Electa Jennie Bickell

When I visited, Jennie was several years older than me, and would take over my care and play with me. (Dr. F. P. Greene)

Jennie is now 91 years old (1997) and still lives in the home built next door to her grandmother Emma Greene Rust's home in Ellicottville. (Note from Catherine Benjamin of Salamanca, NY, granddaughter of Jennie.

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Article from ELLICOTTVILLE EVENTS: Dec 1998

JENNIE ELECTA BICKELL, by Mary D.

Born in 1906, this gentle lady died this fall after living through monumental changes in her society.

From horse and buggy days to landings on the moon, from mail requiring a 3 cent stamp to surfing the Internet, from a poultice on the chest to organ transplants, Jennie had seen it all and had grown with the changes. She knew growth was necessary, and she also bore up under tragedy that few experience. Her husband, Sydney Bickell, suffered a severe stroke and Jennie nursed him for 15 years. She and Sydney had 3 children: Juanita, Florence, and Sydney Jr., but Jennie had to endure losing all of them. Still she found comfort in her grandchildren (nine in all) and her 23 great grandchildren.

As a young child, Jennie lived in Elmira, but when her mother died when she was 1 1/2 years old, she went to Sinclairville to live with her grandparents, the Links. Upon the death of her grandmother, Jennie moved to Ellicottville to live with grandmother and grandfather Rust and Aunt Grace.

She remembers classes in the 1887 building, and when she graduated, she decided she wanted to teach. After training at Geneseo as a kindergarten teacher, she took a position in a country school teaching all grades. "It was awful", she said. Next year she taught first grade

and that was better. She eventually returned to the 1887 building and taught kindergarten for 29 years. No wonder Jennie rarely went anywhere around here without meeting one of her pupils.

Once she retired, she became a full time volunteer. While some are content to retire to a life of leisure, not Jennie. She filled her days with bowling until she was 88, helping residents at the Nursing home, playing Bingo at the Legion post (where she won frequently), spending

time in the Eldercraft shop as well as serving as treasurer. She ran a story hour for children in the Library. A member of AARP and the historical society, she worked with the Alley Katz, and each year sold several hundred chances at the quilt raffle. She worked on Project Christmas and was on the staff of Ellicottville Events. A friend said, "You could count on Jennie. Her material was always turned in on time." One event that still brings a chuckle happened at the first Octogenarian Tea in 1988. Bert Brunell was supposed to bring Jennie and she arrived without her, fuming, and said Jennie was angry because she didn't want anyone to know she was in her 80s. Jennie and Bert were best of friends, shopping together, having lunch at ECHO, going to the Senior Citizens affairs, picking the bus tours they would enjoy; good buddies until Jennie lost Bert.

A POEM WRITTEN in 1927 by JENNIE:

Love is what life is made of

And life is love, you know

So grasp all you can of it

And never let it go