On the day Mary Ellen Stanley delivered her first child, she also had wrung the necks of three chickens, dressed and cooked them.
It was all in a day’s work.
Today, Stanley has all the modern conveniences of the 21st century. But she still likes things done from scratch.
As for freshly slaughtered chicken? “It’s the best you’ll ever have,” she said, making one feel almost deprived to have store-bought goods.
Stanley was born in 1933 to Jessie and Hugh Morrow on their farm north of Moran.
She and her husband, Carl, have been married 57 years. Up until two years ago they lived on a farm between Humboldt and Iola where they raised crops and livestock.
Their five children attended Humboldt public schools. Four of the five remain in the area. They are son Steve, and daughters Carla and Ken Hunt, Vickie and Don Snavely and Connie Rourk. Daughter Paula and Nel Wachholtz live in Papillion, Neb.
Today the Stanleys live in a nice ranch-style house on North Walnut Street East.
“It’s much easier,” Stanley said of in-town living. An attached garage is a big plus. Stanley also traded a voluminous garden for one “the size of a postage stamp,” she said.
Stanley, 77, was born in the depth of the Great Depression, the youngest of four children. A 10-year gap exists between her and the next oldest of the Morrow children.
She jokes that “there wasn’t even a twinkle” in her mother’s eye at the thought of having a child at the age of 40. But she did and Stanley grew up learning how to cook at her mother’s knee.
“It’s all in here,” she said as she taps her head.
“Mother never used recipes,” she said. “I will with something complicated. But most times, things just come out right.”
It’s typical of Stanley to let nothing go to waste. Hence today’s recipe of turkey noodle soup — a perfect way to get another meal of that left-over bird.
Stanley said farm life and big meals go hand in hand. A hired hand or two plus Carl’s parents, Fred and Edith Stanley, made for a small crowd most meals when the Stanleys actively farmed.
