ANGEL FOOD TRIBUTE

A special cake injected a dash of enchantment into Melissa Memorial Hospital’s Legacy Event on Saturday night as more than 300 people – some dressed in garb befitting the year’s “Fairy Tale” theme – witnessed a bidding war that became a tribute to the late Emily Haynes of Holyoke, who had died the day previous within two months of her 99th birthday. When Emily could not provide her well-known angel food cake, an unknown donor baked one in her honor.

Shouts and the flash of tickets could be seen across the Phillips County Event Center, with bids shooting up past the $1,000 mark and the $2,000 mark, while personnel from Michael Auction Service struggled to keep up.

“Over the years, she’s made so many of those cakes,” said Brady Haynes, Emily’s grandson, who with his cousin Russell Haynes coordinated with the family to gain the winning bid of $5,000 on the first go-around. “They brought in so much money to the community. It was neat to see one cake as not necessarily a last hurrah, but more of a continuation.”

Emily’s history of baking cakes goes back to the 1940s, Brady said, when she began making them for weddings. She donated a cake to Dragon’s Wagon Preschool annually, according to Brady, since it began more than four decades ago. Over the years, he said, she donated cakes to “countless” benefits and fundraisers.

“When I say ‘countless,’ I don’t mean it facetiously, I mean it literally,” Brady said. “There’s not a way to really quantify all that she’s done.

Her cakes for Dragon’s Wagon alone, he said, often went for between $500 and $1,000 during the past 30 years – equal to a total of between $15,000 and $30,000 for that organization.

Upon receiving the winning bid, the Haynes family donated the cake back to the hospital to auction off again. This time, it sold for $1,400.

“Third time’s the charm!” shouted the winner, sending it back to auction.

The cake gained another $1,600; the winner sent it out again for a fourth go-around.

A final victor bought the cake for $1,000, capping off a sequence regarding a confection of egg whites, flour and sugar that raised $9,000 for the Melissa Memorial Hospital Foundation. An audience donning suits, dresses, cowboy hats and fairy wings rose to applaud.

“It was nothing short of touching,” said Penny Bailey, executive director for the Foundation. “It just so replicates this community and its spirit.”

As with Dragon’s Wagon, Emily made a habit of donating cakes to Foundation events, Bailey said, where the dessert often would fetch a good price. The Foundation felt especially thankful, she continued, given that Emily often won the baking contest at the Phillips County Fair.

“We were honored she cared enough about our hospital to do that for us,” Bailey said. “You always had the county winning recipe for your auction.”

Emily always had been a “warm-hearted” person, her grandson Russell said, with an interest in helping the community. She also carried a good sense of humor: “short and to the point,” with the ability to “make light of about anything.”

“I don’t think there was anyone who ran into her that didn’t have a good memory of her,” he said.

Her mindset, according to Brady, carried over from her upbringing as part of the Greatest Generation, who lived through the Great Depression and Second World War. Whether the need involved providing supplies for soldiers through the North Platte Canteen or raising funds for a child diagnosed with cancer, he said, “When your neighbor was hurting, or country or community needed help, you did everything you could to help them out.”

While Emily proved an “incredibly generous spirit,” according to Brady, she also grew up tough.

“She was a farm kid from the Great Depression,” he said. “She grew up just like my grandfather did. You know, tough. She milked cows by hand.”

Some of his grandfather Delbert’s favorite stories, Brady said, involved courting Emily. When Delbert stopped by to take her on a drive, at times, he needed to wait for her to finish milking the cows.

Brady hopes the community remembers “how much” Emily thought of both all of them and her family.

“Those two things were everything to her,” he said. “And I don’t mean community just in the sense of the town of Holyoke. The community could be Holyoke, it could be Phillips County, it could be Colorado, it could be this area, it could be any of the people around her.

“I’ve never met such an open-minded, kind person in my life.”

Following the cake’s fourth purchase, the buyer donated it to Melissa Memorial’s nurse’s station.