Joy Gover – 100 years young

By Jean Schurman

Imagine this. In 1917, the United States had just entered World War I. Woodrow Wilson was just beginning his second term as president. The great race horse, Man o’ War, was born. In Butte, Montana, 168 men lost their lives in the Spectacular Mine fire. And in White Sulphur Springs, Montana, on December 16, a little girl was born to William and Mabel Cooper. They named her Joy. This Saturday, that little girl, now Joy Gover, will celebrate her 100th birthday surrounded by friends and lots of family.

The Cooper family homesteaded on land about 30 miles north of White Sulphur Springs near Dry Range. It was a typical homestead life with all of the hardships of the era but also many good times. Gover had three brothers and a sister. Another sister died at seven months old. William Cooper farmed the homestead for a couple of years but then the dry years came and he went to work on a ranch at Fort Lewis.

Whether her father was there at the homestead or not, there were chores for everyone to do. In the spring and summer there was work in the garden, including hauling water during the dry times, weeding, and helping with the animals. Occasionally, sheep herders passing by to summer pasture up in the mountains would leave the weaker lambs with the Cooper family to raise. In the fall, there was firewood to gather and stack as well as harvesting the garden and helping her mother with preserving the produce. The family raised chickens, pigs and cows. With the milk, they made butter and ice cream and even cottage cheese. Although she said there wasn’t a lot to do in the winter, there was still wood to bring in and water to carry. In the evenings, her father read them stories.

Gover recalls being given castor oil, epsom salts and sager tea made from sage beans and water. “Boy, that was awful,” she said.

She also recalled her mother using turpentine and goose grease for a chest cold or a mustard plaster for sore backs and sprains. When she stepped on a nail or a piece of wire, her mother would put a piece of bacon or salt pork on it and wrap it up for a couple of days. She said she didn’t get sick very often but she does remember her sister having a ruptured appendix and having to go to the hospital in Helena for an operation.

Gover began her schooling in a one room school house with about six students. Sometimes they only went to school six or seven months, depending upon how long the teacher stayed. She

walked a half mile to school every day, no matter what the weather.

It wasn’t until the family moved to Manhattan, Montana, that she was able to ride the bus to school. (Although, if the snow was too deep, her father would take her to school in the sleigh.) It was while she attended school in Manhattan that she got all the diseases she didn’t get on the homestead – mumps, measles, chicken pox and even small pox. She said that if you had a contagious disease, they would put a sign on the door and you had to stay in until everyone was over the disease.

The family didn’t travel much but she does remember she and her brother along with her mother and sister saddling up the horses and riding to see her father at Fort Lewis. She also remembers going to visit an aunt but that was about all the traveling they did. While on the homestead they would attend barn dances where they rode in a hay-filled wagon to keep warm. After moving to Manhattan, there was church, parties, picnics, football and baseball games, and occasionally a movie.

After graduating from high school, Gover worked at J.C. Penney’s in Manhattan. She eventually married William Shadone. The couple had three boys, David, Danny and Doug. When David was six years old, he and his father, who worked for the railroad, were hit by a train in Anaconda where they lived at the time. The two died and left Gover with two young boys to raise.

Gover eventually married Ken Gover who had four children of his own: Vernon, Gary, Barbara, and Francis. Ken and Joy then had two more children, Kelvin and Patty. The couple moved around the state for a bit before moving to Victor in 1965. In Victor, Gover opened a cafe on Highway 93 where the current liquor store is. Joy’s Cafe was a hit with the locals and it was here that her cooking expertise came to light. She was especially famous for her pies and even after the cafe closed, she continued to bake pies for restaurants around the area. She said her favorite was sour cream raisin pie. (This reporter can vouch for this pie, it was delicious.)

After the cafe closed, Gover went to work at the Enterprise Merc at the corner of Meridian and Main Street where she was a mainstay for many years at the front counter and stocking shelves. The employees and the owner, Paul Thrailkill, were all good friends and about once a week after work, they would head to the Big Creek Trailhead to barbecue steaks.

After ‘retiring’ from the Merc, she worked at the Senior Center in Victor for a while. Then, Gover went back to school, Victor School to be exact. She worked in the library a few hours a day helping put books back, finding books for students and being a friendly face to the youngsters. She said she really liked working with the younger grades as they always had a hug for her. When she was 87, she fell on the ice on her way home and broke her hip. After her recovery, she came back to school for three more years, finally retiring when she was 90 years old.

It was during this time at the school that she began a tradition for the girls’ sports. Her granddaughters, KayCee and Korrie Gover, and BreeAnna and Brooke Hochhalter, would come to her house for homemade potato soup. Soon they were bringing the entire team and Gover would feed them. Her potato soup was famous throughout the school and often requested by the students for potlucks.

Along the way, Gover did quite a bit of traveling. She went to Tennessee and Kentucky. She also had a ‘grand tour’ of Europe, visiting Norway, Germany and the Netherlands where she said she saw the largest tulips she had ever seen.

Gover has lived at The Living Centre in Stevensville for the past few years in a cute little apartment that has a view of the mountains and numerous family photos spread throughout. She has 17 grandchildren and 15 great grandchildren. Danny Shadone lives in Davis, California. Doug lives in Petoski, Michigan. Kelvin lives in Victor and Patty lives in Anaconda.

The family will gather this weekend to celebrate Gover’s birthday. On Saturday, there will be a celebration for her at the Bitterroot River Inn in Hamilton. The party will run from 2 to 5 p.m. with cake and coffee for everyone. The event is open to the public so if you know Joy Gover, come on down. There will also be music by Still Waters. The family requests no gifts, please.