Doesn’t ‘Feel Any Different’ : At Age 100, She Still Has Plenty of Energy to Burn

A gentle lady who’s sugar sweet. We lovingly say blessed 100th birthday. --Handmade birthday card for Minnie Miller

Even for Minnie Miller, who turned 100 Tuesday, the day was still a bit of a whirlwind. She was presented with a proclamation at the weekly Board of Supervisors meeting. She then raced to a little social at the Santa Ana Senior Citizens Club before returning home to open cards and field more congratulatory phone calls.

“I guess you could say I have a lot of energy. Some people say I have more energy than most people who are only 65,” Miller said in the living room of her tidy home at 1425 north King St. in Santa Ana. “But I don’t feel any different today.”

For Miller, who moved to Orange County from Edna, Kan., in 1913 with her husband, Harry, who died in 1967 at age 79, life has simply been a matter of keeping busy, whether be it as a Goodwill volunteer or a charter member of Gold Star Mothers, a group made up of people who have lost relatives in world wars.

That and good habits are the reasons Miller talks and acts like a person much younger than a century old; her hair still has streaks of blonde and her clear blue eyes dance behind her round wire glasses. She travels around Santa Ana in a city bus, usually getting out of the house two or three times a week “just to visit people or do a bit of socializing.”

Never Smoked or Drank

“I have always tried to behave myself,” she said. “I never smoked nor drank. I thought that was a good recipe. Time just went by fast. I never thought much about my age. I just went on, day to day.”

The great-great grandmother has been hospitalized only once. That was last year when she developed pneumonia and a heart problem. But she survived the minor ordeal with no lasting effects.

“The doctor told me I was fine. He told my daughter to let me do as I please,” Miller said.

“And she does. She’s never home,” chimed in her 65-year-old daughter, Ruth Burton.

Miller helps care for Burton, who suffers from the nervous condition Parkinson’s Disease and is also blind. Along with Burton’s son Gary Burton, who also lives with them, Miller helps dress her daughter and performs other minor chores around the house.

Although she now keeps most activities down to a bit of socializing, Miller has belonged to several auxiliary groups in the county for most of the 72 years she’s lived here. An important one is the Gold Star Mothers, which has adopted a ward of Long Beach Veterans Hospital as a special project.

She lost her 20-year-old son, Ralph, on Okinawa during World War II, the key reason she has been active in the auxiliary. Miller occasionally accompanies the group to visit ailing veterans at the hospital, although she said it “breaks your heart” to see the most seriously ill.

“But I love people and that’s why I’ve always gotten involved,” she said. “I’ve gotten pleasure and friendship (out of helping).”