“Music helps to keep you happy.” If that’s the case, the person who said it has been happy for a long time.
Today we’ll meet a rural Kansas man who has turned 99 years old and is still playing music. Thanks to Marilyn Jones for this story idea and to writer Julie Govert Walter and the North Central Flint Hills Area Agency on Aging for their related article.
Bob Delk turned 99 years old in August 2021. He grew up north of Peabody where he attended country school at the unincorporated community of Aulne, which today has a population of perhaps 50 people. Now, that’s rural.
After graduating from Peabody High School and getting married, he moved two miles north and two miles west of the place where he grew up and started farming with his wife’s family. “I did mechanic work, all the things a farmer has to do,” he said. He lived on that farm until 2016 when he moved to a house in Hillsboro.
Bob grew up in a musical family. “I idolized my dad,” Bob said. “He played violin and guitar. When I was 12, I decided I would like to play too. My dad showed me a few chords on a ukulele.”
