'Keep moving' is how she got to100

Mark DeLap
Posted 11/30/21

100 year old birthday girl

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'Keep moving' is how she got to100

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GUERNSEY – She was born, November 1921 in St. Joe, Missouri.

When she walked into the doctor’s office last Tuesday, it wasn’t because she had appointment, per se, but her family had planned a 100 year-old surprise party for her at the only place she wouldn’t expect the surprise. Banner Health Clinic in Guernsey.

They got her there under the premise that she was taking her daughter, Glenda Baker to the doctor for a check-up.

When she walked in she saw the table filled with colorful cupcakes and a bottle of non-alcoholic bubbly just perfect for toasting the life of this amazing woman.

When asked what her secret was, she looked up as if she was scolding someone and said, “keep movin’” and began to teach about remaining active and to never slow down.

When asked what was the high point of her life, she looked down at her great grandson and said with a smile, “today.”

“Surprised I’m having a party in the doctor’s office? She asked again, the smile ear to ear as she answered her own question. “Yes. Big surprise.”

“I told her that I had to be rechecked,” Baker, who is facing some health challenges said. “I said, mom, they might as well check you as long as I’m down there.”

Hill, who was married to her second husband, Henry Hill, 42 years before his death. He was an original cast member of the 1922 silent film, Our Gang as one of the Little Rascals.

When Hill talks of her life and her heritage, she mentions that her aunt lived to 109 and had a second cousin who lived to 116.

“My husband passed away in 2017,” she said. “We lived in Bakersfield, California.”

She had an offer to live with another daughter in Idaho, but didn’t want to make that move. It was the poor health of her daughter that caused her finally to make up her mind to move to Wyoming two years ago to be a caregiver.

The daughter from Idaho had mentioned that perhaps assisted living should be the next step for her mother.

“She said, mom, I think you ought to go into assisted living,” Hill said. “Well, that went over like a lead balloon. I said, no way, I’m not ready for it. So I came to Guernsey.”

When she was asked what she thought about Wyoming, she replied, “It needs some improvement, but so far it’s nice and it’s accommodating. When you’re used to getting in a car, go four blocks and shop for hours, it’s different. Here you have to drive four hours to get to shop.”

Her journey has so much history and includes everything from running a lunch counter to being a switchboard operator for the Santa Fe Railroad. She also was quite proud of the fact that she bowled in a men’s league.

“I carried a 182 average,” she said nonchalantly and then chuckled.

She says that looking back, it’s people who have really changed and the thing out of all the things she has seen, she tried to remember what was the one and most tragic that stuck out in her mind.

She has gone through the Great Depression, the dust bowl, Pearl Harbor and WWII, Korea, Vietnam, president assassination and 9/11.

“Well,” she said and grew somber. “During the war years when you lost your friends.”

She remembered something so horrific that it brought tears.

“You go through it,” she said. “You just do what you do and keep going, try the best you can to help everybody else and… keep movin.’”

Picture at bottom: 

Helen Hill, Dominic Seymour, Glenda Baker and Donald Seymour make up a four-generation family that all began with Hill when she first appeared on the scene in 1921.