After 105 years, there’s plenty to celebrate

Her life is like an American history
lesson.

By JEANNE STARMACK

VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER

WARREN — Georgiana Bowes’ life is full of important dates.

Shepherd of the Valley’s oldest resident, she celebrated another big milestone in her life Thursday — her 105th birthday.

Bowes was born in 1902 in a farmhouse in Fayette County, Pa.

Theodore Roosevelt was president.

She graduated from Cedar Crest College, a private women’s college in Allentown, Pa., in 1925 with a degree in education. Not many women back then were pursuing professional careers, but with her family’s support, she became a teacher.

She taught high school French and even was a basketball coach while she lived with her parents in Pennsylvania, before her marriage.

She taught in a one-room schoolhouse that included kindergarten through eighth grade, said her daughter, Eleanor Schoger of Cortland.

“Did I?” Bowes asked. “Yes,” Schoger asserted, while people grouped around them in an alcove at the nursing home chuckled.

A lot to remember

So much, almost too much, to remember.

“I married the man I loved,” she said and smiled.

She and David Bowes wed in 1934. They were together 26 years, living in Buffalo, N.Y., and then Garrett, Ind. She continued her teaching career, this time with third-graders.

After her husband passed away in 1960, she stayed in Garrett until 1993.

She moved to Cortland then to be near Schoger, who is her only child.

“That makes her special,” Bowes said. Schoger laughed.

And until May of this year, Bowes lived by herself in an apartment — a real accomplishment considering she was 104 years old.

Shepherd of the Valley threw Bowes a party Thursday.

Friends gathered and listened to music in a courtyard at the retirement home. With balloons on her wheelchair, she met with Warren Mayor Michael O’Brien, who read a proclamation and presented her with a framed copy of it.

Celebrating her life

The group celebrated her life, a study in American history. The first car she owned was a Model T Ford.

She came of age in the roaring ’20s, when parties and college dances were fun, but chaperoned, said Schoger.

She even had a link to the Civil War through her grandfather, who arrived in Gettysburg a day after the bloody battle, said Schoger. Had he been in time for the battle, she figures, the family might not be here today.

The farmhouse where Bowes was born and lived with her parents and two brothers is still standing, Schoger said. Bowes visited it five years ago, when she turned 100.

Bowes has also made plenty of contributions to the future, not only through her teaching career, but through her three grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.

Bowes never smoked, didn’t drink and ate three meals a day with no snacks in between, said she and Schoger.

She didn’t hesitate to offer her theory on how she’s had such a long life.

“Good living,” she said.

“Good genes,” said Schoger.