Minnie Doris Distel

GEDCOM Note

From Newspaper article: Minnie was an accomplished seamstress and took pride in making her own clothes. She enjoyed good eyesight and until just prior to her death had no trouble threading a needle. Reading was a favorite leisure time activity for Minnie.

Asked during an interview on the occasion of her 100th birthday what the secret of her longevity might be, she said, "I like people and I have lots of friends. I've always stayed active and kept busy. A light eater, I've always been slender and I don't smoke nor chew nor drink.

Minnie came from a German home and spoke only German when she started to school. The school had double desks and one year Minnie shared a desk with Bill Jerrers, who later became president of the Union Pacific Railroad. She recalled as a girl Indians looking in the windows and her mother making tea for them as a substitute for liquor.

For more that 60 years Minnie, lived at the corner of B and Dewey in North Platte, "My father built this house, only then it was on what was called Spruce Street," she said. She was a member of the First Lutheran Church of North Platte all her life and for many years was active in church affairs. Her only other membership was the Women's Benefit Association.

Among her cherished possessions were a Christmas greeting from Gov J.J. Exon and family and a certificate proclaiming Minnie Hinman to be an Admiral in the Great Navy of the State of Nebraska. They shared a place of honor on top of her china cabinet beside a hand-painted lamp that was a wedding gift.