Published: June 12, 2007 11:12 am            

Doris Hanks has spent a lifetime helping children who needed a home

She was born in Stillwater and her family’s business and image is depicted on a mural downtown.

She moved away for more than 50 years. To the Rocky Mountains she went, where she raised her kids and helped many more along the way.

She once again resides in Stillwater, and Doris Hanks says she likes the people and the down-home activities.

“I’ve always liked Stillwater,” Hanks said.

These days Hanks works at ALPS Exercise Center helping elderly residents remain active and fit. “I enjoy doing that,” Hanks said. “It’s my social life.”

She said being able to improve someone's day is rewarding and she would be the one to know. She lived in Greeley, Colorado, for more than 40 years and her time spent there was devoted to helping kids get their lives on track.

Hanks said she taught school for ten years in Greeley and also ran group homes and a foster home. She was a foster parent for 17 years. She ran two group homes and split her time between them. One was located in Greeley and the other was in the mountains.

“I wanted to make it so they could enjoy being a kid,” Hanks said.

She said there was usually six teenagers in each house and she said she only made rules that were necessary.

In 17 years she only sent one kid back and, “I wasn’t trying to take them away from their parents. I was trying to straighten them up for their parents.”

She said she would take the kids after social services became involved. The kids had daily chores and sometimes she would take them on camping trips up to four days long. She said she made the kids talk and discuss instead of making demands.

“I figured they needed to learn how to live outside and be taught what not to do,” Hanks said.

Hanks said one kid came to stay with her because she was left in Colorado after her parents moved to New York. She said she put a bed in her dining room and the girl stayed until school was out. She ran into her seven years later and found she was doing well and working as a lineman for the telephone company.

She said she also got a call from a woman in California who had stayed with her in Colorado and recently tracked her down.

“It was so rewarding having one of the kids think of me after so many years,” Hanks said.

It was her aging parents that brought her back to Stillwater. Her father’s eye sight had failed. He owned and operated Cookseys grocery story on the corner of Ninth and Main for 66 years. He was a Rotarian and active in the Stillwater Chamber of Commerce.

The store had two stories when he bought it and her mother was the bookkeeper. Fire destroyed the top floor.

Cookseys may have closed years ago but a mural located at the northwest corner of Ninth and Main has ensured it will not be forgotten. The time period depicted is before the time of switchboard telephone operators.

If you look close you can see Hanks family. Her father is there, along with her mother, brother and sister. And as we hurtle into the age of technology, so is a piece of Stillwater history.

You never know who will be on the other end of the line when the phone rings. Everybody has a story and next week it could be yours.

        

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