Thelma Stratton begins 102nd year

As she marked her 102nd birthday, Thelma Stratton of Colfax gave a piece of advice to a male Gazette reporter.

“Don’t get too close,” she said. “There’s a lot of men who have walked away with broken hearts.”

Thelma marked her birthday Tuesday with a party at Whitman Health & Rehabilitation Center where she now resides.

A giant purple-rose-frosted cake was set out in front of her, though staffers were kind enough to forego the 102 candles. Thelma proposed taking the cake back to her freezer to eat throughout the next year, but decided in the end to share with the birthday celebrants.

Thelma was born Jan. 11, 1909, and was raised near Rocky Point on Lake Chatcolet. Her family’s homestead still stands on the property today.

She remembered fondly her days going down to the lake for ice skating, swimming or rowing across the lake’s glassy waters.

“We had friends that had propellors, but they would always get stuck on weeds,” she said. “So we decided we had no need for propellors.”

Thelma has lived in Colfax since 1987.

She wanted to mark her birthday with as many of her 76 living descendents as she could, though many are flung across the country and could not attend Tuesday’s party.

“We ought to sit down for a four-generation picture,” Thelma told her family at the party.

They then reminded her she is the matriarch of six generations.

“Six generations?” she exclaimed. “I am old.”

“I lose track of ‘em all sometimes,” she confessed to the Gazette.

Thelma spent most of her adult life farming with her late husband, Charles, in the Deary, Idaho, area. The couple had four children, daughters Elmira Gudmunson of Colfax and Eunice Rasch of Sweet Home, Ore., and sons Edward and Freddie who died at 16 and 2, respectively.

She now has eight grandchildren, 32 great-grandchildren, 32 great-great-grandchildren and two great-great-great grandchildren. One of the triple-greats was born on Thelma’s 101st birthday. She also had a birthday Tuesday, her first, at her home in New York.