Baker City, OR |