Christel Elizabeth Guiles

Christel Guiles, 103 Christel Elizabeth Guiles, Alexandria, formerly Holmes City, went to be with her Lord of eternal peace on September 30, 2015. Christel was born the week before Christmas, December 18, 1911 at the family home in Belle River Township to August and Elizabeth (Blank) Blank. She was the fifth of eight children and the last surviving. She was her dad’s ‘right-hand person’ until Friebert, the only son, finally came along in 1917. Christel was Christened February 11, 1912 at Bethany Lutheran Church in Carlos. To attend Confirmation classes in Carlos, she drove the Model T by herself the six miles from Belle River. She always set the throttle up before the pastor hand-crank-started the car for her. Gas was 17 cents a gallon and many people ordered 50 cents worth at a time, no ‘self-service’ and no ’filler-up’. She also drove to the Spruce Center Mill to have wheat ground into flour. The miller said the women all want white flour; I tell them it is bleached with poisons, but they want their flour white! She completed eight grades at Belle River District 62, a quarter-mile walk sometimes in very deep snow and stopping to play on ‘rubber ice’ till it cracked and someone got a wet foot! She graduated from the West Central School of Agricultural in Morris in 1933. She was a housekeeper for a banker in Minneapolis. Those were the years high-society ladies wore a tarantula on their lapels and housekeepers had to care for them! She remembered it being proper to serve one food dish at time and worried it would be cold by the last dish, but it was proper of the times! She returned home to care for her terminally ill mother. Christel helped most of her sisters and sister-in-law with their new-born babies. Christel and Vernes R. Kingston were married in 1939 and farmed in Spruce Hill Township. Don and Cheryl were born to this union. Vernes died in 1955. Christel wrote the local news for many years and entered many contests of the time. She finally got to use her many electric appliances in 1955 that she had won in the 1950 Wonder Bread jingle contest! She moved with her children temporarily to the Spruce Creek farm owned by Earl and Lydia Kingston. In 1956 they moved to Alexandria and she cooked at Triple ‘R’ Resort. On December 31, 1959 Christel married William (Lars) Guiles and moved to Holmes City Township. Christel was very involved with her church and community working many volunteer jobs over the years. Sewing, vegetable and flower gardening, canning, cooking (on wood, gas & electric stoves), baking and helping with farm work and making and bringing many ‘lunches’ to the fields. Always consisting of everything she had cooked and baked sometimes including her famous caramel-cinnamon rolls and always her famous sandwich buns made exactly the same size of course! Christel was a gentle spirit with a calm, cheerful attitude, sharp wit and generous, loving, and caring heart. Her faith, perseverance, never over fearing any task or event ahead, and readily adapting to life’s changes got her through many life challenges. She was instrumental in starting the Belle River 4-H club and thoroughly enjoyed competing and all of the events and fairs. She, along with Eleanor Drexler, won the Bread Baking Championship earning a trip to the 1933 World’s Fair in Chicago. Heading there by train in high heels and large fir trimmed coat as was fashion of the time. Always a fashionista, she sewed many of her own and her children and grandchildren’s clothing, including those famous snowsuits when they first were the must have. She had a knack for making clothes look exquisite and up to the minute. She accredited her longevity to taking life one day at a time, honest, faithful living, along with frugality, physical work, inheriting longevity, eating fruits and vegetables and of course sweets for dessert in moderation! Also, all that potato picking, chopping, stacking, and carrying ‘wood in and ashes out’! Not to mention pumping, carrying and heating water. They raised and grew their own food; sewed their own clothing, cut each other’s hair; their dad repaired their shoes, over and over again; and neighbor always helped neighbor. If you were old enough to walk, you were old enough to help with something! In December of 1997, Christel and William moved to Bethel Manor. William missed the farm very much and after much illness passed in May of 1998. Christel continued to live in her apartment until she was 101 ½ and then moved to Sharon’s Senior Services on Rosewood until September 21, 2015, when she entered the hospital. Surviving are her son, Don (Marilyn) Kingston, daughter Cheryl (Ray) Wille, grandchildren Darin Kingston and Lori Kingston, great-grandchildren Samantha, Veronica and Hatte Kingston; one sister-in-law, Elvira Blank and many nieces and nephews and friends. Funeral service Sat., Oct. 10 at 2 pm at Zion Lutheran Church, Alexandria. Visitation Fri., Oct. 9 at Anderson Funeral Home 4-6 pm and at Zion 1-2 pm Sat. Arrangements are with Anderson Funeral Home in Alexandria. (http://www.andersonfuneral.net)

Christel Elizabeth Guiles

December 18, 1911 - September 30, 2015