In Bytha Faye Allen Bein's apartment at Morningside Assisted Living, you will find a crowd of birdhouses atop the refrigerator, a herd of elephant figurines stampeding across a table, photographs fanned out on the coffee table and shelves of cookbooks.
A small oval portrait of her parents hangs next to her bed.
"If any man ever did have his head on straight, it was my father," Bein said.
Bein, 87, grew up in Apache, Okla., in the midst of the Dust Bowl.
"I knew there was a lot of dust," Bein said laughing. "I didn't know that's what it was at the time I was living there, but I've since learned that it's called the Dust Bowl."
While much of the country was suffering through the Great Depression and Okies were fleeing their barren state, the Allens were successfully making ends meet. Bein's father, a teacher and principal, handled the family's finances and her mother tended a garden.
Bein ran her hands over a quilt at the end of her bed. Her fingers traced the yellow thread, spelling out "Florence." She explained that her mother stitched the bright autumn trees and sewed the names of Bein's 17 aunts into the trunks.
Bein said she inherited a yen for cooking from her mother. The cookbooks in her kitchen were prizes for winning cooking competitions in Brookhaven, Miss.
A Bible propped open on an ornate bookstand belonged to her husband, Theodore Joseph Bein.
"Many folks said it would never last because we were so totally different and from two different worlds," Bein said. "But I believed in the very depths of my heart that you take these vows before God: ''Til death do us part.'"
Bein met Ted while both were freshmen at the University of Oklahoma.
Being said she was a country girl from Oklahoma raised as a Baptist and Ted Bein was a city boy from New Orleans raised in Reformed Judaism.The couple surmounted their differences and began traveling the country for Ted's military career after World War II.
A framed American flag above the kitchen cabinets is a reminder of Bein's employment in the Air Force as a secretary, but she said her most important job was as a mother to three sons.
"Those children took first place in my life, I have to admit," Bein said. "Well, I did a good job of it. They're three fine men now."
After Ted's death in 2009, Bein moved into Morningside. She said the staff is attentive and compassionate.
The staff, in turn, said they have enjoyed Bein's personable presence at the assisted living facility.
"She's so sweet, and she loves to talk about her past," said Ryan McFerrin, interim director of Morningside.
Leighanne Temple, marketing director of Morningside, said Bein loves meeting newcomers and loves to be involved.
"She's a joy," Temple said. "I wish I had 40 more just like her."
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