The "80 and Over" Club was the brainchild of Nannie (Bandel) Jinkens, former superintendent of Hickory County Public Schools. Beginning in 1954, Mrs. Jinkens organized a day to fete residents of Wheatland and Weaubleau (i.e., the west side of Hickory County) who were 80 years and older. She also recognized couples who had been married 50 years or more. We're not sure how long these events continued. The latest article we have so far is from 1982. After the celebration, usually held in early September at the Wheatland Baptist Church, Nannie wrote long articles telling about the festivities and everyone who attended. Reporters fromThe Index also covered the events.

I copied several "80 and Over" articles a couple of years ago from the Lena Wills Collection in the  Southwest Missouri State University's Archives. Ginger Donohue found some of Nannie Jinkens' "80 and Over" notes and copies of newspaper articles at the Hickory County Historical Society in fall, 2006. Harold John also found several Index articles in his clippings collection. I discovered the Lucile Morris Upton Collection at the Western Historical Manuscripts Collection-Columbia in April 2007. This collection included many "Over the Ozarks" clippings. I received permission from WHMCC to reproduce those related to the "80-and-Over" Days here. I also visited the Index office in April 2007 and found a number of additional articles, and permission from the publisher, Don Ginnings, to reproduce them here. Articles were published in both The Index and the Springfield Daily News-Leader and may have been picked up by other area newspapers. If anyone has additional articles about this group, I'd appreciate receiving copies of them. Please contact me if you can help us collect the full set of articles.

The links below will you take you to the transcribed articles.

Posted November 2006 and May 2007 by Ginny Sharp

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