A Taylor resident celebrating a century of life is being praised for a legacy built on hard work and family her children and other relatives said.
Friends and family surrounded Alleene Jirasek Seale — a former city employee, coach and entrepreneur — for a recent landmark 100th birthday celebration at SPJST Senior Living facility, 1810 Old Granger Road.
“(Our mother) was remarkable and talented in many ways and worked hard all of her life for her family. Working hard was her love language,” said Seale’s daughter, Theresa Gossett.
Attendees came from all over the state to celebrate with Seale, including her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. The oldest party guest was Seale’s brother Donald, who will turn 98 in November; the youngest guest was Glen, the 6-month-old grandson of one of Seale’s cousins.
“It was fun having so many generations together for such a happy occasion,” Gossett said Seale was born in Williamson County in 1926 to parents Sadie and Engelbert Jirasek and lived in the Taylor area all of her life. She started her school years at the Coupland School in Coupland but attended high school in Taylor, where she met football star and future husband Fred Seale.
“They worked hard to build a life together and then to raise their family,” Gossett said.
The Seale family included Gossett and siblings Juanna and Michael.
Alleene and Fred Seale ran the Knights of Columbus Hall in Taylor for over 20 years, but Alleene also held many other jobs, including clerical work for the city of Taylor and Texas Power and Light, now known as TXU.
In the mid-1960s, Seale also taught girls physical education classes and coached volleyball at St. Mary’s Catholic School. In the late 1970s, Seale opened a T-shirt business called That Shirt Place with her son as a silent owner.
“Working with customers was her forte and she loved building up the inventory to serve more people,” Gossett said.
In her spare time, Seale took in alteration and sewing jobs, having taught herself to sew at a young age by making flour sack dresses for herself. She advanced from flour sack dresses to beautiful Easter and Christmas dresses for her daughters and others, family members said.
According to her children, every penny Seale earned went to her family and children to pay for baseball gear and dance lessons.
At 87, Seale retired from the workforce after suffering a debilitating stroke. Gossett said her mother sleeps most of the day now with “small windows of alertness that we all treasure.”
The family thanked SPJST not only for allowing them to hold Seale’s party there, but also for the care the staff have provided their mother as she “rests and dreams of all her years of joyful hard work.”
