Sidney woman, soon to be 99, attributes health to "staying away from doctors"

Tears of joy fell from her eyes as Viola Christensen sat with her sister-in-law Doris Dickes and niece Terry Kuehn.

Asked by her niece why she was crying, Christensen responded, “It’s my first birthday party.”

But July 4 will be the 99th anniversary of her birth. Christensen came into the world on Independence Day in 1914 in Fordyce, Neb. Woodrow Wilson was president and Europe was on the verge of a war that would spread around the globe.

Surrounded by 25 of her friends and staff at Sloan Estates, the suprise party included three of her remaining relatives: Dickes and Kuehn, with her husband Ray Kuehn. Missing was her daughter, Carolyn, who lives in Colorado. She is coming on the fourth to celebrate with her mother.

Christensen celebrated her birthday with cake and sparkling cider. But she said, “I don’t like that stuff, I want a beer.”

The guests obliged, handing her a Coors Light instead.

Christensen lived in Cheyenne County all her life, attending school in Dalton and Gurley.

She graduated the eighth grade but was not able to finish high school.

Like other farming families, the children were the prime source of labor.

“All I knew is work,” she explained. “I did what a man would do.”

Their needs were basic. Most of the time the family made do with what they had—even if it led to some unusual moments.

Christensen remembered the day she picked corn in her high heels.

“We were so poor we couldn’t afford the low heels, too,” she said. “I picked the high heels so I would have a Sunday pair and be able to go to dances. They were black patented leather.”

Christensen has lived in Sidney since 1947. For many years she worked as a waitress. She had four siblings—all deceased—and two children.

Kuehn remembers going to her Aunt Viola’s home years ago.

“She had Chihuahuas that were mean, but she is my sweetheart aunt,” Kuehn said.

Christensen attributes health and longevity to “cooking for myself and staying away from doctors and medicine and eating common food.”