An unbreakable bond

Though miles apart, twins still celebrate their 93rd birthday together

Ellen Papke of rural Mina and her twin, Della Field of Imperial Beach, Calif., celebrated their 93rd birthday on Saturday. The plate at left shows Papke and her sister on their 75th birthday. The other plate in Papkeos hand shows the twins as toddlers in North Dakota. Papke is on the right. American News Photo by Anita Meyer

Blame the weather and homesickness for the miles that separated twins Ellen Papke and Della Field on their 93rd birthday.

"One won't travel because of homesickness, and one won't travel because of the weather," said Field's son-in-law Rudy Carter.

Papke loves the South Dakota area where she grew up, and Field doesn't like the weather here. So, even though their birthday was Saturday, the two celebrated together in September, when Field visited from Imperial Beach, Calif. They talked on the phone Friday night, said Papke's daughter Mary Mathern.

Though the miles separate them, they keep in touch, calling often, at least once a week, Carter said. And though the twins have lived apart for around 70 years, Papke still can't choose the trait she likes best about Field.

"Everything about her," Papke said.

Papke never remembers arguing with her twin.

"We never were a scrappy family at all," she said.

The early years

Papke and Field were born in North Dakota, the first of three sets of fraternal twins in the family of nine children. Less than two years after the twin girls were born, their mother gave birth to twin boys, who died in infancy. The third set of twins, a boy and girl, lived into adulthood, as did three other girls. The twin boy lived until he was 75, though his twin and another sister are still living.

Their father worked on the railroad, and the family moved to South Dakota when Papke and Field were 7. As youngsters, the twin girls were inseparable, Papke said. If one girl was sick, there was no use sending the other to school, she said. As they grew older, that connection remained strong. Neither wanted to leave the other behind.

"We didn't even go on dates if a guy didn't want to take two," she said.

During World War II, the twins' father and mother moved to California and went to work in shipyards and an airplane factory, respectively. Papke, then married to Lloyd Blow, a Marine, moved there with their two young children. Field already had moved to California to find work.

After a couple of years, Papke's parents moved back to South Dakota, and so did Papke. Blow was later killed at Iwo Jima, leaving Papke with three children, the youngest just two months old.

She remembers getting a $96 monthly pension and a $55 death benefit. She continued to work to support her family. In her long working career, she had various jobs beginning as a teenager.

"There were never any 'gimme' programs," she said. "You went and worked."

Keeping family ties

She later married Clarence Papke, her boyfriend from her Mina High School days. They had three more children and owned the Mina Bar, where Papke worked for 32 years. It was a friendly, family sort of place, she said.

"Sunday was always so full of neighbors you'd have thought that it was your house," she said.