Leona Berry and Marta Gebhardt will be sorely missed by the women they've known and golfed with for years at Anderson Field Golf Course in Streator.

Berry, 96, has retired from golfing after playing the game for 64 years.

"My game is so bad," Berry told The Times this week, prompting her to step away.

Berry started golfing at Anderson Field in 1945 when she moved back from Chicago after attending beauty school. She was one of the first to play at Twin Creeks when it was built.

"I just love to be out there," Berry said. "You meet a lot of really nice people. It's a lot of fun."

At the height of her golfing career she was on the greens four days a week.

Berry is most proud of having two chip-ins. She regrets never having had a hole-in-one during all the years she golfed.

Calling herself an "unclaimed treasure," Berry never married. She lives in Liberty Village and has no family left in town. She has some great-nieces who live out of town.

"I miss golfing already," she said Thursday. "I had to quit driving. My eyes were getting bad," she concluded.

"Leona is a wonderful lady, so kind and understanding," said Carmen Friede, who works in the clubhouse at Anderson. "She always has something good to say and a cheery outlook on life."

Friede says as Berry has aged, she's been unable to walk as well as she used to.

"She would shuffle out and we'd finish the shot for her," Friede said. "She's the bright spot of Anderson's Thursday morning league. She's the first one here and the last one to leave. Even when it rained, she'd have a shower cap on."

Gebhardt, 75, came to Streator from Germany with her GI husband, Ray, in 1956. She couldn't speak English when she arrived and learned it by reading Donald Duck and Superman comic books.

She has cooked at Anderson for 18 years for the men's city championships, except for the last few years. She got hurt last year when she tried to pull some chairs apart. As a result, she went from about 150 pounds to 79. She is going to move to Duluth, Ga., to live with her niece in late August or early September, and would like to say goodbye to the people of Streator.

Gebhardt has many good memories of living and working in Streator.

"People are wonderful," she said. "Streator has been the best place on Earth that I've ever lived. I'll miss the people the most. I never made an enemy. I only made friends."

Even though Gebhardt has worked around golf for so long and learned about the game, she says she never learned how to play.

"I tried it one time and I put a hole in the ground," she said, laughing.

One of Gebhardt's favorite memories is her nickname, "yellow-ribbon lady," for her efforts in putting yellow ribbons around town to honor troops in the military. Her efforts created some controversy with city officials in 2006, but since received the approval of the mayor and councilmen.

"Marta's my heart," said Friede. "We've been through a lot. She's touched my life. The stories she tells about war and her outlook when she came she didn't know anyone. I'll miss her and her stories the most. You learn from her, hopefully. She's taught us a lot."

At the end of the gathering on Thursday, Gebhardt waxed nostalgic.

"It was nice reminiscing about the past," she concluded.