KEARNEY — Ever since she was 3 years old, MaKenna Karr would sit in the Bladen United Methodist Church on Sundays in the pew in front of Toni Turner. Toni would often talk to MaKenna’s parents.
In 2019, when MaKenna was 11, she decided to interview Toni for a 4-H project. A history buff, MaKenna had learned that Toni was the granddaughter of Anna Pavelka, the subject of the Willa Cather classic “My Antonia.”
MaKenna had planned to “just ask (Toni) questions about her life and put it into a scrapbook.” Instead, she turned those interviews into “A Treasure named Toni,” a book about Toni’s life.
MaKenna, granddaughter of Jane Tonjes of Kearney, will sign her book 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday at The Solid Rock at 1010 Third Ave.
There was an 88-year age difference between MaKenna, then 11, and Toni, then 99, but the two became such close friends that MaKenna invited Toni to share her stories at her school in Bladen.
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The book reveals much more than just Toni’s connections to Willa Cather. It’s also a picture of how rural Nebraskans lived during the 20th century.
Toni’s life story
MaKenna learned that Toni — officially Antonette Willa Skupa — was born June 9, 1920, nine miles southwest of Campbell in Webster County. She was the first child of Julia and John Skupa, who had immigrated from Czechoslovakia. John drove a buggy 40 miles to Naponee to become a naturalized citizen, but he was denied citizenship because he didn’t know any English and couldn’t understand any of the questions. He spoke only Czech.
When Willa Cather learned that the Skupas had given their first-born child the middle name of Willa, she gave them a real coral necklace from Saks Fifth Avenue in New York City. A very young Toni found the necklace in a chest upstairs, but her mother scolded her and told her that it was not a toy. Toni put it back, but she played with it every day.
Poverty and dust
The family’s first car was a 1928 Chevrolet they purchased for $800. During the Dust Bowl, they covered their mouths and noses with rags to avoid inhaling dust.
The family could not afford to celebrate birthdays or buy gifts for Christmas, but when Toni was 10, she received a doll and a doll buggy for Christmas.
After high school, she earned $2 a week answering phone calls at McIntire Funeral Home in Campbell, but she quit after she turned on the faucet one day and blood came out instead of water.
Her next job was caring for Marion Turner, 27, in Bladen, who was very ill. While there, she met Carrol Turner, Marion’s brother-in-law, and the two began dating. After Marion Turner died, Toni worked as a cashier at the Safeway stores in Hastings and Kearney.
Carrol and Toni were married in Hastings on Oct. 24, 1943. Anna Pavelka made the groom’s cake. They lived with Carrol’s parents until July 1946, when they bought their first house in Bladen for $800. They had two children, Barry and Alana.
In 1970, Toni, then 50, opened a barber shop in Campbell and worked there for 25 years until, at age 74, she accepted a job with Humanities Nebraska, traveling around the state telling stories about Anna Pavelka. Before retiring in 2009, Toni presented 5,000 programs during 15 years.
In 2019, the widowed Toni moved to the McCook Nursing Home to be closer to family. She celebrated her 100th birthday during the COVID-19 pandemic. No party was possible, but the family watched her open presents and cut cake through a clear door at the nursing home. They also took the coral beads from a Saks Fifth Avenue jewelry box that Willa Cather had given the family a century earlier.
On Aug,. 13, 2021, Toni, age 101 died in her sleep after a brief illness.
Writing the book
It took MaKenna three years to write the book because she was busy with school, sports and 4-H. The book was edited by MaKenna’s mother, Angie Karr, and her aunt, Lisa Tonjes Moritz, but little editing was needed, Angie said.
“I just added some commas, periods, etc. I helped her to rearrange a couple of sentences so it flowed better, but we really tried to keep it how she wrote it,” Angie said.
Karr and Moritz self-published 100 copies of the book. It includes 12 photographs of Toni’s life.
The book won special recognition at both the Webster County Fair and the Nebraska State Fair. “The judges thought it was cool. The special recognitions made me feel real productive. Toni could finally tell her story,” MaKenna said.
In the book, MaKenna wrote, “Toni was truly living, talking history. She lived through the Dirty Thirties, World War II, The Great Depression, the assassinations of John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr., the disappearance of Amelia Earhart, the Berlin Wall, the first man on the moon and much more.”
MaKenna added, “Toni was a rare treasure, but she had a strong Christian faith, and we know she’s in heaven, smiling down.”