03/15/2022
WHO is Esther ?
This was a story written about Ester ….😊❤️
Esther Lux day coming soon. April 30th
LEAD — She’s been a Firefly and a Golden Gal. Then she was a charter member of Lead’s “Golden Gang” of tireless volunteers who work to make the city a better place.
She has collected, washed, sanitized, and filled thousands of Easter Eggs for the annual Lead Easter Egg hunt. She has shoveled snow at various business, painted many of the houses in town, and has been a jack-of-all trades, with the kind of comprehensive education that can only come from real-life experience.
Today she is the pride of Lead, as Mayor Tom Nelson has declared April 30, 2013 to be Esther Lux day, in honor of Lux’s 80th birthday.
“I’m not different than anyone else,” Lux said. “Everybody knows I love Lead.”
But those who know Lux say she is different. Her service to the “City of Gold” is what makes her special.
“Esther is the kind of lady that will bring a smile to your face when you see her,” said Melissa Johnson, executive director of the Lead Area Chamber of Commerce. “She is so caring and is always willing help out. I have known Esther for almost 10 years, and in that time she has always been one of Lead’s biggest cheerleaders and volunteers. We are lucky to have Esther!”
Kathy Van Der Vliet, owner of Bloomers Flowers and Gifts in Central City and longtime friend of Lux’s said, “I so admire her for her dedication to her husband and family, not to mention all the many organizations she was involved in. Beinga person who likes to get involved and volunteer, I figured this has to be the key to staying young and still have fun. So, you could say she is my idol in so many ways. I really believe people in this world meet for a reason and I thank God I have met Esther.”
It started in 1952, when the 20-year-old farm girl moved to Lead with her brand new husband, Adolph. Jobs were hard to come by but, like many people in the area, the Lux’s moved from North Dakota to Lead to work at Homestake.
“It was just like home in those days,” Lux said, adding that so many people from around the state migrated to Lead to work at Homestake, that faces became familiar quickly. “Everyone knows I love Lead.”
It wasn’t long before the couple became active in the community. Adolph quickly joined the fire department, and it was out of love and compassion for the men who worked such long hours that Esther became a “Firefly.”
“All of the (firemen’s) wives, whenever there was a fire we would make sandwiches or have something in the freezer for them, so that when the firemen came in we fed them and gave them hot coffee and tried to give them a hot meal if we could,” Lux said of the “Fireflies” role within the department. “It was important to me because my husband was a fireman. He would come home hungry and tired and cold and sometimes it was nasty weather. It’s hard to be out there for all those hours and not have anything to eat or drink. It was just a wonderful feeling to help some of these people that I would say were in need of warmth and love and caring, with a hot meal or just a sandwich and hot coffee. I have great respect for firefighters. My heart goes out to all of them.”
Never one to sit at home, Lux said she also held several jobs in Lead. For nearly 20 years she worked at the Nugget Café in Lead. In addition to working at several other businesses around town, Lux also owned and operated her own house-painting business for eight years, and she shoveled snow at the Twin City Mall for several years.
“I have been kind of a jack-of-all trades,” she said.
Most recently Lux’s service to Lead has been through the Golden Gang, a group of volunteers who work with the Lead Area Chamber of Commerce. A charter member of the group that started as the “Golden Gals,” until the men who helped the gals re-named the group, Lux said she enjoys the variety of work that comes from helping the Chamber. Whether it’s folding letters or filling Easter eggs, Lux stays busy.
“Whatever the Chamber needs help with, we do,” Lux said. “I enjoy the people. They’re all really nice people.”
One of Lux’s major contributions to the Golden Gang is the annual Lead Easter Egg Hunt, which boasted more than 5,000 eggs in 2012.
“There are so many happy faces there and they have so much fun,” Lux said. “(At first) nobody was too enthused about it, so I said ‘I’ll start it.’ So I am the one who goes around and collects all of the stuff for the candy and it takes an awful lot to fill those eggs. It makes me feel good just looking at those eggs and thinking that is going to make a lot of kids happy next year. I have a thing about little kids anyway. I love small people.”
In addition to her volunteer service, Lux said she also loves to enter magazine contests. She once won $100 from Woman’s World magazine for her recipe “Dirty 30s Hamburger Recipe.” But the most Lux said she ever won, was when Reader’s Digest published a story she wrote about her boys, Harley and Mark, cleaning the garage for their dad as a Father’s Day present.
“It was about raising kids responsibly without spending a lot of money,” Lux said.
Overall, Lux said the city of Lead has been very good to her, and she never wants to live anywhere else.
“I often think that at my age I may have to move to some other place,” Lux, who like most Lead residents climbs multiple steps to reach her front door. “I am trying for someone to build some housing in Lead that will fit what I want. I just don’t ever want to leave Lead.
“It’s the people,” Lux said of what makes Lead special. “Everybody pulls together. Everybody helps each other. We may not have it all together, but together we have it all.”
While today is Lux’s birthday, the Lead gem said she does not have any plans. Although many people have invited her out to dinner, she said, “I have to take a rain check. I just can’t eat that much in one day!” Lux’s sons, Harley and Mark, plan to host an open-house birthday celebration for her on July 27.
