A Jolley good time: 100 years of memories celebrated
Nicole Tavenner
Nicole Tavenner
Ken and Barbara Jolley still smile and dote on each other, 71 years after marrying
Nicole Tavenner
Ken Jolley’s life, documented in photos.
Nicole Tavenner
Nicole Tavenner
Nicole Tavenner
Nicole Tavenner
Nicole Tavenner
Nicole Tavenner
Nicole Tavenner
Nicole Tavenner
Nicole Tavenner
Nicole Tavenner
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He can remember when his brothers saw their first automobile and thought it was some sort of devil, when phones were a new-fangled invention and people ogled over the innovativeness of black and white TVs. But when it comes to joining his 93-year-old wife on Facebook, 99-year-old Ken Jolley draws the line.
“He says he doesn’t like any machine that is smarter than he is,” son Scott Jolley explains.
But in the 100 years that will have passed when he celebrates his birthday on July 4, Ken’s found a lot more that he does like than things that he didn’t. And he’s thankful for the century of happy memories that he’s been able to live.
Age has not altered his good-natured attitude. He’s a jokster, saying of the years he lived: “I tried to count them up on my fingers, but I didn’t have much luck.”
Born in Idaho Falls in 1915, Ken’s family moved to California when he was a young boy. He grew into a man and went to college to receive a Wildlife Management degree from Oregon State University. When war broke out, Ken served in the United States Air Force during one of nation’s most trying war times: World War II.
It was during that time that he met wife Barbara while staying with her family in DeKalb, Illinois, during a Christmastime when he was stationed at Camp Grant.
Ken had been a roommate with Barbara’s brother in college. The duo hit it off.
“We did a lot of our getting acquainted through the Postal Service,” Barbara said. “Boxes and boxes of letters.”
The pair was married June 5, 1944, in a ceremony that Barbara remembers as a simple affair, far less extravagant than weddings these days. She did go to “town” in Chicago, to purchase a dress that she later loaned to a family member, but after growing up in the Great Depression, thrift was something that mattered. She went around the morning of the ceremony gathering flowers to decorate the church from her mother’s garden.
“It was just a very simple wedding,” Barbara said. “It was an easy kind of thing. Now it costs these couples thousands and thousands of dollars which I always thought would be a better thing to use to get started.”
The union has lasted 71 years.
“She won’t let me leave the house,” is how Ken jokes that the pair has stayed together. Scott said he has never heard the couple raise their voice to each other ever, even though he knows there were spots in the relationship where they were frustrated with each other.
“They worked it out,” Scott said. “It is a union that was just simply amazing. To me it is special.”
The pair spent much of their early years of marriage on National Wildlife Refuges, where Ken worked.
In Ruby Valley, near Elko, Nevada, the Jolleys “had a really great time,” Barbara said. “We enjoyed being a young couple. It was so far away from Elko that the people just created their own entertainment. You could play pinochle there, and they had these dances that were just the people in the valley. They had these picnics, too. It was just a lot of fun.”
Ken jests that he didn’t like the dancing because he had two left feet, but Barbara knows better. Barbara said people cared about each other in the area.
“The people were amazing,” Barbara said. “We were so amazed that people in the valley came to see how our dog was (when it got bitten by a rattlesnake). They were wonderful.”
The young couple traveled to Pablo as Ken served as the superintendent of Ninepipe Wildlife Refuge before moving to Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge near Monida in 1951. Scott joined them that year.
It was a very rural place with a wood cook stove that Barbara had to learn to use.
“We went there in the fall and were informed that we would be stormed in and should be prepared,” Barbara said.
They rode to their home on an unheated snow sled with an airplane propeller on the back.
“This propeller would drag you through the country on skis,” Ken said. “It didn’t do much good going uphill but it worked on relatively flat land.”
Despite the ruralness, the Jolleys enjoyed life.
“Scott was never sick,” Barbara said. “The manager there was a Christian Scientist and he was quite shocked when we took Scott to get a measles shot.”
The family returned to San Bernardino where Ken grew up. He worked for 23 years as manager of flood control for San Bernardino County. He retired in 1976. During those years a daughter, Lynelle, joined the family.
The duo decided to retire to Ronan 27 years ago to be near friends who had worked at the Bison Range in younger years.
“We really were happy to be back here,” Barbara said, “and get out of the city.”
In their many travels, much about the character of the Jolleys remains the same. Ken had a penchant for working with animals, and jollily recalls being able to work with horses and dogs over the years, with Ken able to recall ones that “talked” or had other neat tricks or personalities.
The couple still gets excited when a rare handwritten letter comes in the mail. Even though Barbara is on Facebook, she says something shared with the entire world doesn’t have the same special feel as something sent directly from one person to another.
Though they have outlived most of the friends they moved to Ronan to be near, the Jolleys still enjoy the community and would like to invite them to join in a 100th birthday celebration that will be at their residence on Terrace Lake Road in Ronan on July 5 at 4 p.m.
According to Ken, there is a lot to celebrate.
“I realize there are so many things that have happened that I’ve appreciated, that I’ve loved,” Ken said.
