Six women now in their second century were lauded during a celebration at Bethany Homes.
Between them they have a combined 604 years of living. Among them is Luetta Denman, 101, who saw her newborn great, great grandson Rylee for the first time during the Wednesday event where she kissed him on the cheek.
Born in Silver Springs, Texas, Denman and her husband spent much of their time in Alaska where they homesteaded land.
She moved to Ripon two years ago. Her family said she has a passion for anything chocolate but her favorite dessert is peanut butter and chocolate ice cream.
Lillian Hubers at 100 years is a former elementary school teacher in the Ripon community.
She was born in Iowa on a corn farm. Lillian said she had two bothers and a sister along with two children of her own Joyce Neerhof and Gary Hubers. She attended a one-room school as a young girl.
Pearl Weststeyn Hoff moved to Ripon as a teenager and married a young farmer by the name of Henry Hoff. They raised two boys and a girl, Margaret Snodgrass and Jay and John Hoff. Now 100 she was born in South Dakota in October of 1915.
Sally Vogan, also 100, was born in Fresno and served the war effort in the 1940s working on fuselage assembly of fighter planes at Chandler Field in Fresno. Her husband, Elmer “Jay” was in the Navy when they met in 1936 getting out of the military a short time later but called back to duty in 1938 just prior to World War II.
He was a boatswain’s mate and assigned to construction with his first major project involving helping to build Friant Dam.
The Vogans lived in Escalon and from 1994. They were full-time RVers for some 13 years.
Edythe Sealey Meyer, 102, with her husband Curley owned and operated Manteca Feed and Supply in Manteca that they opened in 1946. She had also worked as a sales clerk at the Brown-Mahin Department Store in downtown Manteca. They had two boys and two girls with their daughter Darlene being the only survivor. The boys were Donald and Darwin along with daughter Donna.
She lived in Manteca 56 years. Meyer has been at Bethany Home for 19 years and is currently living at Bethany Haven Assisted Living. Edythe was born in Wolback, Nebraska.
Edythe said she read the Manteca Bulletin religiously over the years and editor George Murphy’s column “Batting the Breeze.” Chuckling, she said, “I got to where I batted it better than he did so I just forgot about it.”
Centenarian Betty Chaffin, 101, has been living at Bethany for several years. She was born in Java, Indonesia where her family spoke only Dutch. They eventually moved to California and she attended San Jose State and became a medical assistant in Hayward, she remembers.
Betteya later married Robert Chaffin at the Hollywood Hotel. The couple had three children, one daughter, Bonnie, and two sons.
To contact Glenn Kahl, email gkahl@mantecabulletin.com.
