Brown County Health and Living Community’s oldest resident hasn’t lived there very long.
Until she was 100, Alice “Louise” Knight lived at home near her family’s Knight’s Corner grocery and convenience store, at Yellowwood Road and State Road 46 West. She still was working there until 2002.
On Jan. 22, dozens of family members and friends of the family came to her new home at the care center to celebrate Knight’s 103rd birthday.
Her children — Becky Black, Jean Sturgeon and Art Knight — take turns visiting her every evening. Her oldest son, Donald Knight Sr., passed away in 2008.
[sc:text-divider text-divider-title=”Story continues below gallery” ]They describe her as a kind, loving, social woman.
But since she raised them while working full-time, she didn’t have time for any nonsense.
“She’d go, ‘I’ll whip all of ya so I make sure I get the right one,’” Black said.
If you ask his sisters, Art was the one who always managed to get himself into something he wasn’t supposed to. One day he came to the house covered head to toe in white paint. He was painting an old building when the board he was standing on broke and sent paint flying all over him.
“He said, ‘Girls, let me in! Let me in!’ We said, ‘No, we just cleaned the house.’ We wouldn’t let him in, and Mom about killed us over that one,” Black said.
“I have a lot of respect for her to think about how she worked all the time and how she raised all of us and did everything,” Sturgeon said.
Walked to school every day …
Alice “Louise” Roberts was born Jan. 18, 1914, on Greasy Creek Road to John and Samary Roberts.
Her father died in World War I. She grew up with one sister; two other sisters passed away as infants.
She walked to school in Nashville every day. She remembered her mother allowing her and her sister to walk up over the hill, near State Road 135 North, to see her grandparents.
Louise married Leo Knight on Oct. 21, 1932. Their children don’t know how the two met, because Leo lived in Bloomington and Louise was living in Nashville and working at the Nashville House.
“Dad always claimed Mom married him for his 1932 Ford,” Art said with a laugh.
The couple lived in Monroe County for a few years and had a grocery store on Walnut Street. Then Leo began buying and remodeling homes for resale. He also worked at Kroger in Indianapolis for four or five years.
The family store
He bought the land for Knight’s Corner in 1940. By 1946, after some difficulties with getting materials due to World War II, the grocery store was complete.
Gas pumps were added and it evolved into more of a convenience store.
But even though their parents owned it, that didn’t mean the kids could get whatever they wanted.
They received an allowance for working at home and at the store. They could pick out two things for free each day and had to buy the rest.
“They were kind of strict and taught us that you don’t just get everything you want,” Sturgeon said.
But Art found a way around that system.
“Art would wait until Dad got busy then he’d say, ‘Can I have a candy bar? Can I have a candy bar?’ Dad would say, ‘Get it and shut up,’” Black added with a laugh.
Louise always loved to talk, especially when she worked at the store.
“She’d help somebody carry groceries out and Dad would get mad because she would be out there forever,” Black said.
Leo and Louise ran the store until 1984 when Art took over.
In 1986, Leo had a stroke, and he moved to Brown County Health and Living Community. He was there for five years before his passing.
All that time, Louise volunteered every day at the care center, helping to care for him, serve meals to other residents and organize special events.
What’s the secret to living until 103? For Louise, her children believe it’s because she ate a lot of fruits and didn’t smoke or drink.
Even at 103, her heart and lungs are in good shape, but her short-term memory is not the best and she has an unpredictable sleeping schedule.
They say Louise often asks when she can go back home, the place she’d raised her family, which has grown to include nine grandchildren, 13 great-grandchildren and 17 great-great grandchildren.
“I just think back about my mom working all the time and with four kids to take care of, and she’s at the store all the time trying to manage all of us and work at the store,” Sturgeon said.
“She kept the family together,” Art said.
