Fine at 100: Lone Tree woman among growing number of centenarians

Eleanor Secrest took a deep breath when asked to tell her life story Thursday at Pioneer Place Care Center in Lone Tree.

At 100 years old, it's a long story.

During that time, she's been a daughter, student, teacher, wife, mother and farmer. From Solon to Downey to Lone Tree, she's lived all over Johnson County and has a sharp memory for last names of families she has met along the way.

Her daughter, Patricia Secrest, helped organize a party at Pioneer Place on April 7 for her birthday. More than 50 people showed up, and she received more than 100 birthday cards, with more arriving every day.

The party was lovely, but Secrest, who is among the growing number of people in the United States living to be 100 and beyond, hadn't been looking forward to the occasion, and didn't consider it to be a major milestone.

“I told them I didn't want it,” she said.

Secrest doesn't fit the popular image of a centenarian.

She has some trouble with arthritis and has to use a wheelchair, but beyond that doesn't have any ongoing medical problems. She spends much of her time managing business for the family farm in Downey, and still listens to the market report on the radio every day to monitor crop prices. She also is the secretary for the Downey Grange.

Secrest is not an anomaly. Americans generally are living longer, making the occasion of becoming a centenarian not quite the exclusive milestone it once was.

The U.S. Census Bureau estimates that there were more than 70,000 centenarians living in America in 2009, the most recent year for which data is available. It projects that the country will have about 600,000 seniors 100 years or older by 2050.

The Iowa Department of Aging's numbers, which rely on seniors to self-report their status, puts the number of centenarians in the state at 676 as of 2009. The majority of them, 85 percent, are women.

Why some people live 100 years or more is tantalizing to experts and laymen alike.

Genetics plays a big role; scientists in Boston recently spotted genes related to super-longevity.

One of those scientists, Dr. Thomas Perls, founded the New England Centenarian Study, which maintains that a positive outlook and ability to manage stress are predictors of a long life, along with the holy trinity of smart health habits: good diet, exercise, no smoking.

Pioneer Park has seen several centenarians in good health in recent years with more on the way, according to administrator Daryl Dusharm.

“It's industrywide. There's many more people living a lot longer,” he said.

Dusharm credited the greater number of people reaching advanced age on advances in medical science as well as a new focus on total body health. But he also said there is a particular hardiness to the men and women born in Secrest's time.

“People of Eleanor's generation worked hard their whole life, and there's a lot to be said for that,” he said.

So what's the secret to attaining this more common longevity?

“People keep asking me what's my secret,” she said. “I didn't know there was a secret.”

It's not a secret per se, but Secrest said her healthy lifestyle has probably helped the most.

She never smoked and always had a very balanced diet of meat and vegetables. She is worried that the current younger generations may end up reversing the increasing centenarian trend by eating poorly, citing rising rates of obesity.

Exercise helps as well, whether through work or dancing.

“My brothers and sisters walked two miles to school every day, going over about five fences along the way,” she said. “I love to dance, and I danced every chance I got before I had to have the wheelchair.”

McClatchy-Tribune Information Services contributed to this report.