[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 4]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 5022]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                RECOGNIZING WILMA BUFFINGTON BEDELL BALL

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. JO ANN EMERSON

                              of missouri

                    in the house of representatives

                         Friday, April 1, 2011

  Mrs. EMERSON. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize an outstanding 
citizen of my district. Wilma Buffington Bedell Ball is a cherished 
resident of Van Buren, Missouri and the State of Missouri. She was born 
in Great Falls, Montana, on January 5, 1917, and moved to Missouri 
where she grew up on a farm between Van Buren and Doniphan, Missouri 
along the Current River.
  After her education in a one-room schoolhouse in the Ozarks and 
graduation from Southwest Missouri State University in Springfield, she 
returned and taught students in that same one-room schoolhouse for 
three years. After some time away from Missouri, Wilma and her husband, 
Kelly Ball, returned to Southeast Missouri where she served in the 
Poplar Bluff School System from 1962 to 1969. There, she discovered her 
true calling of caring for Missouri's senior citizens. She became a 
licensed nursing home administrator in 1969 and served as administrator 
for the Clarks Mountain Nursing Home in Piedmont until 1985. Then, she 
began working at the Riverways Manor in Van Buren where she still works 
full-time today. At 94 she is the oldest active nursing home 
administrator in the United States.
  Wilma serves our community not only at work, she goes above and 
beyond through her affiliations with the Methodist Church, Women's 
Society of Christian Service, Business and Professional Women's Club, 
Missouri State Teachers Association, and the Missouri Healthcare 
Association. Even with all of these activities in her life, her number 
one priority is her family. She has four sons and daughters-in-law, ten 
grandchildren, and fourteen great-grandchildren. Wilma Buffington 
Bedell Ball embodies what it means to be a great southeast Missourian. 
Today we recognize her for her service to our community.

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