Luncheon honors some of the 27 Niagara County residents who are at least 100 years old
Centenarians give longevity tips ranging from goat’s milk to keeping busy
LOCKPORT — In response to the inevitable question about the secret to longevity, 102-year-old Helen Whitwell of Lockport had an unusual answer.
“Goat’s milk,” she said at an event in the Dale Association here Wednesday, one of three recognition luncheons arranged by the county Office for the Aging and the county Bicentennial Commission.
They were held at the senior citizens centers in Lockport, Niagara Falls and North Tonawanda.
“In 1988, my doctor told me I had cancer of the liver. He operated, and I don’t take any medication except Tylenol and vitamins,” Whitwell said. “We had 22 [goats] that we milked at one time on the Akron Road, but now my daughter buys it at the supermarket.”
Glenda Reardon, registered dietitian for the Office for the Aging, did the nuts-and-bolts organizing for the luncheons. She said there are 27 Niagara County residents known to be 100 or older.
The woman believed to be the county’s oldest living resident, Vincenza Colucci, 105, of Niagara Falls, was unable to attend the event there.
However, at the Lockport event, four women who are 100 or more did attend. Some of them arrived in limousines donated by Mac Limo, including Loraine Clark of Lockport.
The 100-year-old said, “I don’t worry a lot. I take one day at a time. I enjoy it.”
Clark and her husband, who died 18 years ago, operated Clark’s Hot Dogs on Ridge Road near Wrights Corners for 23 years.
Leetah Brown of Lockport, 104, was the oldest of the group.
“All I know is, the Lord put me here and left me,” she said. “I’m 104 and I’m enjoying it.”
She has lived in the Odd Fellows and Rebekah nursing home here for seven years.
Brown worked in an ammunition factory during World War II. “I carried 8,000 pounds of explosives behind me to the shipping room [on a jitney],” she said.
She stayed active as a practicing reflexologist. “I practiced reflexology [a health practice involving pressure points in the hands and feet] for about 12 years, until I got older, and I sort of relaxed on my practice. I was still going strong at 100 years old,” Brown said. “I drove my car until I was 94 years old. . . . I just don’t grow old.”
Her great-niece, Debbie Dearborn, said, “She believes in ‘use it or lose it.’ ”
Ada Baes, 101, advised those who would like to live long to keep busy. “I like to be doing something all the time,” the Lockport resident said. She taught in Akron for 22 years.
Whitwell, who lives in Newfane Health Facility, was glad the luncheon was being held in the Dale Association.
“I am a charter member of this building,” she said. “My husband built all the cabinets, the desks, the snack bar in this building.”
That was in 1968, when the Senior Center opened and she retired after 35 years of teaching in Lockport and Gasport.
She and Baes both volunteered at the center for years, Dale Association Director Linda Van Buskirk said.
“Ada and Helen really were instrumental in helping the Senior Center be the Senior Center,” said Van Buskirk.
The centenarians received citations from Mayor Michael W. Tucker and County Legislator Anthony Nemi, along with bouquets of yellow roses supplied by State Sen. George D. Maziarz, R-Newfane. Other city and county politicians attended the Niagara Falls and North Tonawanda luncheons.
“I can only imagine the changes they’ve seen in this world in their time on this earth,” Tucker said of the centenarians.
