Elsie Eichenberger Chewelah, Wash.

Elsie Adella Guhkle was born April 19, 1900, in Bloomfield, Neb., and will celebrate her centennial birthday today with an open house.

In December 1919, Elsie Guhlke married Henry Winkelman. The couple lived in Nebraska until 1934, when they moved to Chewelah. There they raised their seven children, five of whom are still living.

For many years, Eichenberger played the organ and taught Sunday school at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Chewelah. She moved to Spokane in 1968, two years after her husband died. In 1972 she married Paul Eichenberger, and the couple moved to Nebraska.

When Mr. Eichenberger died in 1983, she returned to Chewelah, where she still lives.

Longevity apparently is genetic in her family, since she has an older sister, in Denver, who is 102.

Her children will host today’s open house at Sunny Acres Senior Housing, where she lives. They are Alma Johnson, Chewelah, Wash. Edward Winkelman, Roseburg, Ore., Eleanor Rausch, Spokane, Kenneth Winkelman who is currently teaching in South Korea, and Merlin Winkelman, Prosser, Wash.

Eichenberger has 15 grandchildren, 13 great-grandchildren and five great-greatgrandchildren.