Centenarian celebrates birthday Nebraska native born in sod house By Marcy Garber, Staff Writer Born in a sod house on the open prairie of Nebraska 100 years ago, Ellen Hirsch vividly remembers her first automobile ride just after the turn of the century. "I was still in high school," Hirsch said, reminiscing in her room at the Little Sisters of the Poor nursing home in San Pedro. "I thought there would never be anything like that again. I just thought I was belle of the ball riding in that car." Although Hirsch's birthday is actually March 25, relatives and friends will gather Saturday at Little Sisters of the Poor for a celebration of the spunky centenarian's birthday. The celebration will begin with an 11 a.m. Mass, then a buffet luncheon will be served in the auditorium. One of the highlights of the birthday party will be "Mama Do You Remember When?", where Hirsch's children will recall their favorite memories to the gathered friends and relatives. Most of the 140 guests will be relatives. With 10 children, 34 grandchildren, 77 great grandchildren and 10 great great grandchildren, filling a room with relatives is easy. Hirsch was raised on a farm in Nebraska, one of five children, with no modern conveniences, the same way her children were raised. "We didn't have any automatic appliances, electric lights, refrigeration. We made our soap and my mother made all of our clothes," said Marcella Armes, 72, of Harbor City, Hirsch's oldest living child. "My mother canned everything that wasn't loose," Armes said. "The only thing left after she finished was the weeds." Even with all of her farm chores, Hirsch graduated from St. Edward High School in St. Edward, Neb., in 1906, the same school where eight of her children also graduated. "Each year they have an alumni dinner that I attended up until two years ago," Hirsch said. She taught school for two years after high school and married Fred Hirsch in 1908. "I was boarding at a home while I was teaching school and he came to work there as a farm hand," Hirsch said, smiling at the memory. "The big attraction was his horse and buggy," she added, laughing. Ingrained with the work ethic, Hirsch worked until she was 83, when she had a heart attack in her Omaha home and moved to Harbor City to live with her daughter Marcella for 12 years. She has lived at Little Sisters of the Poor for the past three years. She loves to quilt and just finished one at the age of 99. "It was getting a little bit difficult to see and thread the needle," she said. "I started making the quilts because I needed something to do and I ended up making one for each of my daughters. I wanted to make them for my daughters-in-law also, but I just ran out of steam." As lively as she is at 100, Hirsch was a real firebrand as a young woman. "I loved to dance," she said. "They used to have country dances in homes where they'd clear out the furniture and the girls used to bring cakes. "We'd eat lunch about midnight, then tear into it again. My brother played the fiddle and they just couldn't keep me home from them." Hirsch said her dancing days were severely curtailed when she married. "I married a man who couldn't dance," she said. Horseback riding was another one of her favorite activities. "I used to jump on the horse and ride bare back," she said. "I would just ride like the wind." The Depression forced the Hirsch family off their prairie farm in 1936 to a rented home in St. Edward. Hirsch said she did housework not only for her own large family, but for other families as well, while her husband continued to ply his carpentry trade. "They were tough years, but we did manage to take out a loan and pay it off until we owned that house in St. Edward," Hirsch said. "At the time I thought we were going to lose it, I found that I only had one payment left." She remained in that house for two years after her husband's death in 1953, when she moved to Omaha to live with a family and take care of their three children. "The children asked what they should call me and I told them 'Grandma,'" she said. "And to this day, those three children still call me Grandma." And Fred Lorenz and the three children are set to attend Saturday's birthday celebration. Hirsch stayed with the Lorenz family for two years, then served as a companion for an elderly woman in Omaha for 13 years, after which she suffered a heart attack and moved to California. And what does she attribute her longevity to? "Raising 10 kids on a dirt farm," she said, smiling. -------------------------- In the San Pedro, CA paper, pages A1, A12. Her granddaughter Ellen L. Hirsch also noted that all of her living grandchildren were at the party and at least one grandchild from her deceased children. Retyped 1998 by D. Nicklaus