Austills in Kansas, cont.

In 1921 the family moved to Lawrence and there in 1928, the last child, Robert Joseph, was born.

Ida was a devoted mother, willing to make any sacrifice for her children. During the years of the depression, when raising four young children was difficult, she did washing and ironing for people because she could do this at home, and she believed that a mother's place was at home. She encouraged her children to obtain the best education possible; she worked many long hours so that her children could have music lessons and some of the other "extras" in life. She always enjoyed music and as a young girl had learned to play the parlor organ. After her marriage, she entered a contest to sell subscriptions to the local newspaper, and she earned the first prize, a piano! All of her children took lessons on this old piano, which served the family for many years. A favorite family activity on Sunday evenings was to sing hymns around the piano.

All her life she loved to do fine handwork. As a young woman, she worked in millinary; she sewed beautifully and made most of the clothes for her daughters. She crocheted many lovely pieces - tablecloths and bedspreads as well as afghans and other smaller pieces. In her later years she pieced together quilts, and took great pride in winning ribbons at the county fairs.

In 1942, Joseph Austill was transferred to Emporia, Kansas, by the Santa Fe. Ida was greatly upset to have to leave Lawrence where she had lived for so many years. But they settled in Emporia and in time made many friends. At the time they moved, Juanita was attending K. U. and Robert was in junior high school. Margaret was working in Kansas City and Maurice was married, living in the South and teaching flying. Ida and Joseph lived in Emporia until he retired from the railroad in 1954. At this time they sold their Emporia home and moved to Eugene, Oregon, where their two daughters were living. Juanita had gone there to teach school, was married and had a small son. Margaret had later moved to Eugene, had married, and her son was born just about the time the proud grandparents had moved.

Again, Ida found it difficult to move, but she soon found a comfortable home and made many friends in Oregon. A great joy to her was the Kansas Women's Club, a group of older women tho enjoyed getting together and reminiscing about Kansas. The Austills found happiness in their retirement years, making a few trips back to Kansas and also to visit Maurice and his wife, Muriel, who lived in Pennsylvania and later in Florida. Robert married and settled in Santa Clara, California.

Joseph and Ida celebrated their fiftieth wedding anniversary in 1962. This was a happy occasion, as all the family were able to be together. Margaret was already ill with the cancer that would claim her in May of 1963. One thing that made the anniversary memorable was the famous Columbus Day wind storm, which did terrible damage all up and down the Pacific Coast. The storm had occurred the day before the family gathering, and didn't dampen the happy spirit of the occasion.

Five years later, in 1967, the couple held their 55th anniversary, a rather subdued but enjoyable occasion. Joseph Austill died in January, 1968, of heart failure and is buried close to the grave of Margaret.

Ida wanted to live on alone in their home, but after about a year she began to have a series of strokes which, though they did not cripple her body, took a mental toll and it became apparent that she was not able to live alone.

She spent the last years of her life mostly in nursing homes; physically active until the last, but her mind was often clouded and she lived in the past. In November of 1975, she fell and broke her hip. The hip was repaired but the surgery and the shock to her system were too much. She died on 10 December, and was buried next to Joseph in the Rest Haven Cemetary of Eugene.

She was a woman who in her younger years was a real bunian dynamo; she could work rings aroung her daughters. She was a perfectionist housekeeper. She had high standards in everything she did. She was tense and high-strung and suffered from high blood pressure but she accomplished more in her lifetime than most people. She took great pride in her children and in her grandchildren; she was the kind of neighbor who was always there when someone needed help.