Allison Moore, left, with Vicky Moe after the Moore’s presentation Riders on the Orphan Train in PebbleCreek.
102 year old Vicky Moe, a surprise delight at LLL “Riders on the Orphan Train” program
Nancy Love
“When people ask me what’s the best part about being 102, I tell them, ‘no peer pressure.’”
A member of the audience asked her about her husband. Vicky smiled, paused and then said, “Which one? I’ve had three.” She added, “I’m a widow—right now.”
This is Vicky Moe, a real charmer and a surprise speaker at LifeLong Learning’s Riders on the Orphan Train program, January 23.
From 1853 to 1929, approximately 250,000 children were sent west and south by train from the orphanages and streets of New York City. The goal was to find homes for them where they would be fed, housed and educated and hopefully, loved. These journeys were organized by the Children’s Home Society and the Catholic New York Foundling Hospital.
One little girl, Vittoria (Vicky) Mary Gennaro boarded the train in 1918. Her Sicilian immigrant parents had given up and she spent her first six years at the Foundling Hospital. She disembarked in Albert Lea, Minnesota, and, as prearranged, went to live in the Catholic Rectory in nearby Easton with the housekeeper as her foster mother. Vicky arrived malnourished, shy and suffering from the residual effects of influenza. She recalled her foster mother as strict but the priest as kind and good, giving her reassurance and support. Vicky grew up and graduated from high school and then nursing school in Sioux City in 1933.
By 25 Vicky was working as a nurse in Alameda, California, where she met and married her first husband. Her children, Cecilia and Jerry, were born there. During the war, Vicky and her family moved to Phoenix and she soon divorced. Her second husband died of cancer. Then, at a refresher course for her nursing skills, she met Ivan Moe, fell in love and was happily married until his death in 1987. She then threw herself into volunteer activities, especially enjoying tutoring lively but struggling first and second graders.
In 2010, at the age of 98, Vicky attended a reunion of the Orphan Train children in Minnesota. No one has an exact number of those still alive but it is estimated to be less than 100.
On her 100th birthday, Vicky learned about her natural family. One of her seven grandchildren researched the family and learned that Vicky had four sisters. All are gone now, but a niece and nephew came to the birthday celebration. It was then that Vicky saw, for the first time, a photograph of her parents.
She gave up her apartment when she was 100 and moved into Beatitudes in Phoenix with her daughter. Her son lives in Sun City. Stairs don’t stop her nor does she ask for assistance when walking.
As for her favorite time in history, she responded, “Now.” She’s having more fun than ever.
Commenting on her age, she said, “It’s just a number.” Vicky Gennaro Moe turns 103 In April. Happy birthday Vicky!
From border control to Jon Benet Ramsey murder, 5 March lectures have something for everyone
The programs that will bring this season’s Monday Morning Lectures to a close include several that are sure to bring large crowds. Plan on arriving no later than 9:45 a.m. to assure you have a seat in the theater. As always, tickets are $3 per person, payable at the door.
Sex Trafficking, Surviving Life on the Street
Monday, March 2, 10:00 a.m. With the Super Bowl here this February, local law enforcement agencies promised a crackdown on prostitution. But what is actually happening on the streets of Phoenix? Carolyn Jones, a former prostitute who now works for Streetlights USA, which helps rescue women and young girls from the street, will be here to “tell it like it is.” She was featured in many media stories about the issue on TV and in the local papers.
The Jon Benet Ramsey Investigation
Monday, March 9, 10:00 a.m. Almost 20 years have passed since six-year-old Jon Benet Ramsey was murdered. This month we will have an inside look at the investigation from PebbleCreek’s own Mary Lacy who was the Boulder County Chief Deputy District Attorney, Sexual Assault Unit, the day she was murdered. Lacy will present details about the initial stages of the investigation, the Grand Jury process and why she took over the investigation from the Boulder Police Department which botched the investigation from the start.
Air Quality in Phoenix
Monday, March 16, 10:00 a.m. If you’ve ever hiked in the White Tank Mountains and looked back at Goodyear and the Valley, you’ve probably seen the brownish-purple haze that has settled on the Valley floor. Representatives of the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality Control will be with us to talk about the problems of our air and what is being done to correct it.
Preventing Recidivism in Female Inmates
Monday, March 23, 10:00 a.m. Perryville Prison is barely more than a stone’s throw from the PebbleCreek Community. For most community residents however, the prison and the lives of the women inside its walls might as well be in another state. Sue Ellen Allen, an inmate in Perryville from 2002 to 2009, a very popular lecturer two years ago, and Martha Marhood Mertz, founder of ATHENA International, will be here to tell us about the lives of the women inside the prison, what brought them to it and what can be done to prevent future incarcerations.
The Border Control
Monday, March 30, 10:00 a.m. During 2014 thousands of women and children from Central America streamed across the U.S. border from Mexico and news reports detailed how overwhelmed the Border Patrol was, but the problems are hardly new. Agents of the agency will be in PebbleCreek to give a firsthand account of conditions at the border and how the agency operates.
Visit www.lifelonglearningatpc.org for more information about these lectures and other LLL programs.
Two March premier lectures bring record-breaking season
to a close
Two Friday night lectures in March highlight the diversity and caliber of this season’s Premier Lectures, the first season in which LifeLong Learning had several sold out lectures and had to schedule extra appearances to meet the demand.
The lectures span the generations. At 7:00 p.m. Friday, March 6, we revisit the Cold War era as Sergei Khrushchev, son of Nikita Khrushchev, tells us what it was like from the “other side.”
Two weeks later, at 7:00 p.m. Friday, March 20, we will learn about the future of cancer research from Dr. Erkut Borazanci M.D., M.S., the drug development scholar at Scottsdale Healthcare Research Institute, where he is developing new therapies for cancer at the forefront of such research.
Dr. Borazanci is a member of a Phoenix area team that studies new anticancer agents, both in the clinic and in the laboratory and is a key player in the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen). Tickets to this lecture are $10 per person and may be purchased before any LifeLong Learning lecture or at the door.
Khrushchev, who emigrated from the Former Soviet Union with his wife in 1991, is a naturalized American citizen. He taught at Brown University and is quoted frequently on recent Russian affairs, particularly the crisis in the Ukraine.
This lecture was sold out in October and those wishing to attend are urged to use the eGroup to find tickets.