SPEARVILLE —- It was a birthday gift that Spearville resident Louise Hornung and her six children will never forget.

"I was very surprised that they all went along," Louise said, smiling.

Her six grown children – who live as far away as California — flew or drove the hundreds of miles to the studios, where Louise was treated to a big birthday bash at her hotel. The celebration included a DVD presentation of her life history, which incorporated photos contributed by all the family members.

While there, Louise and her family toured the EWTN studios and attended Mass on several occasions.

"It’s very small compared to what you expect," Louise said of the studio complex. "We were able to watch a taping of ‘The Journey Home,’" a call-in program that discusses why people are drawn to the Catholic Church.

They also visited the Our Lady of the Angels Monastery for the Poor Clare Nuns of Perpetual Adoration – an order established by Mother Angelica in 1962, and the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament, which Mother Angelica had constructed in 1995.

"That was the neatest part of the trip," Louise said. "Mother Angelica was on a pilgrimage in South America when she received a vision from Jesus to build the temple. Five families donated all the money to have it built. It was just beautiful.

"My first impression was that she did so much to build this," Louise said. "There is just so much to see. You could spend two or three days there and not see everything. You just really can’t believe it until you get there."

Mother Angelica launched EWTN in 1981 after numerous requests for speaking engagements led to the creation of a video series of her talks that were taped at a local television station.

Although she knew nothing of the technology needed to launch a television station, she eventually began broadcasting from a garage-turned-TV-studio. Today, EWTN is seen across the world, and the studios and monastery are visited by thousands of pilgrims each year.

Louise was unable to visit Mother Angelica due to health problems the nun has experienced in the last several months stemming from a debilitating stroke.

Louise was born to Henry and Anna Klenke Knoeber. Louise’s father and his three brothers started the Spearville Mercantile, which successfully operates today. She attended St. John the Baptist Catholic School in Spearville, St. Mary of the Plains Academy in Dodge City, and Dodge City Business School.

At 18, she served for four months as a Harvey Girl at the Santa Fe Train Depot.

"I remember that the first week or so I cried every night," she said. "If you didn’t get an order in the exact way the head cook wanted, you heard about it.

"The travelers were nice," she added. "They tipped very well."

She then worked as a stenographer at First Natonal Bank in Dodge City. In 1937 she married Chester Hornung, whom she met at a sodality (Christian fellowship) dance at St. Mary of the Plains Academy.

"He was from Windthorst," she explained. "St. Mary’s was an all-girl school and very strict." Occasionally, the students from Windthorst would travel to Dodge City to take part in St. Mary’s dances.

In 1959, after barely more than 20 years of marriage, Chester died, and two of their children who were in college left school to come home and help run the family farm.

"The kids stayed on the farm," Louise said proudly. "They’ve all been faithful to me ever since."

In 1999, Louise moved into Parkview Apartments, not far from the home of her daughter, Annette.