Joan Keith Presented With Huntingdon County Pomona Grange Public Servant Award

By BECKY WEIKERT
Daily News Staff Writer

Joan Keith of Entriken was honored as the 2007 public servant by the Huntingdon County Pomona Grange during the annual Fair breakfast Saturday morning. She was joined by family members, front row, from left, grandchildren Nicholas and Madison Buckley, Keith and her husband, Harry; second row, son-in-law Jeff Buckley, daughter Mary Ann Buckley; and son John Keith; back row, grandchildren Andrew Keith, Stacie Keith and Jodi Keith; and daughter-in-law Cindy Keith. (Photo by Becky Weikert, The Daily News)
 

Anyone who has taken a walk through Neary Hall at the Huntingdon County Fair is probably familiar with the name Joan Keith. In fact, anyone who is affiliated with any of the Huntingdon County Grange organizations is probably familiar with the name. The same name probably rings a bell with anyone who has taken AARP’s 55 Alive driving program.

Joan Keith is known across the county for her contributions to her community, the Grange and church. It is because of this work that Keith was honored with the 2007 public servant award by the Huntingdon County Pomona Grange Saturday morning during the annual fair breakfast.

The third child of the late John and Georgia Beaver, Keith was born and reared in Entriken and was taught to contribute to organizations in her community, church, Grange and 4-H.

“She has followed well in her mother’s footsteps,"  said Charles States, fair board member and former Huntingdon County Commissioner, who grew up with Keith and her sisters in Entriken. “You knew every time you went to John and Georgia Beaver’s house, there would be something there for you and, there’s never been a time I didn’t go to Joan’s house that I wasn’t offered something to eat." 

Those same treats Keith offers her guests are probably samples of some of the dozens of entries she has exhibited at the fair through the years. “Joan’s life on the farm has taught her the fine art of raising high quality vegetables and fruits and she has become an expert at canning and preserving those commodities. She uses her talents to support and encourage exhibits for the Huntingdon County Fair. Every year, she may be the last exhibitor to arrive, but her goods fill several cars and sometimes the back of a truck or two. She works for weeks in advance to find the perfect jar of peaches, the five roundest and reddest tomatoes and the five best blooms of marigolds to cut, as well as preparing dozens of other goods for exhibition. All farm work stops the day of check-in to get boxes of goods organized and ready for transport. Nearly every year her efforts have paid off, not just in prizes, but in enhancing the quality and number of entries in each of the categories of exhibits. She also works with her children and grandchildren to make sure they have entries in any fruits, vegetables or canned goods they helped to raise or can,"  read Sarah Carberry, Pomona Grange lecturer.

Her homemaking efforts have not only come from her upbringing, but her education as well, which helped her to influence hundreds of youth through the years.

Keith was educated in a one-room schoolhouse in Entriken and is a 1946 graduate of Huntingdon High school. She earned a degree in home economics from Juniata College in 1949 and had her first teaching job teaching students how to cook, clean and sew at Saltillo High School from 1949-1955. She also taught at Robert Smith School for a year and after the birth of her son, John, she began teaching at the new Southern Huntingdon High School in 1962. Her daughter, Mary Ann, was born in 1968, but she returned to teaching in 1977 at the new Huntingdon County Vocational Technical School as the home economics teacher. She retired from there in 1990, but continues to do substitute work in three school districts to this day, and often helps Mary Ann when she needs to be out of her classroom.

AARP fills in any days she may not be called to substitute. Keith has been a 55 Alive mature driving instructor since 1990 and has taught hundreds of mature drivers how to be safe and drive well on the road. Each year, she holds six to eight classes across the county with each class having approximately 30 students. Her only compensation for this work is mileage.

As a church leader, Keith has made it her mission to keep the Saint Matthews United Church of Christ, Entriken, active and busy. She has been very active in the Sunday school and served as a teacher of the adult Sunday school class for many years. She has attended Penn West Conference for many years and has attended the National UCC conference in the past. She was been a member of the Juniata Association of the United Church of Christ for quite a few years and a member of the Zion’s Women’s Group for most of her life.

In the Grange, she has been a very active member on all levels, local, right on through national. As a member of Lincoln Grange No. 914, she has served as many of the various officers, including Lecturer, Chaplain and Secretary. Her most rewarding role, however, seems to have been Junior Leader and she continues to serve in that capacity to this day.

She is always looking out for the young children in the community to give them a positive start in community service, leadership, talent and public speaking. Because of her service to the Junior Grange, she has been awarded the honor of state Junior Grange Leader and she has been recognized by the National Grange for her programs and activities. In her other Grange activities, she has served on the state women’s activities committee and as State Lecturer of the Year.

WCTU has been a very important part of Joan’s community service work. For the past 15 years, she has served as the county president and has been the state secretary for the past nine years.

In addition to these activities, she has been supportive of all of the activities of her children and grandchildren. She cooks for nearly every fire company bloodmobile and any time any organization sells hoagies as a fundraiser, she sells to everyone she can think of.

“Her contributions to the exhibits and the overall atmosphere of the fair, as well as her community service work, make her an excellent choice for the public servant award,"  said Sam Hayes, fair board member and former state Secretary of Agriculture.

 “She’s a patron of husbandry with a capital P and a mother with a capital M." 

Keith was also presented with commendations from Rep. Mike Fleck and Sen. John Eichelberger, who applauded her for her years of service.

Keith was also joined Saturday morning by a number of guests, including her sisters, Nancy Jackson, Betty Grove, Mary Troutman and Martha Keith; Fair board president Jim Davis and wife, Barbara, and her family members and friends.