Record-setting sisters combine for nearly 400 birthdays

The Johnson sisters of Rutland never imagined that someday they would set a record that would place them in the Guinness Book of World Records, that compendium of longest, strongest, tallest, greatest, fastest, bestest.

If the daughters of farmers Harry and Della Johnson ever expected to gain fame, it might be for their singing, good enough to rival other family acts like the Andrews Sisters.

Musical fame was never a goal, however. Instead, they centered their lives on family and faith.

It wasn’t until last year that the sisters — Arlowene Overskei, Marcene Scully, Doris Gaudineer and Jewell Bede — gained a wider fame when they officially set a Guinness record for highest combined age of four siblings. On Aug. 8, 2022, the sisters had reached the combined age of 389 years, 197 days.

Their achievement can be found on the Guinness site online and should be published in the 2023 edition of the Guinness Book of World Records.

Of the four sisters, only Marcene had remained in South Dakota. She and her husband, George Scully, farmed near Lake Madison for many years and raised three daughters: Linda Holdorf of Merrill, Wisconsin; Jean Koerten of Omaha and Lori Wilbur of Sioux Falls.

The sisters added about 720 more days to their total, bringing it close to 390 years, before the family circle suffered a break with Marcene’s death Jan. 13. Her funeral was Saturday at First Lutheran Church in Sioux Falls.

Holdorf started the research into gaining a place in the Guinness Book after an encounter with a friend in Merrill, who knew her family history.

“A bridge-playing friend of mine, Cathy Slavin, met me in a grocery store, shouting across the aisle, ‘You have to send your mom and her sisters’ information to the Guinness Book of World Records; I’m sure they will break the current record,’” Holdorf said.

Slavin had been sitting in a hospital waiting room in southern Wisconsin when she saw a television story on siblings who had just made the Guinness Book for their combined ages. Brothers Bob Goebel and Dick Goebel and sisters Gerry Bulger and Marjie Gilmartin had reached 383 years and 147 days when they made it into the Guinness Book just about one year ago. That achievement made the news in Wisconsin, where they reside.

Holdorf and other family members set to work. It took from March until August to compile all the information the Guinness record-keepers need. Marriage licenses and birth certificates had to be assembled, then converted to the form that Guinness required.

“It was onerous,” Koerten said.

“You stuck with it and didn’t give up,” Wilbur said, praising her older sister.

“There were days when I’d spend half a day — I’d get up in the morning and start on it — then think: ‘What was I thinking? Why did I listen to Cathy Slavin at all?’” Holdorf said.

The sisters’ children and grandchildren all expressed enthusiasm about the prospect. So did the sisters, to varying degrees, with Doris and Jewell the most excited.

“Mom smiled about it when she heard what we were doing,” Holdorf said. “I never really asked them. I don’t think any of us really asked them. We just did it. All their kids were happy.”

Guinness also asked the sisters to supply answers to a list of questions. The sisters’ answers reflected their personalities.

“We knew Jewell would be the perky one,” Koerten said. “We knew Doris would be the one to speak about God and faith and all of that, she did.”

“Arlo only answered a couple questions about living a good long life,” Holdorf said. “They asked what advice you would give to your younger self, and Mom said, ‘Well, I’d probably say don’t get married right out of high school.’ She said, ‘But I don’t know why I’d say that. It worked out for me.’ ”

Divided by distance, age and infirmities, the sisters had not been able to get together in person for more than 10 years. Doris and Jewell live independently but with assistance, and Arlo is in hospice care. Telephone calls kept them connected, and Jewell shared a special moment with Guinness.

“We loved singing together, but now I sing ‘I Love You Truly’ to my sisters on the phone,” she said. “It’s a great opportunity to celebrate our long lives.”

Arlo and her husband lived in Yankton and Mitchell before moving to St. Paul. Doris worked for Mobil Oil before marrying and becoming stepmother to three children. Jewell traveled the world with her Navy husband. Marcene had moved to Sioux Falls in 2004 after her husband’s death.

Then in her early 80s, she made all the arrangements to move herself, telling her daughters they wouldn’t have to worry. She didn’t want them to have to make difficult decisions about her future.

“And then she made all new friends,” Koerten said, knowing that’s not always an easy thing for someone in their early 80s to do.

Harry and Della Johnson and their two younger daughters moved from Rutland to California in 1941. Their two older daughters both had married and were on their own.

Marcene and George, in fact, had been married only a few months when the departure to California took place. She put on her best dress, made of blue velvet, attached a white lace collar to the shoulder, and while her mother was canning peaches, the young couple eloped to Watertown. Marcene had graduated from Rutland High School that spring; they had met two years earlier at a cousin’s wedding.

The marriage lasted almost 60 years until George’s death in 1999.

Family-oriented, loving, a happy homemaker who took care of cooking and cleaning and sewing the clothes. She followed the tradition of her times, Wilbur said. When they were older, married with families of their own, Marcene’s daughters learned just how effortless their mother made it look and how remarkable that was.

Marcene’s advice to her daughters was to the point.

“Everything will look better in the morning; go get a good night’s sleep,” Wilbur said.

“Make your bed. Fold your sheets with square corners,” added Holdorf. “To the end, she was scornful of people who didn’t make their beds.”

“She didn’t say it, but she lived it with Dad. All those years with Alzheimer’s when she persevered every day with great attitude,” Koerten said.

Marcene’s family gathered Nov. 5, 2022, for the annual lefse day, making the traditional Norwegian treat for Thanksgiving. Five days later, she moved to hospice care. But her sisters joined in the family activity via Zoom and learned that Gov. Kristi Noem had declared Nov. 5 “the Johnson Sisters’ Day.”

The “Scully sisters” maintain a close relationship. In that, they have emulated Marcene and her sisters.

“They just had this special relationship as sisters, and it’s been fun for us to watch,” Wilbur said. “They’ve all been our other mothers.”

The world changed dramatically in the Johnson sisters’ lifetime. That, a common faith and the camaraderie of singing as a quartet drew them together.

“They always had each other,” Koerten said.