Buna Deitz began life in a time when the North Pole was only being explored, women were allowed to attend a boxing match, the Saturday Evening Post begins to run Norman Rockwell paintings and Boeing is flying for the first time.
Dietz was one of eight children born to Joe and Jenny Moody on March 22, 1916. Dietz has seen a lot of years of changes in the world as she grew up. She grew up in a time when radio transmissions began in 1929 in Washington, the first shopping mall opened for business in Michigan in 1954 and the Beatles released their very first album in 1963.
In today’s world full of cell phones, television, computers and instant messages, it is hard for us to imagine a time when these things did not exist.
One has only to go through a historical event site on the computer to understand the changes Dietz has seen in her life.
Entertainment meant socializing, not hooking up to the TV. Electricity was brought to the area sometime after 1933 when the Tennessee Valley Authority was created to provide rural areas with electric power.
Dietz was married at the age of 15, has a fifth grade education and has farmed since she was old enough to help her parents with corn and cattle and then her own farm and family. Dietz says she never had time to have fun. “It was always about working and doing work for the Lord,” said Dietz. “You should always do the Lord’s work.” Dietz loved gardening and raising blueberries as well.