Geneva Slade can't understand all the fuss made over her role in helping Webster Park in Helena reach its centennial celebration.

In the eyes of the 98-year-old, the small eastern Andrew County community was simply the place where she and her husband, Preston, lived, attended church, farmed, raised a garden and helped folks find ways to celebrate local heritage each late June.

Geneva will be honored at noon June 27 as the oldest member of the Helena community, and people are already offering hearty congratulations. The town began celebrating the park's first year of 1909, a festival which has remained unbroken. Her activities and contributions to Helena merited the special honor, organizers said.

"I used to help with it a lot," Geneva said. "Those years are gone."

She was an admitted latecomer to the party - having been born near Amazonia - while Helena was Preston's hometown. Their partnership was among many in the community that helped the Helena Park Opening grow and diversify over the years.

Stagecraft, not the acting kind, was among the longtime teacher's contributions as program chairwoman. Preston guided her in how best to plan the large outdoor party, refreshments and all.

"Mainly we set it up and took it down," she said. "The first thing he asked me to do was wash a stock tank."

Preston would ice down the container and then it was up to Geneva to sell bottles of soda pop to a thirsty park crowd. But her talents didn't end there.

"We baked cakes, we baked pies and we froze ice cream," she said.

One of the proudest moments for the Slades was preparing the park for the nation's Bicentennial observance in 1976.

"We searched and were shocked to know there was a drugstore, doctor, casket maker, two grocery stores and a hotel" in old-time Helena, which was founded in 1878. The discovery spurred townspeople to write an article extolling Helena's finest qualities: the nearby dairy industry, the Methodist and Baptist churches and the school.

The unfurled history led park-opening planners to recreate the events on stage for the Bicentennial, said Geneva - now a resident of La Verna Village in Savannah. Music helped link the references, and Geneva pitched in then and at community revivals by playing the piano and organ.

"We got the people to sing and dance," she recalled. "We had two gals sit on milk stools and pretend they were milking a cow!"

Resident Vincent Evans even performed "The Auctioneer Song" for one of the park's programs.

A concrete stage was eventually built at the park for the opening. Geneva still laughs at how an upright piano was ever successfully lifted onto the platform.

The opening served as a perfect opportunity for Helena's 4-H Club members to set up booths to showcase their talents, she said. David, one of the Slades' sons, helped letter a Webster Park sign one year.

"There was always painting that had to be done every year" at the park, Geneva said. Making sure the bleachers received a fresh coat draws a laugh.

The Helena Helpful Neighbors club took over responsibility for the park's care in 1951, along with assistance from women in the community and both churches. It would fall to the Helena Lions Club to head up the maintenance projects and other plans for the opening.

Credit for making the Helena Park Opening into the landmark it is today has gone far beyond her own hands, Geneva said.

"Whenever we decided to do anything, it was community," she said. "Everyone in the community tried to spruce up their yard."

Families worked together even to the point of sharing the duties of making old-fashioned ice cream, she added with a laugh.

It was Preston's oft-repeated phrase - "The show must go on" - that has helped keep the park's special parties alive, Geneva concluded.

Ray Scherer can be reached at rscherer@npgco.com.