Outdoorsperson of the Century

 

Who would I pick for Outdoorsperson of the Century?  Wow, tough call.  In a century that contained such outdoorsmen as Jack O’Conner and Theodore Roosevelt it would be difficult.  I mean, O’Conner was one of the greatest outdoor writers of all time and Teddy was not only a hunter and fisherman but president of the United States and is widely considered as the father of modern conservation.

But, in one category, they don’t hold a candle to Bertha Vickers.

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You can be forgiven if you’ve never heard of Ms. Vickers.  As far as I know she’s never been published, although she has been the subject of a few newspaper stories.  Also, unlike O’Conner and Roosevelt, she’s never hunted or fished in Africa or South America.  She’s never even hunted in Canada or Mexico.  Heck, as far as I know, she’s never pursued her passion outside of her home state of Mississippi.

But that doesn’t mean she hasn’t had any adventures.

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I’d love to visit Bertha.  If I could drop in on her, she’d most likely meet me at the door and invite me in to share a freshly brewed cup of coffee and to sample a cake she had just taken out of the oven as she did Brian Broom, the reporter for the Clarion Ledger when he went to interview her for the article that introduced the friendly lady to me.

We’d sit across the table and share stories of our kids and grandkids.  That’s pretty much a given in a conversation with a grandmother, but then it might head in a different direction.

We might swap stories about her deer season last year.

She’d proudly tell me about the doe she got, starting with where.  “It’s just over here across the creek about three or four miles,” she’d say. “One of my neighbors invited me to come sit in a (shooting) house.

Like many hunters, the waiting is a big part of the fun for her.  “I got to watch birds and squirrels until nearly dark. The first evening the deer came out and I was getting the cross-hairs on the deer and his dog barked. He let out a howl and the deer took off.”

I’d nod my head.  It sounds a lot like one of my hunts.  Some hunters would be disappointed and give up, but Vickers was in the stand the following afternoon.  “The next evening two came out,” Vickers would tell me. “They were getting close to where I wanted to shoot.”

Even experienced hunters can’t help but get excited when the quarry nears.  “I was sort of shaking until I got ready to shoot. I didn’t think it was all going to go right.”

But it did.  Vickers squeezed off a round from her .243 Winchester rifle and then went out to tag her doe.

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Bertha still lives about five miles from the little Oktibbeha County farming community where she was born.  A young man named Bert Vickers courted her and won her heart.  Like many young couples, when they married the first years were tough, but Bert took on the role of breadwinner with vigor.  “When he wasn’t farming he hauled logs and worked at a sawmill.  Times was hard.”

The hard working couple buckled down and did what they had to, but that doesn’t mean it was all bad.  Hunting and fishing helped put meat on the table.  “When they got off from farming they hunted,” Vickers said.  “We ate lots of quail back then.

“I always fished every chance I got, in the Noxubee River, mostly. I had a neighbor and we fished together. We’d pack a lunch and go. We’d catch stringers of fish.”

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With time the financial situation improved and the kids grew up and moved out, but the Vickerses found themselves hunting more, rather than less.  The Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks had taken on stocking efforts to increase wildlife populations.  Deer and turkeys started to flourish in the area so Bert and Bertha’s efforts were also more successful.

“We turkey hunted a lot after that,” Vickers said. “We hunted every spring.  “He called the turkeys up for a good while, but I started calling and I killed two. There’s a thrill to calling them turkeys.”

Deer hunting also became a tradition for the outdoors team.

“We used to ride around on Sunday evenings and look for tracks on the side of the road,” Vickers said. “When we started getting them, Bert got some dogs and we hunted with dogs.”

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When the love of her life passed away, Bertha’s enthusiasm for the outdoor life didn’t fade.  “Just to get to go and the thrill… is so exciting,” Vickers said.

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With more and more women taking part in hunting and fishing, I wouldn’t choose Bertha for Outdoorsperson of the Century just because she’s female.  I mean, her experiences would be awesome to talk to her about across the table, but some of the stories I’ve read by and about some others were even more exciting.

But in one criteria she’s got them all beat.

Longevity.

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Remember that doe she told us about at the beginning of this post?  Well, she harvested it just a few weeks before celebrating her birthday…her 100^th birthday.

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Bertha was born on January 8, 1918, at the end of World War I, yes, ONE.  Woodrow Wilson was still president.  Remember the tough times the couple had when they first married.  That was the Great Depression.  Bert and Bertha married in 1935.  They ate lots of quail and fish because there was no deer or turkey season in Mississippi during much of their early married life.  They didn’t have electricity for the first 15 years either.  When Bert passed away in 2001, they had been married for 66 years.

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So what did Bertha hope for this year?

“I’m going to do just what I want to do,’ said Vickers. ‘I’m going to fish more than I did last year.  I would love to kill a buck.  I can’t hunt in this cold, but it will warm up.”

I would have bet on her too.  But that’s not how the season turned out.

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Bertha has struggled with the frailties of advancing age this year.  She didn’t get to go fishing but did shoot a few squirrels.  There were more missed squirrels than normal so she was more determined to enjoy deer season.

So she climbed in the stand that relatives built for her and waited.  When one stepped into view, it wasn’t a buck.  She had lowered her goal a bit.  She would be happy with just meat but this doe was small, so she decided to wait some more.

“I decided to wait for a bigger one,” Bertha said. “Before long, a bigger doe came out and I shot.”

She excitedly climbed out of the blind and went to inspect her deer.  She was met by quite a surprise.  ” I saw two deer on the ground.  It shot plum through both of them. They both dropped right there.”

She let a friend help clean the deer and shared the meat with family.

What about Bertha’s future in hunting?  “When you’re as old as I am, you naturally think each one could be your last one, but I’m going to go as long as I can.  I enjoy it.  I love being outside.”

That’s my girl.

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Oh, one more thing, at 101 years old, Ms. Vickers is well on her way to being my pick for Sportsperson of the Century…two centuries in a row.

TWO deer with one shot…at 101 years old.  HOLY COW!

 

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(below) Bertha shows off the two deer she got during the most recent deer season.   She shot them both with the same bullet.  Not bad for a 101 year old hunter.