Minnesota Woman’s Secret to a Long Life After Celebrating 100th Birthday

More and more people seem to be reaching the age of 100 lately and it's always so cool to hear their life stories. A Minnesota woman just joined the Centenarian Club earlier this week and was asked about her life and also her secret to a long life.

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Minnesota Woman Celebrates 100th Birthday

Her name is Charlotte Tommerdahl and she's a lifelong Minnesota resident. She was born in Callaway, MN on the White Earth Reservation on September 29th, 1924, and was one of nine kids.

She shared with KARE 11 that she graduated high school when she was 17 and soon after, moved to Minneapolis. A cousin of hers was working at the Twin Cities Ordnance Plant which "'made 350 caliber bullets for the war effort, shipping them by crate loads overseas.'"

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Charlotte took a couple of tests and soon was hired as a secretary at the plant. Once the war ended she got a job "as the secretary for a chief engineer at the Bemis Bag Company in Minneapolis."

Charlotte's Family Life

Charlotte married a man named Wally while she was working at the Bemis Bag Company. They had actually met in high school but got married in 1948.

Charlotte and Wally had three kids, Skip, Barry, and Diane.

Sadly, Wally passed away from cancer in 1997.

Charlotte's Retirement

Charlotte stayed at home with her kids for many years but eventually went back to work and worked as a secretary for the Annoka-Hennepin School District.

That was her last job until she retired in 1987. She's been retired for 37 years! That's amazing!

Charlotte's Life Today

Today, Charlotte lives in a senior co-op community in Brooklyn Park. She lives alone but knows plenty of people in her community and doesn't seem lonely whatsoever.

Lots of friends and plenty of family got together to celebrate her 100th birthday earlier this week. And obviously she was asked, what's your secret to a long life? She had a few answers to that question.

Charlotte's Secret to a Long Life

Her secrets are: stay busy (she goes to plenty of activities at her senior co-op and she volunteers), play games with people that make you happy, get a dog (one of her sons got a puppy recently and he had told her he lost a lot of weight because of that), everything in moderation, and read.

"'The years just flew by,'" she said.