Former Shell Knob resident Freda Renick, of Lee’s Summit, turned 100 years old on Nov. 4.
She was born in 1923 in Mano. Her parents, Virgil Stever and Rena (James) Stever purchased a farm and moved to Shell Knob when she was 6 years old. She attended the Brock School, walking two miles every day to and from the schoolhouse.
Her mother, Rena James at the time, attended the exact same school, and the frame of the one-room school house still stands in Shell Knob. Renick was raised in the farm, learning and doing all the required chores. She later attended two years of high school in Shell Knob, and the junior and senior years of high school in Cassville High.
WWII broke out during her senior year, and she saw the boys in her graduating class going into various military branches and then being sent overseas to fight in the war. She and other young women wanting to do their patriotic duty, and also seeking a new life adventure, left the area to attend Springfield School of Aviation where they learned the skills of riveting, metal work and wiring, prior to them going to Kansas City.
They were employed at the Fairfax, North American Aviation plant. She worked as a ‘Rosie the Riveter’ building B-25 bomber planes for the war effort. Renick later returned to Shell Knob to teach for one year at Brock Schoolhouse, where both she and her mother had previously attended. She taught at Brock for one year before leaving again for Kansas City, and jobs at both Pratt and Whitney, and Fisher Body plants.
She met her future husband in Kansas City and married Grover Renick Jr. In 1946. They opened a hardware and radio repair business, and managed a parking lots in Kansas City for nearly 20 years. They raised two daughters, Beverly and Jeanette, and Renick was actively involved in the local school’s PTA.
The Renicks purchased land at Table Rock lake in the Central Crossing area and continued to maintain and enjoy her mother’s previous residence in “Old Shell Knob” until it was sold in 2019. The Renicks moved to Lee’s Summit in 2005, and she was widowed in 2017 after 70 years of marriage.
Renick was born and raised in the Shell Knob Church of Christ, raised her children in the Van Brunt, KC Church of Christ, and currently is an active member of the Blue River Church of Christ, where her big birthday party was held, attended by nearly 200 guests.
Renick remains very active, not needing cane, walker, glasses or hearing aids. She attributes her good health and vitality on being farm-raised in her beloved Ozarks. She wrote a book on her childhood memories called “Special Memories,” which she wrote during COVID in 2020 and has donated. It can be seen and read at the Barry County Museum in Cassville.
