INDIANAPOLIS — Growing up in Osage, Okla., a small farming and dairy community in the late 1940s and early 50s was — in a nutshell — rough.
Benny Eaton tells the story of how, as a small child, his family didn’t have electricity or running water until he was six or seven years old.
“You just had to wait your turn,” Benny said. “But, it was always a kind of place where people took turns helping those in need.”
The 81-year-old, longtime Greenfield resident has come a long way from those early Oklahoma days. Seated in the south atrium of the Indiana Statehouse Tuesday, Benny was given The 2024 Golden Hoosier Award during a ceremony for his contributions to Hancock County.
The Golden Hoosier Award was established to acknowledge and recognize outstanding seniors for their lifetime of service to their communities. Sponsored by Indiana Lieutenant Governor Suzanne Crouch in collaboration and partnership with the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration, the Golden Hoosier Award is the highest honor bestowed on a senior in Indiana.
The ideal recipient is considered an unsung hero who has not received previous recognition for the impact they have made in the lives of others and the community.
“I was very surprised when I learned I was getting this award,” Benny said. “I’ve been involved with community service since we moved here some 50 years ago.”
Since 1973, Benny has been a member of the Greenfield Sertoma, a community service organization whose motto says they are dedicated to the service to mankind.
“We’ve always done as much as we could to donate to and help the community and I enjoy that,” Benny said. “Greenfield is a place where a lot of people are civic-minded and like to volunteer, so I’m just one of many.”
Benny says there is nothing like seeing the smiles on people’s faces after community service deeds are completed. While he can’t begin to remember all the good deeds he and other Sertoma members have done through the years, Benny says helping Shares Inc. get some new vans, getting Christmas presents and throwing a real Christmas party for those in need, purchasing hearing aids for people who can’t afford them, as well as donating thousands to charities raised from the weekly Sertoma bingo games, really is what life is all about.
“We were part of the church when I was growing up, and we’d give people food and water when they need it and my mother was always active in that so I guess I saw that from the very beginning,” Benny said.
Benny went on to earn four degrees — three from Oklahoma State University in agriculture, physiology and bio-chemistry — before earning a PhD in agriculture from Kansas State. He came to Greenfield in 1973 to work for Eli Lilly and then Elanco where he completed a 30-year career. Benny specialized in worldwide product development — a job that took him all over the globe.
Prior to all of that, Benny started his college career at tiny Northeast Oklahoma Junior Community College, where they allowed students to house their horse if they had one.
“There were probably 700 or 800 students, and you walk in the door and they said, ‘What do you want to do, either arts and science or agriculture,’” Benny said. “One of the last questions they asked you when you were signing up for classes was, ‘Did you bring your horse to school?’”
That humble beginning, Benny’s son Brent Eaton said, sums up his dad’s simple love for helping others and giving back to his community.
“He’s probably the hardest working man I know and he’s really old school,” Brent said. “My dad grew up on a dairy farm, and I’m telling you he for sure worked 12 hour days from the time he was six years old.”
Brent recalls a conversation his dad had with him when he was a youngster growing up in Greenfield that helped him sort of set the tone for doing right and serving others.
“He said, ‘Boy, there are two kinds of people in this world, the kind who get things done and the kind who make excuses, which one you want to be?’ I’m like nine years old at the time,” Brent said. “It just shows you his heart for getting things done and it does not stop ever, even to this day.”
Benny and his wife Brenda, a former school teacher at Greenfield-Central schools, say they fell in love with Greenfield when they first moved to the area and knew right away they wanted to make the area home and contribute.
“He’s always done so much for the community ever since we moved here,” Brenda said. “The Sertoma group, that’s a very good group with many great leaders who are still helping unless they’ve died or moved away.”
Some of Benny’s other work includes volunteering at the Nameless Creek Youth Camp, raising funds to keep it open for area youth.
“That place not long ago was bankrupt and not functional,” Benny said. “We rescued that place by raising money for a new building after we went around asking for contributions and now they’ve got a new building out there and are serving kids.”
Benny said all-in-all it was a thrill to be recognized by state officials for doing community work and he’s not only humbled by the honor, but was surprised to be nominated.
“I like to see people be happy and it makes you sleep good at the end of the day,” Benny said. “I’d like to think I’ve done my part to make a contribution to the good things that have happened in Hancock County.”
