For Virginia Hamilton, growing up in Kansas during the Great Depression and Dust Bowl was difficult. "We were dry land farmers. If it didn't rain, we starved. When I was 7 my father could no longer keep up the payments on the land, so everything was taken away -- our chickens, cows and all of the equipment. My parents were brokenhearted. It was the end of their lives as they knew it," said 81-year-old Hamilton.

Hamilton's father got a job cutting hedge posts with an ax. He was paid a nickel a post. On a good week, he could cut as many as 1,000 posts. "One week my mother would buy flour and sugar, and the next week she'd buy other necessities for the family. By the time I was 5 I had learned to sew on a treadle sewing machine and began making my own clothes. We moved around a lot as my father sought work, so I attended nine different elementary schools," she said.

Despite the family's hardships, Hamilton said that her childhood was idyllic. "I was the baby of the family. My parents, Roma Florence Sonner and William Emit Woodward, along with my three sisters and two brothers, showered me with love."

Hamilton was born in 1930 in Seneca, Kan. She attended and graduated from Topeka High School in 1947. "The school was built with WPA funding and cost $1 million. It was beautiful. It had cherry-wood paneling and chandeliers. It's still in use today," she said.

Hamilton attended Washburn University for two years before accepting a job as a teacher at a one-room schoolhouse in Atchison County, Kan. The school had no electricity or running water. "I was the teacher and the nurse, and I also cleaned the outhouse," she said.

After three years of teaching she returned to Washburn University where she was reacquainted with her first and only love, Donald Raymond Hamilton. They had met years earlier when both worked at Crosby Brothers Department Store in Topeka. "I was a check girl. I'd run around the store getting checks approved by the supervisors. Donald was a stock boy. Back then he didn't know of my feelings. It was love from afar. But when he came home on leave during the Korean War, we reconnected."

The couple were married in 1954 in Topeka, and both graduated from Washburn University in 1957. Donald Hamilton died in 2003. They have four children, 12 grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

The family moved to Santa Fe in 1964 when Hamilton's husband was transferred by Sears Roebuck and Co. to be the comptroller of their Lincoln Avenue store. About three years later, Hamilton resumed teaching. Her first assignment was teaching fourth grade at Kearny Elementary School. For the next 25 years she taught at several public schools and became an active member of the National Educational Association. After her retirement in 1992, she continued to work with the organization for eight more years.

As a retiree, Hamilton volunteered for many years as a math tutor for the Boys & Girls Club of America. She stays fit by swimming several mornings a week at the Salvador Perez health complex. She's an avid reader and spends time making clothes for her great-grandchildren's doll collection. In 2005, she traveled to China, where she visited the recently discovered third-century Qin Dynasty Terracotta Army. In 2010, she went on an expedition to Africa, during which she enjoyed the rare thrill of taking 27 game drives. "At dusk, a bull elephant challenged our vehicle. It was scary. We drove in reverse at full speed to get out of his way," she said.

Hamilton also takes frequent group trips within the U.S. and is in the process of planning more adventures. "It's fun to do different things. I don't do the same thing twice very well because I get bored so quickly," she said.

Ana Pacheco's weekly tribute to our community elders appears every Sunday. She can be reached at 505-474-2800.