Allenton, Wi – In the film “Nomadland,” the main character played by Frances McDormand talks to modern-day nomads and learns, through their stories about life. One character in particular, Charlene Swankie, said she has lived a good life, and goes on to recount some of the amazing things she’s seen while kayaking including a wall of swallow nests on a cliff. She recalled and how the egg shells from the newborn birds rained into the water and when she looked at her reflection it was like she was flying.
Out of all my interviews including watching speedskater Jordan Stolz win his first gold at the Winter Olympics to listening to a man who photographed Marilyn Monroe in 1953, or sitting with the owner of the Old Home Motel in Tennessee as she recalled the day she hid Elvis in room 115, this interview with 102-year-old Mary Jane Sternat ranks as one of the most impactful stories. Listen below as she remembers intimate details and incredible experiences of simple things. In the end, she talked about the basic foundation that guided her life.
At 102 years old, Mary Jane Sternat still carries herself with the sturdy grace of a woman shaped by dirt roads, hard winters and wartime sacrifice. Sitting among friends at the 75th anniversary celebration of the Allenton American Legion Auxiliary, Sternat spoke with a clarity and warmth that turned simple memories into living history.
Recently honored with a Quilt of Valor as a charter member of the auxiliary, Sternat smiled modestly through the recognition, uncomfortable with too much attention focused on herself.
“I’m not a proud woman. I’m just ordinary,” she said.
Ordinary perhaps in her own eyes. But listening to her stories felt like opening a cedar chest filled with pieces of Wisconsin’s past.
Dressed in a matching light blue sweater and blouse, offset by a string of thick pearls, Sternat spoke about being born Nov. 5, 1923 in Milwaukee before her family moved to a small farm between Barton and Kewaskum after her father became ill.
“My father was an insurance man. He got sick and his father and a doctor and my mom thought it’d be best for him to be on a farm to get better,” she said. “We moved to a farm between Barton and Kewaskum and so, I’m a farmer’s daughter.”
The farm was only 50 acres, but for young Mary Jane and her brother, it demanded grown-up work.
“My brother and I had to do a lot of the men’s work like throwing down hay,” she said. “We didn’t have hay balers or anything. It was all with slings.”
There were barns to clean and manure to haul. The family garden stretched big enough that produce was sold to local grocery stores.
“Dad had a big garden and we sold groceries to Otten’s store in Barton… and others.”
Even as she described hardship, Sternat did it with a matter-of-fact sweetness, and less like a sacrifice.
During the war years, nothing on the farm was wasted.
“We didn’t get too much milk to drink,” she said. “We only had a pitcher of milk in the morning and that had to last.
“Mom used it (milk) in cooking and stuff, because that milk had to be sold,” Sternat said. “And eggs, we didn’t get too many eggs to eat either. They had to be sold so mom could get flour and sugar to make bread.”
Then came one of her most vivid memories. Working nights during World War II at the West Bend Company factory, Sternat remembered the air raid drills that swallowed the city whole.
“All the lights went out, and we had to stand by our machine,” she said. “Everything went dark. Dark as dark as could be, through the whole city of West Bend.
“It was spooky, you know, for a young girl,” she said.
Then… a playful memory still alive at 102.
“My girlfriend was working next to me and she says, ‘Good thing I had my apple in my pocket here. I can eat my apple now.’ Sternat warned, ‘Yeah, what if there’s a worm in it?”
Sternat worked at the West Bend Company from age 18 until she was 63. It was her second job, after she helped manufacture pup-tent posts at Pick Industries during the war.
At 25, she married Joseph Schwitzer, a delivery man for Standard Oil in Allenton. Together they became part of the beginnings of the Allenton American Legion Auxiliary.
“I got married in June and then they had a meeting,” she said. “I was supposed to go over and bring something for lunch. But it was Lent, and we weren’t supposed to eat in between. So I brought hot chocolate.”
The auxiliary meetings were held in the old Allenton firehouse downtown. The organization started small, supported by returning servicemen and their families trying to rebuild normal life after war.
“My husband was a legionnaire,” Sternat said. “I know he started the picnics out with tents.”
The early celebrations were humble affairs. Real tents. Overnight stays. Families pitching in however they could.
Some soldiers still had not even returned home.
Though Sternat described herself as less active in later years because she cared for her husband during an eight-year battle with jaw cancer, she remained deeply connected to the auxiliary and its mission.
“He developed cancer of the jaw for eight years,” she said quietly. “I had to feed him.”
Still, she worked, cared for her family and continued moving forward. That determination still defines her today.
Asked for the secret to reaching 102 years old, Sternat answered without hesitation.
“I just keep going,” she said. “I don’t sit around much. I don’t feel sorry for myself.”
Then, with the plainspoken wisdom of someone who survived the Depression, wartime rationing and a century of change, she added:
“I was brought up to work, do your job, be honest, be faithful… just be a good girl.”
Tiny pieces of everyday life that together, built a century.
On a side note:
-There was a cute interaction during the recognition of the Allenton Auxiliary and its two charter members who started 75 years ago. During the presentation of the Quilts of Valor a woman spoke up and said, “And Audrey Rosbeck can still put puzzels together without her glasses.” Click HERE for the video.
– Click HERE to read about Juanita and hiding Elvis in room 115 at the Old Home Motel
– Click HERE to read about photographer Eddie Hunter and his encounter with Marilyn Monroe.
- Click HERE to watch a clip of Charlene Swankie from Nomadland
