Centenarian

Sun., May 7, 2006

The Spokesman-Review

Jessie Marie (Rinaldi) Griffith

Post Falls

Jessie Marie (Rinaldi) Griffith is celebrating her 100th birthday today.

A resident of North Idaho for the past 96 years, she was born May 7, 1906, in Pleh Fang, France.

She met LeVern Griffith in Kellogg, and the couple married in 1929. He died in 1988.

Griffith taught elementary school, and her most rewarding life achievement has been raising her family and spending time with her grandchildren at her home on Lake Coeur d’Alene.

She attributes her longevity to her “faith, family and friends, and staying active when spending winters in Yuma, Ariz., for many years.”

Griffith’s most memorable moment in the past 100 years was when she emigrated from Italy in 1910 with her mother and brother, Charles. The family landed at Ellis Island, N.Y., and then took a train across the United States to Kellogg to join her father, who was working for Bunker Hill.

Her children are Joanne Guell of Spokane Valley, Gary Griffith of Post Falls and Zena Rinaldi of Bend, Ore., and the late Donna Morris.

Griffith has 11 grandchildren, 18 great-grandchildren and four great-great-grandchildren.

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