A Seymour woman said there’s no real secret to living a long life.
By taking it one day at a time, Lucille Klosterman has reached her 100th birthday.
“I just live it day by day,” she said.
Klosterman hit the century mark Thursday but will be celebrating with family and friends during an open house in her honor at 1 p.m. Saturday at Peace Lutheran Church in Seymour.
Since blowing out 100 candles might prove to be difficult, Klosterman’s cake won’t have that many, said her granddaughter, Kellie Pelston.
“It’ll just have three, a 1 and two 0s,” she said.
Born Sept. 24, 1915, in Seymour, Klosterman is the daughter of the late William and Eliza Bedel. Her only sibling, Alice Marie Bedel, died at age 15, Klosterman said.
After getting all of her schooling in Bedford, she married her husband, Roy Klosterman, in 1934 in North Vernon, and he passed away in 1992.
They had two sons, Jim Klosterman, 70, who lives in Seymour, and Danny Klosterman, 62, of Wichita, Kansas; four grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.
So many things have changed in the 10 decades she has been alive, from fashion to technology to entertainment.
“I wouldn’t even know where to begin,” she said. “It’s something different every day.”
There have been a total of 17 presidents who have led the U.S. in Klosterman’s lifetime from Woodrow Wilson to Barack Obama.
She spent some of her years working at the Excello Shirt Factory and Gerwin Shoe Factory, both of which were in Seymour, she said.
Klosterman has been able to continue living in her own home with the help of a caregiver that comes daily and good neighbors, she said.
Klosterman used to do a lot of sewing but doesn’t do much anymore because her eyesight and manual dexterity isn’t what it used to be, she said.
“But I used to sew all the time,” she said.
She has a pet cockatiel to keep her company.
“I call him Pretty Boy,” she said.
And she likes to sit out on her front porch to watch people go by.
She said she doesn’t have any plans to move because she likes it here in Seymour.
“I ain’t lived nowhere else,” she said.
[sc:pullout-title pullout-title=”If you go” ][sc:pullout-text-begin]
What: 100th birthday celebration for Lucille Klosterman
Where: Peace Lutheran Church in Seymour
When: 1 p.m. Saturday
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