At 97, Harley leads exercise class

On his 97th birthday, when exercise leader Kristin Jennings called in sick, Harley Ransom had no problem stepping up. With a stretch here, a squat there and jogging in place, Harley led his group of 20 fellow Meth-Wick senior citizens through their 8 a.m. half-hour exercise session.

“She called me,” says Harley. “I'd done this before. When I talked to her at 7:30 she sounded like she had the flu. She asked ‘Will you lead the class?' Sure. But it was different this time. It was my birthday.”

So, Happy 97th to Harley on Oct. 21. He's had many a memorable one, including:

1918 when his mother, Amelia, died a few days before his sixth birthday. She was the first flu epidemic casualty in Blairstown where he was born.

1941, the day before his birthday, Harley was activated as a first lieutenant in the Army for World War II. He was discharged as a major.

2008 when he shot his age in golf, a 96 at the Cedar Rapids Country Club.

“When I go to play golf in Arizona in the winter I don't have any soreness,” Harley says. “I attribute that to my exercises.”

Harley exercises to stay limber, not to build big muscles. He's been in the exercise class three times a week since moving to Meth-Wick in 1996. He has always stayed in shape - 150 pounds on his five-foot-five frame.

At 97, Harley carries on a tradition of family longevity. While his father lived into his 70s, his four older sisters lived into their 80s with the oldest dying at 94.

“My genes seem to be quite long,” Harley jokes.

When the U.S. quarters program began a decade ago, Harley's wife, Laura, brought home a folder to collect them. “I'll never live to fill them all in,” he said then. “Here I am.”

Laura died in 2003 just 22 days short of their 62nd anniversary. He met her while both attended Coe College in Cedar Rapids. They married Christmas Day, 1941, when he had a five-day Army leave and had three boys - Tom, now in Chandler, Ariz., John in Omaha and Dick in Cedar Rapids.

Harley had worked for Johnson Gas before and after the war until becoming manager of the Cedar Hills Me Too grocery store in 1954. In 1972 he transferred to the Belle Plaine store where he retired in 1977. He stayed there another 19 years.

In Cedar Rapids Harley often rode his bike to work. In Belle Plaine he walked four blocks to the store. He played baseball with his sons, took them hunting and fishing and still plays golf with them.

Despite a bout with bladder cancer and diabetes, Harley feels great. Exercise, he says, has been his elixir of life.