(This is a long post, but well worth reading to get to know her!)
"Aunt Mary" passed away last night at 106 years old. She was my grandfather, Harold Streeter's aunt. Here is some info I have on her life... She is amazing- and a loyal Detriot Tigers fan!
1925 Walter and Mary Carpenter
Let's have a cheer for Rockford High School's class of '22
Published: Thursday, June 25, 2009 The Grand Rapids Press
She's not sure she remembers all the words to the fight song, and rather than dressing up in orange and black, she plans to simply wear "whatever slacks are clean." But no one's going to insist on high protocol from Mary Carpenter when she attends Rockford High School's "Golden R" reunion Saturday. When you're 105 years old, you get to make your own way.
Not only is Mary the oldest resident in her retirement community, she is one of the oldest men or women in this area going to their high school get-togethers.
And she will get noticed. "When you're 50 or so, nobody cares much what you're saying," says Gene Berry, RHS Class of '54, who is helping to organize the event. "But double that and ... people pay attention.
"She's a neat ol' gal."
Mary got her diploma in 1922 as Mary Dunn, in an era marked by flappers, gin joints and, in May of that year, groundbreaking on something known as Yankee Stadium.
Do the math, and it has been 87 years since she wore a mortarboard and tassel. She will join more than 460 others for lunch at noon Saturday, all out of RHS for at least 50 years and thereby members of "The Golden R."
"It's like a family picnic," says Berry, emphasizing the group also collects funds to award a $1,000 scholarship. This year's recipient is Alicia Dickinson, Class of 2009.
Emily Zoladz | The Grand Rapids PressGraduated 87 years ago: Mary Carpenter, who is 105, plans to attend Saturday's "Golden R" reunion.Where Rockford typically has classes of 600 or more in recent years, Mary graduated with just 4 boys and 13 other girls. And, unlike seniors of today who spend a king's ransom on graduation pics, Mary doesn't remember posing for any solo shots.
But she does remember.
She is spry and lucid for someone born in March 1904, and she vividly recalls life on her family's 80-acre farm in Courtland Township, where she did just about everything but milk cows.
"I tried it a little bit and, when my father saw me, he said, 'OK, I think that's enough of that.' Of course, there weren't machines then."
She and Walter married and had three boys and a girl, all of whom survive. She is proud of them, but doesn't dote. When I asked if any were naughty, she answered, "You ever see one that wasn't?"
She has been living since age 101 at Bishop Hills Elder Care Community east of downtown Rockford, where she works crossword puzzles, takes in programs sponsored by the building and devotes TV time to the news and her beloved Detroit Tigers.
Well, maybe "beloved" is a reach. "I do like 'em, even though they don't know how to hit some days."
She has not driven for years and misses "being able to go where I want to go and when I want to go," but admits "the more I see some people drive these days, I figure I'm lucky."
Mary is not interested in setting records for longevity but is thankful for her good health. Outside of arthritis and using a walker, she has no major issues.
She is thankful, too, for her grown children and grandchildren who come to visit, though Julie Shupe, the facility's director of nursing, chuckles in recalling that, sometimes, Mary will stick her head out after they've left and joke, "They think they have to check up on me."
She appreciates her high school education and encourages kids today to finish, too. She is aware, though, that, for most, it's not the same sort of passport it was eight decades ago. "So much more that they can get," she says of college and trade school opportunities.
If she has any complaints about the current system, it's that "now, I think they have too many sports in the schools. Of course, it keeps them busy, and they have to have something to do. But too much time out of school. Back then, it didn't interfere with our learning," which she remembers included Latin for all.
She has no secret formula for a long life, but figures "lots of fruits and vegetables" didn't hurt. And she never followed the road to perdition with alcohol or tobacco.
Growing up immersed in a life of hard work served her well. "Farming was a tough life, but we didn't mind the work." She appreciates modern conveniences, stopping short of saying that she misses everything about the good ol' days.
In her early days, they lit their way with lamps and relied on a windmill for power. Before their first auto, they got around on foot or via horse and buggy.
"Sometimes, I don't think these days everything is all so good. Of course, I'd hate to go back to the way we used to live.
"I like electricity."
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Carpenter remembers past with great fondness
Valerie Clarke
Tuesday, February 16, 2010 The Rockford Independent
Among the most venerable of Rockford's population is Mary Dunn Carpenter. She has experienced 105 years of Rockford history and, as with many senior citizens, remembers the distant past better than what happened yesterday.
Now a resident at Bishop Hills Elder Care Community, she will celebrate her 106th birthday next month.
Carpenter is a piece of the sturdy Courtland Township fabric of farmers. Born in 1904, she was the youngest of five children of George and Jennie Dunn. She grew up on the road now called Tefft.
"I used to tag along with my dad on the farm," Carpenter said. "When I was little he showed me how to milk a cow, but I took too long and the cow dried up. He said I had to wait until I was bigger to help with the milking."
She said her family did everything by hand - washing the clothes, tending the garden, canning and feeding the animals.
"There was no electricity where we lived until I was in high school," she said. "Farmers didn't have cars. We came into Rockford by horse and buggy to get feed for the cattle and groceries."
The children in Courtland Township attended Shank School. Smiling at her memories, Carpenter can still look at photos of the children she went to school with and rattle off their names as if it were yesterday. The one-room school went through the eighth grade and had an outhouse, a pot-bellied stove in the middle and no running water.
"We had to run over to the neighbor's farm to get water from their pump," Carpenter said.
Rockford High School followed and Carpenter was a proud 1922 graduate from what she calls "the old high school." After the school burned down, the "new high school" was built.
The "new" one she refers to is the school on North Main Street, which now houses the administrative offices and Rockford Community Education.
She married Walter Carpenter after working a few years at Wolverine Shoe Factory and the couple bought their first home in Rockford's New Addition, a section of town built for factory workers. Mary Carpenter continued to work at the factory until she had her first child. Four children were born to the couple, Gerald, Jack, JoAnn and Jim.
The family moved around to different homes and owned a farm on Shaner Road where they worked for many years together.
Carpenter proudly stated her address has always been in Rockford.
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Found in the Rockford Squire April 1, 2010
by CLIFF AND NANCY HILL
Mary Carpenter received so many cards in celebration of her 106th birthday, she has yet to find the time to open and read them all. The cards were an outpouring of love and best wishes from the Rockford community and her Rockford United Methodist Church family.
Mary Carpenter receives hundreds of birthday cards in celebration of her 106th birthday on March 25.
Best of all, an anonymous good Samaritan dropped off an autographed Tiger baseball to the Bishop Hills Elder Care Community office, where Mary resides. Mary, the oldest-known living Tiger fan, couldn’t have been happier.
Mary asked us to thank all of the many well-wishers who sent cards and flowers. Squire readers are the best!
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This is a MUST SEE VIDEO!
This link is a local TV interview with her in April 2010. Not only do you get to see how wonderful she is, but there's some good family history info there too!
