Katie Belle was born on December 27, 1884. She was known to the family as Aunt Belle. She never married. I never knew her, but would hear about her from my dad. Aunt Belle worked in a mercantile store 40 hours a week until she fell and broke her hip when she was older than 90 years old. Up until then she and her sister, Lillian, went to the Dairy Queen once a week for hamburgers. Aunt Belle died in 1990 at the ripe old age of 105 1/2!

Biography

She will celebrate her 100th birthday on December 27

If you were to talk to the shy, attractive little lady, you would probably guess her in her late sixties or early seventies. Guess again. She is actually 100.

KATHERINE BELLE BATSEL was born on a farm in northern Muhlenberg County (Strouds Station ) on December 27, 1884.

Her parents were R. W. and Adelia Batsel and he was the depot agent at Strouds for the Owensboro and Nashville Railroad (O & N) that ran between Russelville and Owensboro.

Miss Belle, as she is known, was born only 19 years after the Civil War ended and remembers scores of Muhlenberg County citizens who were veterans of that war.

In 1893 the family moved to a farm that her father had purchased and she "grew up in the country".

SHE FINALLY DECIDED TO MOVE to town and in 1920, was hired at the Barnes Mercantile Company store in Central City. She started as a general clerk.

High button shoes were in style, and Broad Street, the main thoroughfare that runs in front of the store, was nothing but dirt.

She once told a reporter, "We had hitching rails out front, a watering trough where Brand's Drug is now and there were stepping stones across the street".

"WHEN I STARTED TO WORK at the store, gift wrapping was done mostly by the customers, who obtained paper and ribbon and did the job at home. Gift wrapping only came into being after World War II," she said.

Christmas was not as commercialized as today, she recollected. Sales during the 1920's and 1930's consisted mostly of piece goods and sewing supplies. Few ladies had the money to purchase a ready-made dress, but they had more time than today to make their own clothing, she explained.

The Barnes store had a modern (for the time) money changer, which consisted of an office located on the balcony with wires running to the sales counter. The sales tickets and money were placed in a cup which traveled up the wire to the office and later returned with the correct change.

MISS BELLE BEGAN MAKING annual buying trips to New York in 1945. With the shortage of supplies during and even after the war, she remembers going from one manufacturer to another to try and find available goods.

The nearest thing to a vacation for Miss Belle was the buying trips she made to St. Louis and New York, two or three times each year.

She described the journey by train with other ladies from the Hopkinsville Barnes store, where selections of clothing and material were made for the forthcoming yearly seasons. She told of the prosperous years and the hard years of the Great Depression, miners' strikes here in the county and the war years.

ON THESE BUYING TRIPS, SHE recalled that most of the time was spent in the (New York) garment district (centered at Seventh Avenue and 34th Street and consisting of about four square blocks of job shops where designers set the pace for countless cutters, seamstresses and assistants turning out a portion of the nations dresses and garments). But, sometimes she recalled, there was sightseeing and time for a Broadway show or a chance to observe the latest high styles and marketing techniques of fashionable Fifth Avenue stores.

She told about the war years and how World War II had brought on hard times for the store. Immediately after the war was declared, rationing went into effect, she said, and clothing became hard to get. Before a person could get a new pair of shoes, a proper stamp was required. She pointed out that the end of the war was a great relief to the store clerks involved in the rationing of clothing and accessories. When merchandise began to flow again, it was much to their relief.

MISS BELLE RECALLED THAT some early employees, included Lizzie Andermatt, (hat department) Jessie Nurse, Rilli Smith, Mallie Campbell, and Emma Houston.

In 1946, Ed Barnes and Les Leach agreed to sell the store to Miss Belle, C. B. Greenwood, Alvin Matherly and Bill Houston, whose wife, Emma, was a niece of Leach's. Bill Houston stayed in the partnership for only one year. The store prospered and in 1962, Belle Batsel and C. B. and Louise Greenwood bought out Matherly.

David Greenwood, son of C. B. and Louise, entered the business in 1969 and is now a partner.

THE BUSINESS IS NOW 80 years old, 62 years of which Miss Belle was closely associated in the day-to-day operations.

When asked why she never married, she said, "We lived on a farm when I was younger and I didn't know too many young men and I didn't care too much about the ones I knew. I stayed busy and just never got around to it.

Miss Belle reluctantly signed up for Social Security when she ws 75. It wasn't unitl after she suffered a hip injury in late 1983, however, that she retired from the store - at the age of 99!

ON DECEMBER 27, she will be 100 years old and as we said, could be taken for a lady of 70.

© Greenville Leader-News, 24 Dec 1984

Sources

1. Social Security Death Index
2. Greenville Leader-News, Greenville, KY
3. Rufus William Batsel, Jr. Family Bible insert
4. Family information