Centenarian

Laura Frances Childers

Spokane

Laura Frances Childers of Spokane will celebrate her 100th birthday today. She was born in Jonesboro, Tenn., on Jan. 22, 1908. She has been a resident of Eastern Washington nearly her entire life.

She met her husband, Harry, in Pomeroy, Wash., when he was a farm hand for her neighbor and stopped by to visit her father. They were married in 1931. He died in 1993.

Childers lived on a farm with her husband in Pomeroy and cooked for harvest crews in the summertime for $1 a day to supplement income. She also picked cherries in Wenatchee for 1 1/2 cents a pound. Childers says her most rewarding life achievement was becoming a secretary at Tyler Grange in Tyler, Wash., where she worked for 25 years.

Childers attributes her longevity to working hard and eating the right foods. She also says that her mother “lived to be within a few days of a 101.”

When asked what her most memorable moment in the past 100 years has been, Childers recalls when her dad bought his first car in 1918, an Overland five-passenger vehicle with side curtains.

She has one son, Elvin Childers of Spokane, one grandchild and two great-grandchildren.