Helen Merrill Spokane

Helen (Cliff) Merrill, Spokane, is 100 years old today.

Born Oct. 18, 1897, in Jackson, Mich., Merrill moved from Rochester, N.Y., to Spokane this year to be near her family.

She graduated from Jackson High School in 1917 and the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor with a nursing degree in 1921.

She worked in a munitions factory during World War I and taught in a country Michigan school.

In 1923, she married Elmer Merrill. He died in 1967.

The couple had three children: Marguerite Merrill Irwin, Spokane; the late Sylvia Jean Banes, and the late ElazabethAnn Hunton.

Merrill has a sister, Marian Cliff of Kalamazoo, Mich.; nine grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren.

When asked what she attributes her longevity to, she said, “I don’t worry; it doesn’t do any good. I face my problems and do the best I can, then I don’t worry.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo