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Willow Glen 'first lady' to lead Founder's Day

By Anne Ward Ernst

Some who know 100-year-old Sophie Birk call her Willow Glen's first lady. All who see her riding in this year's Founder's Day parade will call her grand marshal.

Birk is an ol' parade pro; it's been 82 years since she was in her first parade. In the inaugural Fiesta de las Rosas in 1926, she walked with the queen of the parade down The Alameda until her foot started to hurt. That's when she was scooped up by Gov. James Rolph, who was on horseback, and finished riding the parade with him.

She'll ride down Lincoln Avenue in the Founder's Day parade in an open-air vintage car from around the time she moved to Willow Glen, in late 1929, a time when there were walnut trees along Curtner Avenue and cherry trees elsewhere.

Photos of that time period will be on display during Founder's Day weekend, says Norma Ruiz, executive director of Willow Glen Business Association.

Ruiz says she believes Birk is the perfect person to represent the parade because Birk has seen so many physical changes take place in the Willow Glen landscape but the feel of the neighborhood is still the same, Ruiz says.

"Willow Glen perceives itself as [having] a small-town feel even though it is in an urban environment," Ruiz says. "[The parade] is kind of like getting a piece of Americana in an urban environment."

Birk has lived much of what is considered Americana, including being one of the first families in Willow Glen to get a television set.

"People would stand outside on the sidewalk outside our doors and watch our TV from there," Birk says. "My husband started inviting them in."

When she arrived home one evening after picking up her son Ron from a school event, she says there were 11 people she didn't know sitting around her TV in her living room.

Birk's Sept. 9 birthday is one day, and 19 years, before the date Willow Glen was incorporated as a city in 1927. She had attended San Jose Business and Secretarial School and was a young woman working for the local daily newspaper as a secretary. But she was bored, and when her boss asked her what she really wanted to do, she says she pointed across the room to the woman operating the switchboard.

"I want to do that," she said.

Her boss at the Mercury Herald was Jay Hayes, and he had known Birk her entire life. He explained the switchboard operator position was obviously already filled, but soon after, Hayes used his connections to help her get a job working for Pacific Bell as a telephone operator. By the time she retired in 1973, she was a supervisor and instructor.

"I think I'm the oldest telephone company pioneer still alive," she says.

Birk was born in 1908 at Hayes Mansion, though she says they called it Hayes Park then. Her father was a driver for the Hayes family, and her mother worked for Mary Hayes. By the time she was 3, her father had accepted a job as superintendent of Oak Hill Cemetery, and the family moved into a home across the street from the cemetery.

"I used to get $2 a month to close the cemetery gates," she says.

Her father taught her the value of saving money, and she says for every nickel she earned she had to save a penny. She passed on that ethos to daughter, Marcelyn, and son, Ron.

"I still save today, though I don't know why," Birk says.

A sharp student who skipped sixth-grade at Franklin Elementary School, she describes herself as a tomboy who got into a bit of mischief.

"Out at Oak Hill in the spring when the grass was high, we would take the door off the outhouse and slide down the hill riding it," she says.

She's always been quick-witted, says Roger Bibb, longtime family friend.

"She had that 50 years ago," he said.

Bibb grew up with Birk's son, Ron, and describes Birk as a nice lady, a good businesswoman, and a woman of quality, reliability and honesty.

"She was stern. She was a good mom and raised her kids to do right; don't break the law, obey the rules. She enforced that. When you would go to visit at her house, she would set the tone," he says.

It was that tone that helped her meet her husband. She and her mother had asked their landlord to have a heating vent placed in the center of an area shared by two rooms so that it could heat both rooms.

When she got home from work and saw the vent in a wall to the side, she demanded to know, "Who's the dummy who put the register in the corner?"

And out popped the head of Jerry Birk, the man she would marry in 1934 at the Carmel Mission. Jerry Birk died in 1991. The couple owned and operated a brake and equipment shop in San Jose.

Sophie Birk says she's always been lucky and led a "wonderful life," and she's never had anything bad happen to her. Still sharp-minded and healthy, she drives a 1996 Buick she says she hopes lasts as long as she will.

Every morning before she gets out of bed, she does 50 sit-ups and a battery of other exercises. It's what keeps her going so strong, she says.

But she hasn't been without health problems and says she had her appendix and gall bladder removed, two spinal fusions and three hip replacements--including her first in1968, which was performed by Dr. William Murray, considered a pioneer in hip and knee replacement.

"I'll last as long as they have spare parts," she says.

If she had any weaknesses, hers would have to be for clothing. She likes to dress stylishly, and on a day when she was doing nothing special, she was wearing zebra-patterned pants with a sleeveless black blouse and sporty flats.

"Look at how I'm dressed now. You don't see a 100-year-old woman wearing outfits like this," she laughs.

Photograph courtesy of Sophie Birk

Sophie Birk and her husband, Jerry, enjoy a night out during the 1940s. Born in 1908, Birk has seen a lot of changes in Willow Glen. She will be grand master of this year's Founder's Day parade.

Founder's Day and Italian Family Festa

Downtown Willow Glen is celebrating its anniversary with Italian flair Sept. 27-28.

Celebrations kick off at 10:30 a.m. with the Founder's Day Parade on Lincoln Avenue, featuring 100-year-old resident Sophie Burke as grand marshal. The parade starts on the corner of Coe and Lincoln avenues and ends at Willow Street.

The opening ceremony of the 28th Annual Italian Family Fest will follow at noon. The festa will feature authentic Italian food, entertainment, arts and crafts and an Italian car exhibit. Legendary Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin impersonators will make appearances.

A grape-stomping contest, children's games, tarantella dance competition and bocce ball will all be part of the free festivities. The event ends at 10 p.m. on Sept. 27 and runs from noon to 6 p.m. Sept. 28.

Fore more information, visit www.iahfsj.org or call 408.293. 7122.