Elfrieda Crouch - working in Braille

Elfrieda Crouch is 92, and has only had one real hobby. She was a volunteer for Lutheran Braille Workers for 40 years. Her work ended about a year ago, only because the method of transcribing and creating Braille Bibles and devotional books is changing with new technology.

But then, change would be the norm in nine decades of living, right? Elfrieda was born in 1922, a year when numerous radio stations began transmitting, Stalin was appointed general secretary of the Communist Party, Babe Ruth signed a three-year contract with the Yankees for $52,000 a year, Benito Mussolini took control of Italy’s government, Hitler was briefly incarcerated for disturbing the peace, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the 19^th amendment and women’s right to vote, King Tut’s tomb was discovered, the creation of the USSR was formally proclaimed, and Warren Harding was the U.S. President.

Elfrieda’s life started out in a small Kansas town, near Manhattan. She had three sisters and seven brothers, and might have had even more siblings if her mom hadn’t died when she was 3. “I don’t remember her at all,” Elfrieda said. She was raised by her older sisters, with some assistance from her father, who was a carpenter.

Elfrieda Crouch, in foreground is a table her husband made

Elfrieda is a life-long Lutheran, Missouri Synod, and attended a Lutheran school until she became of high school age. Her early school memories aren’t necessarily pleasant, she said, since the minister of the church-run school practiced corporal punishment on a regular basis, usually with the classroom as his audience. (While the thought of a child being whipped might shock some people, it was commonplace at that time, and is still used today in places.) With high school came a new kind of freedom. “You didn’t have the catechism in front of you all the time,” she said.

She met her husband, Rex, at the Pla-Mor Ballroom, which was at Linwood and Main in Kansas City. It was part of a huge entertainment complex, and popular with people who liked to dance. They wed in 1946 and had been married almost 61 years when Rex died. Rex was a builder and a woodworker. He built the ranch home in the early 1960s that Elfrieda still lives in, and the home is filled with intricately carved clocks, wall décor and furniture that he made.

Partial Braille alphabet card

Elfrieda was a homemaker, taking care of the couple’s two sons, making sure meals were on the table, keeping track of busy schedules. She also was a regular church-goer, and it was at Zion Lutheran, which was then at 75^th and Belinder Road in Prairie Village, that she first heard of the Lutheran Braille Workers (LBW).

A representative of the organization had come to Zion to share information and seek volunteers. LBW, a ministry of the Lutheran-Missouri Synod, was founded in 1943. The organization utilized thousands of workers across the country to make Bibles and devotionals. Elfrieda signed up. “There were six of us,” she said. “It was an assembly line. I was at the tail end, binding papers into books.” Masters are made on zinc plates, with each page requiring its own plate. The plates are fitted on a press, then printed onto heavy paper. Books must be collated by hand or the raised dots will be smashed, making it unreadable.

Creating Braille publications by hand was labor intensive. “Each book was about 80 pages,” Elfrieda said. “It took about 10 minutes to do one book, and that’s if everybody was well and on their toes. We usually worked three to four hours.” 

Clock Elfrieda's husband made

While helping make the books was a calling and a ministry, it also led to much more. “Fellowship,” Elfrieda said. “We always had lots to talk about. And we would get together for a Christmas luncheon, things like that.”

Elfrieda said her husband was not a church-goer like she was. “I never pushed him,” she said. “If he didn’t want to go, then he didn’t want to go. But he is the one that picked out Holy Cross, though I don’t know why.” They were at Holy Cross less than two years when Rex died, but Elfrieda continues to worship there and in fact is there most Sundays.

Elfrieda is one of those people who you know right away has a zest for life. It’s not just in the way that she carries herself, or her markedly pretty skin, or her ready smile. She keeps busy with her five grandkids and two great-grandkids, and meets regularly with friends. “And I keep up with the news,” she said, catching up with world events each morning on the television.

So what is her secret to good health and a long life? After all, she has outlived all of her siblings, her husband and her oldest son. “I have no secrets to share,” Elfrieda said. “None at all. I don’t know what the future holds, and I’m not worried about it.”