BILLINGS — America’s 250th birthday bash is coming up this summer and in celebration of that, MTN is sharing stories of Montanans who exemplify the American spirit.
Francies Poulos is one of the state’s oldest residents, a World War II veteran who just had a big celebration for her 107th birthday.
Watch the full video below:
She has more than a century of stories, having been born in Wolf Point way back in 1919.
“I lived on a farm. A dirt farm,” she says.
She jokes that it was like any small town: “You knew everybody and everybody knew you. And everyone tattled.”
“She’s a pioneer in all kinds of things. It’s amazing,” says Karen Honkomp, a long-time friend who lived next door to Francies for many years.
From humble beginnings in Wolf Point, Francies would later join the WACS, the Women’s Army Corps, during World War II, doing whatever she could to help her country.
At the time, it was still rare for women to serve. She worked as a photo developer.
“Well, what most people did, I guess. Whatever there was to do but remember it was about over when I was there,” she recalls.
She's a member of the greatest generation.
“It was something that had to be done, and it was done,” she says.
America turned the tide and helped win the war, and Francies’ life also took a turn during that time.
“And that is where she met the love of her life was during World War II and the two of them had an amazing life together,” says Betty Jean Long, Life Enrichment Coordinator at Primrose Senior Living, where Francies now resides.
She married her husband Nick in 1945. He worked on a team that pioneered the material that allows space vehicles to withstand heat upon re-entry.
“When they were ready to put the big one up there, he helped do that,” Francies says.
Francies earned a degree in accounting and in law.
And after moving back to Montana in the 90s, she and Nick set out on a mission of turning neglected housing in Billings into homes that renters could afford.
“She usually would have the rents lower so the people could afford it or sometimes even let them go without paying. Her whole emphasis was where she was at one point in time and what happened to her and so she tried to pay it forward,” says former neighbor Honkomp.
A poet, an artist, and an author in her spare time, she’s a true Montana treasure—paying it forward for 107 years.
As for the key to living such a long life? Francies says this: “You don’t even think about it. You just do it. That’s all there is to it.”
