URALEE FARELL

is “a farm girl in the big city,” as her son, Dan Farell, puts it. Despite the fact that she celebrated her 100th birthday in October, she still lives by herself and takes a walk around her neighborhood every day.

How long have you lived in East Dallas?

Uralee Farell: Since 2005. I lived on a farm all my life, until I moved here to be with my family. I was up there on the farm all by myself, and then they [her son and grandchildren] moved me over here. I grew up near Commerce in a little town called Fairlie. I lived there practically all my life. I grew up in a large family. I had four sisters and five brothers, and now they’re all gone except one sister, the youngest one. I was the third oldest, born in 1913.

So you turned 100 in October. What’s your secret?

UF: One day at a time. That’s all you have to do, just hang in there. You just keep on having birthdays and after a while you get old.

Very true. Plus, I bet you ate healthier back then before all the processed food we have today.

UF: Well it was di erent, that’s for sure. I’ve seen changes.

What kinds of changes?

UF: Well, our living was different. I grew up on a 50-acre farm, and we ate more off the land than we did from the grocery store. My mother raised a big garden, and even with her big family that she took care of, she was still able to can fruits and vegetables for the winter. We had an orchard where we grew our own fruit, and we had pigs and chickens and, of course, cows for milk and butter. So we practically raised our own food. Things were so different then.

Did you help around the farm?

UF: Oh yes, when a kid got big enough to hold a hoe, he was big enough to get out and work and help raise food. We had to hoe and we had to pick cotton when the cotton came in, so we were busy most of the time.

What was your favorite job?

UF: Favorite job? I don’t know that I had a favorite. We just did what we had to do.

How about in your spare time, do you remember things you did as a teenager?

UF: I remember very well the first moving picture I ever saw, back in 1929. We went in a group of school kids to Greenville to see the movie. Someone drove us over there. Can you imagine? All we had were still pictures until about 1929 when the first moving pictures came out. Seeing the pictures moving was a big deal. I don’t remember what the picture was, though.

The Great Depression, did that impact your family at all?

UF: Well, we didn’t have any money, but then nobody else did either, so we didn’t know any di erent. We grew our own food, so honestly, we didn’t know any di erent. We got two new dresses every time school started, and that had to last.

When did you get married?

UF: In ‘31. My husband died just a few days before our 67th anniversary. His name was Charlie Farell. He was about eight years older than I.

How’d you meet him?

UF: I was walking to school, and he was driving his sisters to school in a Model A, and he stopped to give me a lift and I was impressed with what a good-looking fellow he was. When I met him I was 14, and then I think I was about 15 when we started finding each other favorites. A date back then wasn’t two at a time; it was a whole group. On Sunday afternoons a group of the young people from the community would get together and go for a ride or go for a picnic. We never dated oneon-one. I was 18 when we married, and he was about 26. We eloped.

You eloped? Why?

UF: I was 18, and I knew my mama would tell me to wait. We went to Oklahoma and went to the home of a Baptist minister who performed the ceremony, and then we called back and in those days, everybody didn’t have a phone, like now. We called Vincent Carr who was a banker and told him to please let our family know that we weren’t coming home. He let everybody in the community know.

When did you get your first TV?

UF: In the early ’50s.

Dan Farell: I can tell you the very first thing I remember seeing on the television right after we got it. It was Eisenhower’s inauguration. We had the only TV in the community, so the community came to our house.

UF: Do you remember that? We had a whole room full of kids. The whole school came down.

DF: That might’ve been the reason you got the TV because that was coming up. Do you remember your first car?

UF: I remember my dad’s first car. He had a Model T. It was the only car he ever had. Charlie had a Model A, I think. A Model A was a little improvement over the Model T.

DF: You didn’t have to hand-crank it like you did the Model T. Can you imagine having to hand-crank your car before using it?

Did you have a favorite band growing up?

UF: Well, my dad was a fiddler. What are some of the big turning points you faced later on in life?

UF: Hmm …

DF: Moving to Dallas was a big turning point

UF: Yes. I lived in the farm all my life, so it was di erent, but being close to my family made it worth it. I’m not close with any of my neighbors, except the man across the street, Joe. He makes preserves, and he brings me a jar every time he make some.

DF: That’s probably because she makes him cookies.

UF: He’s a good neighbor.

DF: Her nature is to reach out to people. She walks to the church and to the beauty shop, and she even walks to the grocery store even though we have all cautioned her not to cross the busy street. She says, “Nobody is going to run over an old lady with a walker.” grew up in East Dallas before marrying her late husband, a musician, and traveling the country. Eventually, the 91-year-old ended up back in East Dallas, where she lives to this day. After retiring from a career in the mental health industry in 1980, Watson began volunteering through the Foster Grandparent Program. Today she volunteers four days a week with Early Head Start in East Dallas.

UF: And they haven’t yet.

Was there ever a point when you started feeling old?

UF: Well, I don’t know when that point came; it’s been such a gradual thing. I don’t feel young. There’s no doubt about it, when you get to 100 you know you’re old. But I’ve been grateful for good health. You’re aware of your limitations.