JACKSON WOMAN MARKS 108 YEARS; BELIEVED TO BE OLDEST IN COUNTY

JACKSON -- Before John Philip Sousa composed "The Stars and Stripes Forever," before a San Francisco newspaper published the first comic strip, even before James Naismith invented the game of basketball, Lena Gisi was born in Ste. Genevieve.

She was born in 1889 -- the same year that Gustave Eiffel designed his famous tower for the Paris Exposition; the same year Benjamin Harrison became inaugurated as the nation's 23rd president; the same year that North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana and Washington became the 39th, 40th, 41st and 42nd states of the union.

On Tuesday she celebrated her 108th birthday. Her daughter believes she is the oldest person in Cape Girardeau County.

She isn't however, the oldest in the Southeast Missouri area. That honor may go to Mary T. Kraenzle Jokerst of Ste. Genevieve, who celebrated her 108th birthday in August.

Gisi doesn't seem to mind. She and Jokerst are old friends, having been raised on neighboring farms when they were girls. They haven't seen each other in years.

What Gisi remembers most about growing up in Ste. Genevieve in those days before automobiles were common was walking everywhere they needed to go, especially to school.

"We'd walk a mile to school every day," she said. "Children all along the road joined us when we went by."

She attended Valle, though she says that at the time everyone just called it the Catholic school. The public school was called "the free school" because there was no tuition. The Catholic school charged tuition at the rate of 25 cents a month.

When Republican William McKinley ran for president against Democratic challenger William Jennings Bryan, the school had a contest: Those who sided with McKinley lined up on one side of the room; those who sided with Bryan on the other.

And Gisi?

"The Democrat!" she said.

Bryan lost.

Even when the family did get a car, the kids still walked a lot, in part, she said, because they were afraid to ride in the car with her father.

"He turned every which way," she said. "Eventually he became a good driver."

She still remembers the surprise of World War I, how it seemed to come on so suddenly and how the young men from Ste. Genevieve were sent off to battle.

One of the young men who went off to battle was M.E. Gisi, a boy who had grown up on an adjoining farm. He became a sergeant major in the Army's 12th Engineers unit in France.

When he came back from the war, Lena married him. They moved to Chaffee where he worked for the Frisco Railroad.

"The best thing about the railroad was that we got free passes," she said.

"If he worked five years, he got a pass for himself. If he worked 10 years, he got a pass for his wife. If he worked 15 years, he got a pass for his children."

Lena used to use the passes to take her two daughters to see family in Ste. Genevieve or to shop in St. Louis.

Gisi remained in Chaffee until recently, living alone until she had a stroke when she was 105. Then she went to live with her daughter Venus Frissell in Jackson.

She now uses a walker to get around and both her eyesight and hearing have diminished over the years, making it difficult for her to hear or to read. But her mind is sharp.

Her secret to long life seems simple enough: Don't drink, don't smoke and eat right.

And what does she eat?

"Whatever they put before me," she said.