At 90, Batten is happiest with family

Poplar Bluff native Peggy Batten, who observed her 90th birthday, Friday, March 26, has watched the United States swear in 11 presidents, traveled across the country and seen much of the world.

“I can hardly believe it,” said the local businesswoman of her life, but she’s “looking forward to many more” birthdays.

She learned to drive a stick shift, operating the lights with her foot while traveling on gravel roads. As life progressed, she’s traded the gravel roads for the German Autobahn, trips in the air and on trains. Now, she drives her Lincoln.

She’s lived through “lots of wars, remember World War II the most.” Reminiscing in “1944 all the kids I went to school with watched 10 or 12 airplanes at a time flying overhead taking the soldiers overseas.”

Her first flight was in a private plane piloted by a cousin flying out of the Poplar Bluff airport.

Batten and her twin were born on Clyde Street in Poplar Bluff in a house her dad, Frank Walker, built and it is still standing. Her mother was Hattie Walker. Batten’s twin Patsy lived six months.

She had two older sisters, who were each five years apart. When she was born, the oldest was 10 and the second was 5. They were Beryle Holtzhouser and Lucille Dinwiddie.

The family moved to Fairdealing in Ripley County. She attended Burnham, a two-room school, where her older sister was the teacher. Batten completed the fourth grade before transferring to Doniphan for fifth grade. She attended Naylor school from sixth grade until she graduated high school in 1950, before moving to St. Louis.

She and her high school sweetheart, Bob Batten, were married in 1953.

The Battens had two daughters, Susan McVey and Laura Zadnick. In 1961, they moved from St. Louis to Poplar Bluff.

A member of the First United Methodist Church since 1962, Batten is a member of the Wesleyan Sunday School Class and Mona Mason Ladies Circle.

In 1963, the Battens started Bob Batten Equipment and Construction Co., Inc.

McVey recalls moving into the family home 53 years ago. Theirs was the third house in the neighborhood and the street was gravel. When it snowed, every youngster would sled Sunset hill. Bob Batten built an outside fire and her mother served hot chocolate to everyone.

The Battens liked to cook and entertain together. Batten recalled a time when Bob roasted a pig in their backyard for a political event.

Mother “cooked healthy before healthy was cool” because life was a bit different for them, McVey said.

“Bob was a childhood diabetic,” Batten said. “We would eat lots of beef, vegetables and salads.”

When they wanted pie, they’d go out to eat, Batten said.

Batten started playing bridge and China painting in the late 1970s.

“I still paint some, especially roses,” she said.

While her China painting has been displayed at the Margaret Harwell Art Museum and the Poplar Bluff Municipal Library, her art, along with her antiques, grace her home.

At times, she’s been a member of several bridge clubs, but COVID-19 slowed down the card games.

When Bob Batten decided to slow down and retire in 1977, the couple began to travel.

“We traveled all 50 states,” she said.

Batten continues to travel. She has taken trains to the western United States, visiting Oregon, California and Colorado, including Denver, Telluride and Durango. She likes to visit with family in Arizona.

Batten has been to Niagara Falls two times, once to Mackinac Island and Thousand Islands.

Her boat trip “took us all around amazing Thousand Islands,” she said. “Mackinac Island is very interesting.”

No vehicles are allowed on Mackinac Island and travel is limited to horse drawn carriages or boats.

“It was a great experience; I would do it again,” she said.

She’s been to Las Vegas at least three times, but believes “train rides are more fun.”

“I love to fish wherever there is water,” she said. “I love to throw my hook in the water. It’s just so much fun.”

While they enjoyed traveling, Bob Batten still liked taking care of their rental property, so she decided from 1980-85 to work in the Lucy Lee Hospital business office.

On the morning of Aug. 1, 1988, Batten recalls her husband forgot his water jug the first time he left for work. He came back to fill it. Each time he left, she remembers him waving to her. He was meeting his grandson, Mike, at 8 a.m. to replace a roof on a rent house. At 9 a.m. Mike called and said, “come quick Gran.”

His grandfather passed out on the roof and was not responding. An ambulance was called.

As Batten arrived, “I was standing on the ground, trying to keep calm and calling his name. They took him to the hospital. He was gone at 56, which was quite a shock. I knew I had to continue on. We had commercial property, houses and apartments.”

While life continues to change, Batten still loves to travel, paint China, play bridge, fish and spend time with family and friends.

She has accompanied McVey to London, Scotland, taken a river cruise from Amsterdam to Budapest. Her love for trains also has taken her from London to Paris, and under the English Channel. She likes watching the Cardinals play and going to their games.

Batten said, “Susan is my right hand. She’s only a phone call away.”

“I have a wonderful life,” she said. “The happiest time of my life is when I get to be with my daughters and their families.”

Batten also has five grandchildren and four great-grandchildren

Batten will enjoy celebrating with friends and family this weekend.