The Press-Dispatch
Issue link: https://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/210126
A-10 Wednesday, November 13, 2013 The Press-Dispatch Gilham's years span wagon to space travel By Andy Heuring Marion Gilham will celebrate her 100th birthday on Thursday, November 14,. She has seen the world change, as she says, from "the horse and wagon to space travel." Gilham is sharp as she ever was other than she doesn't hear as well as she used to and macular degeneration has limited her vision. But it doesn't keep her from enjoying life and continuing to learn. Gilham was born in 1913 during World War I, 'the war to end all wars.' It didn't exactly work out that way. But she remembers the day it ended. "I remember when World War I ended. I was about five years old. My mother and father were shelling corn. The bells began to ring and shotguns were fired off. Mom said, 'Thank God the war had ended.' They knelt down and prayed, thanking God right there in the field," said Gilham. Gilham went to school at Iva Grade School through the eighth grade before going to Otwell through her sophomore year, but her family moved to Fort Wayne where her father worked for the Capehart Music Company. It was owned by Senator Homer Capehart and they manufactured phonographs, better known as music boxes. Her father, a carpenter and photographer, helped build the cabinets. After three years her grandmother got ill and they moved back to the Otwell area. Her grandmother talked her into staying with her and not going back to school. "She told me she would pay me," said Gilham. So she quit school and stayed with her grandmother, who died the next year in November, and Marion married her sweetheart. "I married the boy I liked all through the eighth grade at Iva," said Gilham. He was Harvey L. Gilham, a farmer. They were married in 1931 at the height of the Great Depression. Because they lived on the farm, she said they were able to "eat what we grew. The meat came from the farm and we raised potatoes and stored them. We canned vegetables, but we had to buy sugar, coffee, tea and flour. "We had plenty of food such as it was, but no money for any kind of entertainment or foolishness." When her oldest son, Jimmy, was born she said her parents had given them a sow. It had four ed. We heard the announcement on the radio." She said the start-up to World War I and World War II were very different. "My father was When she was first married, she didn't have a washing machine. She used a washboard. "My husband worked on the farm and wore overalls. I "I think my secret is my trust in God. I'm a Christian. I love people and I love living," said Gilham. Marion Gilham enjoys living and at 100 years old on November 14, she had done a lot of living. 'I just want normal days.' At top right Marion and her husband Harvey shortly before they were married in 1931. piglets. They used that to pay the doctor for delivering their son. Their entertainment was often provided by their radio. "We had a radio when World War II start- very patriotic. He would sing, "The Yanks are coming, the Yanks are coming," prior to World War I." However, she said World War II was "scary." couldn't wash them on the washboard so I would put them on the sidewalk and put soap and water on them and used a broom to clean them." Gilham remembers milestones a little differently than women today. She remembers her first washing machine and her first refrigerator. Both were huge improvements and great conveniences for her. "When Larry (her second son) was born, Dad gave us an electric washing machine." That was in 1939. She said she went from an ice box to a refrigerator in about 1937. Prior to that, they had an ice box and Briscoe Richardson delivered ice once a week from Jasper. She didn't learn to drive until she was in her 40s. She learned because her husband, Harvey, was working and she had to take her father-in-law to the doctor. I learned to drive by driving up the lane, and the girl who lived across the lane would turn it around and I would drive it back. I wasn't very good at turning around. She credits her longevity on "good genes." My grandfather was 96, my mother was 94. "I think my secret is my trust in God. I'm a Christian. I love people and I love living," said Gilham. She said she started attending the Otwell United Methodist Church in 1950. Her hobbies included knitting and quilting. But she said after suffering macular degeneration she had to quit those. "I just live day by day. I just want normal days. Normal days are good days," said Gilham. Gilham lives at the Emerald House, an assisted living facility in Washington. Anyone wanting to send birthday cards can send them to her in care of Emerald House, 297S CR100E, Rm. 120, Washington, IN 47501.