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Date: 1/4/2024
EAST LONGMEADOW — Ruth Owen is soon to be East Longmeadow’s newest centenarian.
Owen officially turns 100 on Jan. 15, but to take advantage of family visiting for the holidays, there was a celebration of her life and longevity on Dec. 26. More than a dozen people attended the birthday party in the community room of Brownstone Gardens, an independent living facility at which Owens is a resident.
The Springfield native married Colby Owen in 1946 and three years later moved to East Longmeadow with her husband and young daughter. The family became friends with their neighbors, the Foxes, and Owen’s daughter and son grew up with the Fox family’s children.
Owen’s husband died in 1970. A few years later, she began a relationship with her neighbor, the then-widowed John Fox. The couple were together for 33 years until Fox’s death. The families had become entwined. In fact, it was Maureen Klauber, née Fox, who organized the 100th birthday celebration.
Owen’s two children, Martha-Jo Graber and David Fox, now live in Florida and Holyoke, respectively, and her extended family lives around the country, from New Hampshire to California and the Pacific northwest.
“I can’t believe they’re all here,” Owen said looking around the room at the three generations of family present.
Viewing a slideshow of family photos, family members laughed and remembered the occasions at which the photos were taken. “When I saw them, I thought, ‘Gosh, if I can remember them all,’” Owen said with a laugh.
Klauber reflected on the trips her Owen had spearheaded. The family traveled around the country, and abroad to Canada and Ireland. “Ruth was a great traveling companion,” Klauber said. “All we had to do was drive and carry the suitcases. She planned everything.
Klauber’s daughter, Jennifer MacLeod, called Owen “an amazing baker and a vicious card shark.”
Owen has worn many hats in her long life. She was a stay-at-home mother, worked at Springfield Day Nursery, Springfield Council of Churches and a car dealership in Springfield. She also volunteered as a teachers’ aide. She has continued to keep busy in the years since she stopped helping in classrooms. Owen has been knitting hats for The Gray House, a Springfield nonprofit that provides services to low-income area residents and people experiencing homelessness.
“I can remember forever that my grandmother knitted. She knitted hats and scarves and sweaters and everything,” Owen recalled. For decades, she has knitted about 100 hats each year for people supported by the social services agency.
When asked what she had planned for the next 100 years, Owen, laughed and said, “Oh, I’m not even thinking about that.”