MODESTO, Calif. | Janis Lynn Jacobsen's birth was big news in the town of Spencer, Iowa.
The doctor had to leave a New Year's Eve party and head to the hospital to deliver little Janis, the "First Baby of Year" at 12:48 a.m. on Jan. 1, 1959.
In a black-and-white photo positioned at the top of the front page of the Spencer Daily Reporter, which has yellowed over the years, Deloria "Dee" Jacobsen holds her daughter while her husband Eldon "Jake" Jacobsen, looks on. Eldon Jacobsen had hoped his second daughter would've arrived in 1958 so he could've claimed her on the family's income taxes.
Other than the hospital bill that her mother saved (it cost just $18 for the delivery and $10 a day for a four-night hospital stay), the laminated newspaper page is the only item Janis Jacobsen-Powers, who now lives in Modesto, California, has that recognizes her as Spencer's New Year's baby.
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At the time, city merchants and businesses honored her arrival by giving her parents a number of "prizes" including a thermal bag, an infant diamond ring, a scrapbook, a $5 gift certificate from a laundry mat, a free hairstyle at the local beauty salon, a pail from a hardware store, a blanket, a pair of baby shoes, a free car wash, a case of baby food and two quarts of milk.
"Spencer was small. First babies of the year sometimes aren't born until April or May," Jacobson said by phone from Modesto. "To be in the small town of Spencer and be the first one probably was quite a deal."
Staff at UnityPoint Health -- St. Luke's in Sioux City still eagerly await the arrival of the first New Year's baby. Taffy Zoelle, director of women's and children's services for the hospital, said the New Year's baby receives a unique gift basket filled with a variety of items such as blankets, clothing and diapers.
Mercy Medical Center also sends its New Year's baby home with gifts.
"The Mercy Family Birth Center celebrates the arrival of the first baby born in the New Year with festive decorations for their room and sending them home with a car seat, bouncy seat, diapers, blankets and baby clothes," said Mercy obstetrics nurse Sirena Sigears.
Jacobsen-Powers, who has an older sister and a younger brother, learned early on that her birthday fell on a special day of the year because schools and businesses were closed. While she enjoyed spending her birthday at home with her family, she said she missed being able to handout birthday treats to her elementary school classmates. Out of town relatives had to mail birthday cards and gifts early or they would arrive at the Jacobsens' doorstep a day or two too late.
"They'd flip the paper calender and go, 'Oh! It's Janis' birthday,' and it's already after the fact," she said. "Even a decade ago when someone would give me a card ahead (of my birthday), they really thought about that."
Jacobsen-Powers, who is executive vice president of Oak Valley Community Bank in Oakdale, California, and now a grandmother herself, enjoys getting the chance to start the New Year and her birthday with a clean slate.
"Every year on my birthday I kind of tend to go back and look over because when you know better you do better. New Year's is the same thing -- everybody does that," she said. "For me, having those two fall on the same day that's just the gold star. I get to move forward with a new year and a new age. That's what I appreciate more than anything."
