NEWSPAPERS: HELEN MARIE THAXTER KNITTLE 100 YEARS OLD, REPORTED THE DALLES CHRONICLE, WASCO COUNTY, OREGON
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Earline Wasser <vhambv@hotmail.com.    July 2003
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Mid-Columbia Centenarian Enjoys Life
The Dalles Chronicle   June 13, 2003

Helen Marie Thaxter Knittel of Carson (Washington) celebrated her 100th birthday
On April 30 (2003).

She was born in Great Falls, Montana, on April 30, 1903. Her parents, John P. 
Thaxter and Grace Wetzel Thaxter, moved to Green Acres, Washing in 1908 and 
later to Bull Run Gorge Ranch in Idaho. Knittel attended two schools in Lane Rose Lake before spending one high school year in Wallace, Idaho.

She is the second oldest of nine children, four of whom are deceased.

She married Ben Jarrett in 1920, and the couple had two children, Loretta and 
Alvin. They lived in Ione, Washington on the Pend Oreille River. She worked in
A restaurant while her husband worked in a sawmill. Their daughter Loretta
Died of rheumatic fever at age six and the couple divorced in 1941.

Knittel moved to Los Angeles and married Vern Kendahl, a plaster contractor.
The two traveled widely and enjoyed ballroom dancing. Her husband died in 1964.

She married her third husband, Rheinhold Knittel in 1972, after friends in the
Tri-Cities (Washington) plotted to find a husband for Helen's sister, Ruby.
When the friends discovered Ruby was on vacation, they introduced Rehinhold
To Helen.

After a few years of living in the Tri-Cities, the couple moved to Bingen 
(Washington). Rheinhold died in 1992 and she moved to Carson, Washington in
1998 to live with her son.

Among her most vivid childhood memories are those of a four and a half mile
Daily trip to school. In the winters, she recalled, her father would hitch a 
Team of horses to a wagon and tie newspaper around his feet and legs with yarn
To keep them warm. Sometimes they would bring bricks warmed up on their wood
Burning stove as foot warmers.

She held a number of jobs in her long life; working in a dental office in 
Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, picking and bunching onions in the field, and restaurant
Work, among others.

When asked her secret, she said "To live each day as it comes and take life in
Stride."




Written permission to reprint given by The Dalles Chronicle, The Dalles, Oregon.