Chester Resident Celebrates 100 Years !
Warren G . Harding was president , and construction of New York ’ s Yankee Stadium was underway . Insulin was being used as a diabetes treatment for the first time , cheese was 38 cents a pound , and “ Toot , Toot , Tootsie ” by Al Jolson was the most popular song on the radio . Prohibition of alcohol had just begun …. and Dorothy Mary Samuel was born in Sturgeon , Pennsylvania to French immigrant parents , Jules and Valentine “ Tena ” Blanchon Samuel .
“ Dot ”, as she is called by family and friends alike , will be celebrating her 100th birthday on April 1 , 2022 . She has been a well-known resident at The Orchards in Chester , WV , for over nine years , and plans are being made to honor her and the life she has lived .
A 1939 graduate of North Fayette High School , Dot and her sister , Glo , were raised in Sturgeon . Upon her high school graduation , Dot attended the Dorothy Finkelhor Business Training College to learn secretarial skills . She applied what she had learned as a telephone operator for Bell Telephone in downtown Pittsburgh , across from the former Gimbel ’ s Department Store . Dot remembers she would sometimes stay with her aunt , who lived downtown , so she ’ d be able to go roller skating after work . Mostly , Dot would walk to work , or take the train – but there were military troops being transferred out via the railway system , and “ they took first priority ”.
It was on the train that she first spied her future husband , John Burda , and she took the initiative to approach him , saying “ that ’ s something I wouldn ’ t have the nerve to do now !” As fate would have it , John was soon sent to serve his country with the U . S . Army in Ireland , England and Germany , where he spent the next three years . They were married when he returned in May of 1946 .
John took a job with the Betsy Ross Bakery in Chester , and together with three children , moved to this area and raised their family here . Dot took a job at the newly-opened Hill ’ s Department Store , and later worked as a cashier for Russ Davis ’ IGA for over fourteen years . It was a job she loved , “ because of the people .”
Dot has always been a devout Catholic and remembers walking to church as a young girl . She also reminisces about dancing with her