Norma Bradfield has been gardening most of her life, and even at 95 years of age, you can find her in her backyard, planting and harvesting her vegetables and fruit off the trees.

Norma is pictured with her sister, Juanita (Curry) Shineman.

This is Norma’s senior picture.

Norma and her husband, Gene, eloped to Kansas to get married.

Norma enjoys attending the Fairfax Fair every year.

The James R. Curry Family Farm was named a Missouri Century Farm in 2020.

When people think of a specific small community, usually the face of a resident pops into their minds. The person they think of embodies that community’s ideals and are a large part of the goings-on. For locals who think of Fairfax, Norma (Curry) Bradfield is one such person.

Norma didn’t always reside in Fairfax, but her time outside of the town was short lived. She was born November 20, 1928, to Ike and Mildred Curry in Craig, Missouri. Her father was a meat cutter and the family would move from Craig to Maitland to Mound City and then to Fairfax as her father got jobs at the nearby grocery stores. In Mound City, her baby sister, Juanita, joined the group. Later, the family moved to the Curry farm outside of Fairfax to take care of her grandmother, Maddie Curry. Her father continued cutting meat at the grocery store in Tarkio and even cut meat for area farmers who would bring their slaughtered livestock to him out at his farm. After Maddie died, Norma’s father purchased the farm.

Norma’s father took as much pride in his daughters as he did in his farm. He wrapped the barbed wire along the route to school so that Norma and her sister would not get scratched on their travels. Norma joked that he tried to make a son out of her, but it didn’t quite work. She had farm chores, but one time he decided to have her plow the corn field. The horses got away from her and tore up part of the crop.

Although Norma’s “farmer” chores weren’t always prosperous as a child, she did grow a green thumb and became a master gardener. Norma has been growing fruits and vegetables for years, making meals, canning or baking pies, and making jellies. Norma’s tasty produce came in handy in feeding her six children. She’s still gardening at 95 years old and has onions already popping up in her garden behind her house. She also has cherry trees and grows blackberries, raspberries, strawberries, gooseberries, and po-tatoes, just to name a few.

When the family moved to the farm, Norma was in the third grade and began attending Irish Grove school. The school housed children from elementary to high school. But after her freshman year, the school consolidated with Fairfax School District and she was then bused to town to attend the high school there. When the weather was too bad for the students to travel to and from home and school, their parents would give them money so that they could rent out a room for $1 per night with a Fairfax family or individual. Norma said sometimes there would be several kids staying with one family at a time, but the hosts were always extremely generous.

It was in high school that Norma met her future husband, Gene Bradfield. Gene graduated from high school in 1943 and went into the service, serving in the Pacific and Japan. When he returned, it was the night of the senior class play and Norma said that was one of the best nights of her life, to see him again. Norma graduated in 1946 and the couple got married that July, eloping to Kansas.

Gene and Norma began farming, but eventually they sold their farm and Gene began repairing and selling televisions and appliances. He also drove a school bus. The couple had two girls and four boys and Norma stayed busy taking care of them all. When the kids were old enough, she began working as a cook at Fairfax R-3 and stayed for 29 years. She said it was such a pleasurable experience that she did not want to retire and give up her keys, but a knee replacement sidelined her.

For Norma, life was not about sitting idle and worrying oneself to death. She didn’t have time. Her six children had 15 children of their own, and from those 15 grandkids Norma now has 32 great-grandchildren and two great-great-grandchildren, all of whom she absolutely adores. She attributes her longevity to staying active and living not only for herself, but for her family. She wants to be around as long as possible to watch them all grow up and experience the joys of life.

Besides gardening, taking care of her family, and working at the school, Norma stayed active in several community organizations. She has been a member of the Fairfax Methodist Church for 78 years come this July. She and Gene were both active in the Fairfax Community Betterment group. She’s been a member of the American Legion Auxiliary for more than 70 years as well, and has held multiple offices. She was also part of the 40 & 8, the Eastern Star Chapter 373, has served as treasurer of the Fairfax Alumni Association for several years, is a member of a book club and pitch club, and was also a member of a pinochle club. She also enjoys crocheting and doing puzzles. When Gene was alive, they took the children to Yellowstone in Colorado regularly and she has continued to visit Colorado every year, as one of her daughters lives out there. They also visited Salt Lake City, Utah, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Canada, where they were able to see Niagara Falls and also got blueberries Norma said were so scrumptious. They also took a trip to Limestone, Tennessee, where Norma’s Curry grandparents were from (they traveled to Fairfax by wagon). Norma said that one of their Tennessee relatives looked so much like one of her local aunts, it was uncanny. They were fixed a huge meal, with food mainly from the garden, but Norma said it was one of the most delicious meals she’s ever had.

When the Currys traveled to Fairfax and purchased the farm in 1908, they began a tradition that has lasted for more than a century. The James R. Curry farm is now a Missouri Century Farm. Norma’s granddaughter Amber, her husband James Zumbrunnen, and their two children Jackson and Audrey are living in a house they built on James Curry’s farm. Norma’s grandson, Eric, also has plans to live on the farm when he retires from the military.

Norma said she has seen so many incredible changes in her 95 years: from the early years of aviation to rockets and men being sent to outer space; from rutted tracks to major paved highways and interstates; from horses and mules being used to farm to huge tractors and combines that can almost run themselves; telephones that once shared “party” lines to phones that can not only call all over the world, but are their own super computers; computers; from listening to a program on a radio to now watching it broadcast live on television (Norma has been able to watch a relative play basketball in Arizona on her TV); and means of cooking going from a coal cook stove on which you laid your bread if you wanted toast to now having toasters and microwaves and air fryers and instapots (Norma says her Instapot is one of the nicest things ever invented).

Even at 95, Norma is an independent woman. She said it was very interesting being able to go out and purchase her first appliances, because Gene always just brought what was in his store home. Now there are so many options to choose from. And Norma still drives and she says her boys tell her she “does a fine job.” Those who know Norma would say that she does a fine job at most everything and Fairfax is very lucky to be able to call her one of theirs.