Long-time Merrill resident, Kay Folsom, celebrated 100th birthday

She was born Mary Kathleen Bornhofen on Sept. 1, 1924. The only daughter of Marbella and John Bornhofen, she started going by “Kay” and then married Dr. William Hilt and, after remarrying following his death, as of Sept. 1, 2024, on the occasion of her 100th birthday, she was known as Mrs. Kay Hilt Folsom.
In honor of her celebrated 100th birthday, Merrill Mayor Steve Hass recognized Kay with a personal letter that Kay cherished.

“On behalf of the City of Merrill, I would like to recognize your birthday milestone of reaching 100 years old,” Mayor Hass said in his letter. “You and your family have made Merrill your home by operating a business, and being a part of the Merrill Community. The City appreciates all that you have done to make Merrill a better place. Your hard work and effort is a model that should be followed by our citizens. Please accept my gratitude and let me personally wish you a Happy 100th Birthday.”

Being honored by the Merrill community was incredibly important to Kay as she neared her 100th birthday, as her time spent in Merrill and memories of those years were such an important part of her life.

Kay’s adventure in Merrill began when her parents operated the Jeane Hats & Dress Shop in the 1940’s, a ladies dress shop that was located on E. Main St., the second store west of the Courthouse, about where Courtside Furniture is located currently. Kay attended UW-Milwaukee and awaited the return of her high school sweetheart, William Hilt, who was serving in World War II. When William returned from his service as a pilot in the US Army Air Force, the couple married and he attended college on the GI Bill and then went to the Illinois School of Optometry. Kay got a teaching job in Hammond, Ind., going into the homes of children with severe illnesses and disabilities who were not admitted into school settings, until she became pregnant with the couple’s first child. “When my mother became pregnant, the Superintendent said that she must stop; however, when he could not find a replacement, he insisted that every parent must give written permission for her to continue coming to their homes,” said daughter Kathleen Hilt Ponko who was the child in utero at the time.

“Everyone did,” she said, “So she taught these children through the rest of her pregnancy.” Each of the families gifted Kay with a layette in preparation for the birth in early June of 1948.

When William graduated, he and Kay moved to Merrill in 1948, starting out living with Kay’s parents in an apartment above the dress shop. They settled into the Merrill community and put down their own roots here. Dr. William Hilt started an optometric practice that would last 30 years. And Kay started Lincoln County’s first homebound teacher program, where teachers would go into the homes of area children challenged by illness and disability, similar to the program she had been a part of in Indiana. “She traveled the county to visit all the children with severe disabilities or illnesses to ensure these young people get a formal education in their homes,” Kathleen said. “It was innovative and critical to families and continued until public schools instituted bussing and more ways to incorporate handicapped children into the school systems.”

A second daughter, Jeane, was born to the couple in September 1949.
“On a Sunday morning of July 12, 1951, while my mother [Kay] was playing the organ at St. Francis Church, the [dress shop] building exploded along with two other businesses including an A& P store,” Kathleen said. “Somehow, my father got the two little ones and my grandmother out, but my grandfather was trapped in the basement. He was terribly burned but survived the explosion.”
“I don’t think they re-opened the store in Merrill,” she said. “Tragically, that same location was the site of the infamous JC Penney explosion that took the lives of eight people nine years later on July 18, 1960. In retrospect it was determined that a gas leak had caused both explosions.”

During her years in Merrill, Kay and her husband Bill raised their two children and Kay was also active in community life. Kathleen said Kay was a founding member of the Hospital Auxiliary, Beta Sigma Phi Sorority, and Merrill Community Theater.

When Bill and Kay began to plan for retirement, they started a new adventure in Florida. Kay worked for numerous other ladies dress shops and Bill encouraged her to start her own store. It became her second career when, in her ‘50’s, Kay opened a dress shop of her own in Naples, Florida, known as Kay’s On the Beach.

Bill and Kay built a new home in Merrill on Tee Lane Drive and just a month later, Bill died suddenly in Merrill in 1984 at the age of 62.
“Mother has always maintained their home and relationships in Merrill, and over the years would go back and forth to Florida to attend her business,” Kathleen said.

In 1986 in partnership with her daughter, Jeane, Kay and Jeane together grew the business into five boutiques on Marco Island and in the Naples area, Kathleen said. Today her grandson, Banks Seiple, is the third generation to work within the business Kay started there.

Kathleen said that even up to her last days, Kay maintained a deep love for her home in Merrill and the people she knew here. Kay celebrated her milestone 100th birthday in Marco Island surrounded by family, Kathleen said. Both of her daughters were there, along with her son-in-law, Bill Ponko; grandchildren Banks Seiple, Sarah Ponko, and Billy Ponko and Billy’s wife, Rachel; and two great granddaughters, Rory Ponko and Reese Ponko.

But it was ever so important to her that the people of Merrill knew how much they meant to her, as well, and that they knew she was thinking of them on this momentous occasion and remembering her days in Merrill. “A big thank you to Kathy Wulf and Mayor Hass for recognizing a remarkable woman on this milestone day,” Kathleen added.

Sadly, Kay died last week on Oct. 10, 2024, just weeks after her momentous birthday.