By Dexter R. Sapp
Over forty friends, relatives and well-wishers gathered at the Leslie Lakes Retirement Center to celebrate Mrs. Eunice Towel’s 101-year birthday on February 20, 2024. Shay Jefferson the Activities Director at Leslie Lakes sponsored the celebration. “Mrs. Towel is definitely a bright light here at Leslie Lakes. She is a wonderful person and a God-fearing woman, and she loves to share her wisdom” says Shay. Mrs. Towel is a member of the New Pilgrim Rest Baptist Church where the Rev. Noah Banks is the Pastor.
The Birthday Bash included an opening prayer, expressions by friends and family and lively music by Paul Ford, Leslie Lakes’ Paramount Chaplain. Paul performed a song from the 1920’s era, from which Mrs. Towel was born, entitled “Has Anybody Seen My Girl.” Leslie Lakes Representatives presented Mrs. Towel with a plaque with the inscription, “They will bear fruit in old age; they will stay fresh and green” Psalms 92:14.
In 1923 the year Mrs. Towel was born, gasoline cost 22 cents per gallon, 1 gallon of milk cost 35 cents, you could buy a new Chevrolet Roadster for $570, a large 4-bedroom house cost $7,000, and the average hourly earnings was 54 cents.
Born in Saline, Louisiana on February 20, 1923, to the parents of Ernest Brownfield and Lillian Rogers Brownfield, the family later moved to Arcadia where Eunice attended and graduated from the Arcadia Colored High School which later became known as Crawford High School.
On September 6, 1946, Eunice was married to Ardis Towel and to that union 5 children were born. Mrs. Towel worked for a while at the poultry plant in Arcadia and later did domestic housekeeping for a living.
For Mrs. Towel’s entire life, she has been an avid reader and she maintain her subscription to the Bienville Democrat. In addition to being an avid reader, Mrs. Towel enjoys her word search books, she works crossword puzzles and loves putting together jigsaw puzzles to this day even at 101 years of age. “I am truly convinced that Mrs. Towel’s mental sharpness can be attributed to the fact that she keeps her brain stimulated by working difficult puzzles and completing complex word search books on a weekly basis,” says son-in-law Dexter Sapp.