Thursday, May 27, 1920

                                                                   CELEBRATION OF BIRTHDAY

       Mrs. Arthur Banks, at her home on Oak Street in Nevada, celebrated last Friday, May 21st, the eightieth birthday of her mother, Mrs. Anna Mary Burkhart.  The occasion took the form of a one-o'clock luncheon served to   a goodly number of relatives and friends.  The relatives present were the three daughters of the honored lady - Mrs. Jessie N. Smith of Ames, Mrs. Grace Farber of Dexter, Minn., and the Hostess, Mrs. Arthur Banks of Nevada, and the sister-in-law, Mrs. Frank Albaugh, likewise of Nevada.   Other quests were the old friends, Mesdames Bamberger, English, Benjamin, Clara McCall, Susan Beatty, N. M. Confare and W. P. Payne. Mrs. Burkhart, in good health and cheer, presided with dignity and skill.   She gave to the one guest who was her senior in years, the place opposite her own; her daughters served, and interested, chatty friends looked into one another's faces across a beautifully appointed cake on which burned eighty candles.  The repast was abundant and delicious; gladness ruled and flowers from near and afar tokened the congratulations of the hour.
      The congratulations, though informal, were hearty and sincere, as they were entitled to be.   Anna Mary Albaugh, born of sturdy lineage on the eastern slope of the Alleghenies in Pennsylvania, had traveled safely and happily, a long way in both time and place.   She was the firstling of a flock, which after a while numbered then, all of whom, with a single exception still survive.    Her parents, when she was six years old, made her an Iowan by setting her down near the hamlet which was to grow into the city of Cedar Rapid.   There she grew up; there at eighteen she became Mrs. John C. Burkhart; there bore two children and suffered the emergencies and anxieties incident to the times and the absence of three years of her husband in the Union troops of the Civil War.
      Hope seeming brighter further on Mr. and Mrs. Burkhart, in 1868, became residents of the new and promising town of Nevada, and for eight years they abode a block farther south than is the location of their home today. Meanwhile they became Tory county landowners, and about 1876 they became farmers on their own possessions near Johnson's Grove.   Later they leased their land and lessened care by removing to Zearing, in which town Mr. Burkhart's life closed in the year 1911.    Motherhood had enriched Mrs. Burkhart's life with two worthy sons, of whom Charles A., the eldest of her group is now a state official at Pierre, South Dakota; and Hurbert, whose birth in Nevada, now temporarily resides in Cedar Rapids.   Her three daughters have been previously named, and three babes which tarried in the mother's arms but a little while, swelled her heart treasures to eight.
      When widowhood came, the resolute, self-forgetting habits of a lifetime remained with her.   To be near her youngest daughter she returned to Nevada seven years ago and found contentment in the beautiful bungalow which is still her home.   About two years later the Banks family became shearers of her ample quarters and of responsibilities, which was growing weighty.   There, with numerous posterity that call her blessed, and surrounded by affection and kindness her four score years are rounded out.   What treasured memories of the good brought to her through this long period must have stored away for her times of quiet!     May her evening time be bright!