Special to the Leader & Times
All are invited to attend a 100th birthday party for Charles Forward from 2 to 4 p.m. Saturday at Lone Star Friends Church between Liberal and Hugoton. The church is located at 2698 State Hwy 51.
The family hopes to see many of Charles’ friends and family there. Those who can’t attend are encouraged to mail greetings to Charles Forward, 2701 Highway 51, Hugoton, KS 67951.
This month, one of Hugoton’s long-time residents, Forward, will observe his 100th birthday.
Charles was born Feb. 10, 1926, south of Goddard, in Sedgwick County. The family moved near Feterita in March 1930, and except for the time around his service in the military, Stevens County has been home.
Charles was the fifth child in a family of two boys and five girls. Since they arrived in Southwest Kansas at the beginning of the Dirty ‘30s, he said it was 1939 before the family had a paying crop, and those were difficult years. They raised chickens, sold eggs and milked 17 head of cows to sell cream.
Charles attended Hugoton High School, but he says when their dad got down in his back, Charles went to work full-time on the farm.
Charles married the former Betty Evalean Kilgore on Feb. 20, 1946, and he still lives in the home they shared since 1955.
After the wedding, which took place in the Methodist church in Liberal on his 20th birthday, he and Evalean celebrated a remarkable 78 years together.
Charles described a dream before their last anniversary, where he was saying, “I still do”. When he woke up, he said, “It hit me like a dose of salt” that he and Evalean should renew their marriage vows.
The dream became a reality, at a celebration at Lone Star Friends Church in February 2024. Two of Charles’ siblings attended the anniversary party, along with a host of other relatives and friends. His brother Wayne will turn 98 this month, and their sister Mildred Moser is 105 years old.
As a young man, Charles served in the Marines and was stationed at Camp Pendleton in California. After his discharge, he drove heavy equipment for a construction company. They built a dam which formed a small lake on Palomar Mountain, and worked setting up orchards.
Charles and Evalean’s first son Steve was born in California, and a second son Bob joined the family after Evalean returned to Kansas to have the baby.
Since 1955, they farmed, raised cattle and hogs, and put in a garden each year, on their place east of Hugoton. Evalean helped especially with the animals, and together they enjoyed many community events.
Charles and Evalean attended two different Baptist churches, and joined Lone Star Friends Church in 2019. For years before that, Charles and Evalean were good neighbors to the folks at Lone Star, as well as to the pastors and families who served there.
Charles kept the bakers supplied with rhubarb for their rhubarb pies, and he and Evalean were generous with produce from their garden. He helped in the cook shed each year during the Ground Hog Supper, and on one occasion, someone remarked on the experience of the cooks -- the average age of the guys working out there that night was close to 90.
In addition to farming, Charles worked selling mineral additives for livestock feed, calling on farmers, ranchers, and feed yards all over Southwest Kansas.
After several years, he became district manager for MoorMans, with a territory in Stevens, Seward, Meade, Grant, Morton and Haskell counties.
He said Evalean sometimes accompanied him on trips to the company headquarters in Quincy, Ill. They went on one cruise out of Florida and traveled to Elks meetings in about a dozen states.
They belonged to the Elks Lodge in Liberal, and Charles said they took every opportunity they could to go dancing. “It’s what kept us going.”
They hosted pheasant hunters each year at their place, and attended Woods community gatherings at the potato barn and other events. He still uses an exercise machine each morning, and remains active.
Besides their two sons, Charles and Evalean have grandsons, great-grandchildren, and some great-great-grandchildren: “too many to count”, he says.
When asked about difficulties, Charles mentioned the hard times in the 1930s. Then in 1982, when the area received four inches of rain in a short time, floodwaters rushed across Highway 51 and reached the doorstep of their home.
They’ve lost one grandson and a daughter-in-law. Evalean had health problems and was in the long-term care unit at Satanta District Hospital the last few months of her life.
Charles drove to visit her frequently during that time, and she passed away in September of 2024. However, about their years together, he says, “It’s been a good life all along. I don’t think she regretted any of it, and I know I haven’t.”
