Bio: Horacek, Bernice (100th Birthday – 11 Sep 2021)

Transcriber: stan@wiclarkcountyhistory.org

Surnames: Horacek, Zahorka, Haderlein, Skrzypcak, Denzine, Yurkovich

Source: Tribune-Phonograph (Abbotsford, WI) 08 Sep 2021

Music and dancing are the twin pleasures of Bernice Horacek’s life, things she remembers the most about the nearly 100 years she’s spent on this planet.

Whether it was meeting her husband at a dance hall or learning to play the drums so she could join his band, Bernice has always had a tap in her toe and a tune in her heart.

Even now, as a resident of The Waterford at Colby, she gravitates to programs that play her favorite waltzes and polkas.

“Nobody can bother her if there’s music on the TV,” says her daughter, Diane.

When Bernice turns 100 on Saturday, she’d love nothing more than to have live music for her birthday celebration.

Bernice was born on a farm in the town of Holton on Sept. 11, 1921, the youngest child of Frank and Alma Zahorka. Her brothers, Art and Ervin, and her sister, Anna (later Haderlein) were a lot older than she was.

“I was way younger. I was a drop along,” she says, laughing.

Bernice’s parents had owned a sawmill about five miles east and two miles north of Abbotsford on Holton Road. After it burned down, the family moved to Milan, where her parents rented a tavern and a little house behind it.

Bernice got her first taste of work off the farm when she got a job at the U.S. Post Office in Milan, while helping run the family business in the evenings.

“At night I tended bar because my folks had a tavern,” she said. “That was fun.”

Bernice fondly recalls the musical acts the bar would host as entertainment. At some point during this time period, she learned to play the concertina.

When asked what she did for fun back then, she’s quick to respond.

“Oh, going to dances,” she said.

It was at a dance hall that she met her future husband, Albert, who played the accordion in a variety of different bands.

Asked if her future husband asked her to dance, she casually says “I suppose.”

“I don’t know,” she said. “It was so long ago.”

Bernice and Albert were married on Aug. 26, 1941, and after that, they moved to a farm in the town of Rietbrock, where they farmed for a couple of years before buying the Zahorka family farm from Bernice’s father back in Holton.

Bernice and Albert had three children, including Kathy Skrzypcak, Jerry Horacek and Diane Horacek.

Albert taught Bernice to play drums, and at some point, they formed their own family band, The Twilight Ramblers, along with Kathy.

The Ramblers played at many different dance halls, either for weddings or just general entertainment.

“I remember them always playing on New Year’s Eve,” Diane said. “They went to bars all over.”

Diane remembers her mother as a hard worker, a farm wife who never stopped moving.

“She milked cows twice a day, she worked in the fields, she made homemade bread, homemade pies. Everything was homemade,” she said. “She was always cooking and cleaning and mowing the lawn.”

Bernice and Al farmed in Holton from 1944 until 1978, at which point they moved to a house on Sycamore Street in Abbotsford.

At some point, Bernice used her talents in the kitchen to get a cooking job at the Abby Cafe.

“Everybody loved her pies,” Diane said. “They were crazy about her pies.”

Diane said her mother could produce a whole range of flavored pastries, from lemon merengue and apple to cherry, peach and rhubarb. She also made frosted cut cookies that all of her grandchildren and great-grandchildren would look forward to during the holidays.

“Yeah, I could cook then,” Bernice says with a subtle dash of pride.

After working at the cafe for a while, Bernice followed her daughter into the nursing home business. Diane had gotten a job at The Colonial House in 1973.

“She heard me talk about how much I liked it, and then she quit at the Abby Cafe and got a job there, and was working there for 19 years,” Diane recalls.

“Taking care of those old people,” Bernice says about her nursing home days.

On Sept. 11, 2001, they were at the Rib River Ballroom celebrating Bernice’s 80th birthday when the world was rocked by the terrorist attacks in New York City and Washington, D.C.

Thankfully, Bernice doesn’t remember much about that day, though Diane recalls seeing cars lined up at the gas station in Edgar, as residents prepared for a possible gasoline shortage.

Bernice and her family have not let that tragic day 20 years ago redefine her birthday. Sept. 11, 1904, also happens to be the day her parents got married, so it’s a significant date for her in more ways than one.

Albert died in 1987 at the age of 78, and six years ago, Bernice moved out of her home on Sycamore and into The Waterford. Diane points out that her mother, the lifelong cook, doesn’t mind having someone else make her meals for her.

“She loves the food here,” Diane said.

When she first moved in, her mother would “practically run” to get her food when meal time came up, Diane said.

“If they bring something I don’t like, I can get something else,” Bernice said. “It’s a good place. I’m happy here.”

Longevity appears to run in the family, as her first cousin, Delbert Denzine, lived to be 102 and her sister was 99-1/2 when she died.

Bernice has amassed quite a living legacy, which includes 10 grandchildren, 30 great-grandchildren, eight great-great-grandchildren and two great-great-step children.

And, through it all, Bernice has never lost her sense of rhythm.

“She played drums about two years ago,” Diane recalls. “Richie Yurkovich was here, and they let her play the drums.”

Looking back, Bernice doesn’t seem to have many complaints about her century of living.

“I had a pretty exciting life, didn’t I?” she asks, knowing the answer is yes."