Camille Brewer, Boyce. Camille B. Boyce. The Early Years.
Middle America in the early 1900s was shaped by America's entry into World War I.
Young John Henry Brewer of Paraguld, Arkansas followed the call to arms and shipped off to France, but was spared combat duty.
He returned and met young Hattie Stein in Cardwell, Missouri, where he managed the local office of the East Arkansas Lumber Company,
and she worked in a package goods store nearby.
They married, and John and Hattie Brewer moved 40 miles north, first to Paraguld and then to nearby Rector in the early 1920s,
where John managed the Rector Office of the East Arkansas Lumber Company, next to the railroad tracks, and just a half block from their home at the corner of Fifth and Dodd.
Julia was their first born in 1918, then came Camille in 1920, followed by Francis in 1922, and some 13 years after Francis came there, Boyd John, in 1935.
As Camille Brewer has always put it, we didn't know we were poor. Back then, everybody got only one present at Christmas.
But John Brewer not only had a job, he eventually became the owner of the lumberyard in Rector just before World War II and changed its name to the Brewer Lumber Company.
Naturally, most family members worked around the lumberyard, and Camille became a very good bookkeeper, showing a knack for accounting that carries on today.
Like most young people, Camille left home for the big city and enrolled with her sister Francis and her close friend Chris Fields at the Southern Baptist Hospital School of Nursing in New Orleans.
The three young ladies studied, and they may have even parted together in the Big Easy.
In New Orleans, Camille was destined to meet Bill Boyce on a blind date.
Arranged by her friend Ruth Moody, his boyfriend Bob Griswold was one of Bill's business associates.
Bill Boyce had flaming red hair, charisma, and the confidence of a man who, as a Marine Sergeant, had helped conquer the Japanese on Iwo Jima.
Bill was successful working as a colorist for the Rittman Paper Company in Ohio, and in short order was successful in winning Camille Brewer's hand in marriage.
Bill and Camille tied the knot in Rector and had the Christmas Day 1947 reception in her parents' dining room.
The visits to Rector were visits to the best of small town America in the post-war era, and time spent with Camille's mom and dad, Hattie and John, and Camille's younger brother, John, was always time well spent.
Fairy tales can come true, it can happen to you if you're young at heart. For it's hard you will find to be narrow of mind if you're young at heart.
You can go to extremes with impossible schemes, you can laugh when your dreams fall apart at the seams, and life gets more exciting with each passing day.
And love is either in your heart or on its way, don't you know that it's worth every treasure on earth to be young at heart?
For as rich as you are, it's much better by far to be young at heart. And if you should survive to 105, look at all you'll derive out of being a lion, and here is the best part.
You have a head start if you are among the very young at heart.
And if you should survive to 105, look at all you'll derive out of being a lion, and here is the best part. You have a head start if you are among the very young at heart.
Building Camille's first apartment was on Orkney Avenue in Cincinnati and they had an army of friends to help them move in.
And if you should survive to 105, look at all you'll derive out of being a lion, and here is the best part.
And if you should survive to 105, look at all you'll derive out of being a lion, and here is the best part.
You have a head start if you are among the very young at heart.
You have a head start if you are among the very young at heart.
At last, my love has come along. My lonely days are over.
Then was always on the agenda, such as visits with friends and family to the New Orleans Mardi Gras.
Down at Barney's Fair, one evening I was there, when I heard a showman shouting underneath a flag.
I got a lovely bunch of coconuts, there they are standing in the room.
Big ones, small ones, some must be because your head, give them a twist, a flick of the wrist, that's what the showman said.
I got a lovely bunch of coconuts, every ball would throw your magma rich.
And there stands my wife, the idol of my life, singing roll-a-bowl-a-bowl-a-penny-a-pitch.
Singing roll-a-bowl-a-bowl-a-penny-a-pitch.
The outdoors and travels to adventure have been a constant for Bill and Camille.
The outdoors and travels to adventure have been a constant for Bill and Camille.
The outdoors and travels to adventure have been a constant for Bill and Camille.
The outdoors and travels to adventure have been a constant for Bill and Camille.
The outdoors and travels to adventure have been a constant for Bill and Camille.
The outdoors and travels to adventure have been a constant for Bill and Camille.
The outdoors and travels to adventure have been a constant for Bill and Camille.
The outdoors and travels to adventure have been a constant for Bill and Camille.
Despite their love for adventure, Bill and Camille were happy with the simple pleasures of life in their new household.
And thanks to a 16-millimeter camera, they made it a point to showcase their appreciation for time together.
This is our life, these are our days, this is us trying to find our way, this is the love, this is the dream, this is us learning how to be who we are.
Because this is our life, this is our life, these are our friends, this is our family, the grows and bends.
This is our chance, this is our time, this is us making things to somehow leave behind.
What will we leave behind to show that this is our life?
Because I am so thankful for each moment that we share, right here is everything I need.
I love our life and I lie so much on it, thank you for loving me.
This is our life, straight over the mess, these are our memories and progress, this is our work, this is our hope, this is us learning how to cope and laugh and cry.
Because it's all yours and mine, oh yeah, yeah this is our life, this is our life, this is our life.
This is our life.
But for Bill and Camille, raising children and being a family was always job one.
It was a privilege they relished with no small enthusiasm.
2010 marks Camille's first 90 years, still the early years for a woman who has always been an inspiration, a good friend, a magnificent mom, grandmom and soon to be great-grandmom.
And he will always be young at heart.
