Ethel Rosbrugh Turns 103 On July 19, Recollects Life
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Jennifer Peryam-jperyam@timesuniononline.com
WINONA LAKE - Ethel Rosbrugh is turning 103 this month, but she hasn't allowed her age prevent her from doing things she always has liked to do.
She still gets her nails done once a month, exercises on her trampoline three times a week, and enjoys catching up with friends.
Rosbrugh, who has been a resident of Grace Village Retirement Community for the past seven years, will turn 103 years old July 19.
When asked how she will celebrate her life landmark, she laughed and simply said, "quietly. I am sure friends and family will call, but I just plan to have a quiet day."Rosbrugh said she never thought she would have lived to be 103 years old. She attributes her prosperous life to taking daily vitamins and exercising.
"God has kept me going and I don't know why, but I'm thankful and happy to have lived this long," Rosbrugh said.
She was born in 1905, in Burket, to Louis Baldwin Mendel and Etta Pearl Alexander.
She had three brothers and three sisters. Her sister Naomi Hartle, 96, lives in assisted living at Grace Village, and her brother Arden lives in Warsaw.
She also has many nieces and nephews. A nephew, Hal Hartle, lives in Warsaw.
Rosbrugh uses a walker to get around. She wears glasses to help her see, and has hearing aides.
"My eyes are failing and I have trouble hearing, but I don't have any pain and don't take prescription drugs," Rosbrugh said.
She said she stopped driving in 2001 because it was hard to see. She said she can't see well enough to read anymore, so she has a tape recorder to listen to books on tape.
She describes herself as a political buff. She recalls meeting former President Dwight Eisenhower when he visited Indiana when she was a child.
"I like to listen to biographies on tape of Dwight Eisenhower and Dan Rather," Rosbrugh said.
She also has a friend take her once a month to get her nails done. She likes to visit with friends at Grace Village.
Rosbrugh recently visited Potawatomi Wildlife Park, Tippecanoe, with two of her students she taught years ago at Burket School.
"We rode on a golf cart and saw trails and I heard birds and saw trees. It was a beautiful day," she said.
One of those students lives in Rosbrugh's unit at Grace Village.
Rosbrugh graduated from Ball State with a teaching degree. She was a school teacher for 38 years. She taught reading, writing and arithmetic to first- and second-graders at Burket School and at Marquette Grade School, South Bend.
"I loved teaching my students new ideas and subjects," she said. She said her oldest sister Mildred influenced her to become a teacher.
She married her husband, Max, in 1943 and lived on a farm in Leesburg where they planted corn and soybeans. She said they married when she was in her 40s. They have no children.
After all of these years, Rosbrugh can recall favorite childhood memories.
One of her first memories is when she was 8 years old. She saw her grandfather's Hudson vehicle pull up to her childhood home.
"My brothers and sisters and I ran out to see it, and I remember it was black and shiny and you had to squeeze the horn for it to make a noise," she said.
As a child, she remembers selling candy in her father's general store and playing hide and seek, climbing trees and catching lightning bugs with her brothers and sisters in their Burket neighborhood.
Rosbrugh said there was a train track behind the general store where soldiers would travel through Burket.
"I would run outside, and the soldiers would wave out the train windows to me, and the train whistle would sound," Rosbrugh said.
She also recalls the first time her childhood home had electricity installed.
"I remember when our house was wired for electric lights and, as a child, I would run around and turn the lights on and off in the basement," she said with a laugh.
Going to the Buffalo Bill Show with her father also was a favorite memory.
"I remember my father carrying me to see Buffalo Bill and I would watch horses do tricks," Rosbrugh said.
She said if she could go anywhere or do anything, she would like to visit Alaska.
"I've always wanted to go to Alaska, but I think my age will prevent me from going," she said.
