Some people fear going against the grain and facing change. One St. Joseph woman's life stood as a testament to reaping the joys of doing both.

An advocate of the value of hard work and physical fitness, Blanche Gupton was the second youngest of 13 children growing up during the Great Depression. Through that, she learned that to be noticed, you needed to work hard, look presentable and be frugal.

As her three daughters, Connie Kurz, Jordan, Utah; Vicki White, Independence, Mo.; and Robyn Smith, St. Joseph, would say, Ms. Gupton was an example of the modern working woman before it was a societal norm.

"She was very strong-willed and not easily swayed," Ms. Kurz said. "She was a strong-willed woman before it was acceptable. She was ahead of her time."

Despite being in a lower-class family, Ms. Gupton learned from an early age how to look like a million dollars without actually spending much money, partially in thanks to a cousin married to J.C. Penney's brother.

"(Ms. Gupton's cousins) would send them their hand-me-downs, and even though they were hand-me-downs, for the family and even for St. Joseph, they were quality clothing," Ms. Smith said.

The practice of stretching a dollar to its maximum usage was one lesson, the sisters said, that was passed down to them and they have been teaching others.

"She taught us about buying things in bulk, dividing it out and saving large quantities of things," Ms. Smith said.

Besides her family, Ms. Gupton had a deep love for big band music and dancing.

"She spent many a day at the Frog Hop (Ballroom)," Ms. White said. "She always talked about how she met the big bands like Jimmy Dorsey and how wonderful it was to be part of it."

Which leads to another love of Ms. Gupton's: talking. The sisters said she always had an endless amount of stories that she would tell to anyone willing to listen.

"She didn't know a stranger," Ms. White said. "We'd always had our places that we liked to go to eat. Before it was all over with, everybody that was waiting knew about my mom, how old she was, how she hitchhiked to Kansas City and went down to the old burlesque clubs."

The irony was lost on Ms. Gupton when warning her grandchildren not to talk to strangers, Ms. Smith said. "We always teased her about it," she said.

One of Ms. Gupton's big loves was the outdoors. She was deeply involved in activities such as fishing and hunting mushrooms, and served as an outdoor source to the News-Press in the 1980s.

One of her more notorious catches was an 11-pound channel catfish that matched the state Master Angler Award weight, an award that marks a big step in a fisher's career.

"Our father was the hunter and mother was the fisher," Ms. Smith said. "They would go to farm ponds and conservation and she would catch channel catfish and she would drag those home."

Even as she got older, the daughters said she stuck to her ideals. Recently, at a granddaughter's birthday party at Gino's Italian Cuisine in Kearney, Mo., she randomly broke out into a dance when she heard a song she liked.

"She scared me to death," Ms. Smith said. "She told (Hilary Smith, her granddaughter), she said, 'You didn't know your Grandma had those moves.'"

The Friday before her death, Ms. Gupton told Ms. Smith that she had won a dice game at a local care center.

"We asked what she got for winning and she said 'I didn't get a thing. The least they could have done was put my name in the newspaper.'" Ms. Smith said. "This is a little late, but I think wherever she is, she's proud."

Andrew Gaug can be reached

at andrewgaug@npgco.com