Seniors With Lively Lives Chronicled

Capistrano Beach author Francis Raymond Line calls them “Super Seniors.”

There’s Ila McAfee Turner of Taos, N.M., a 91-year-old artist just back from a sketching trip in Yucatan.

There’s 86-year-old Ernest Brown of San Clemente, the oldest member of his church choir.

And there’s Hulda Crooks of Loma Linda, still climbing mountains at 93.

McAfee, Brown and Crooks are among 100 “remarkable men and women” whose lives are featured in Line’s “Super Seniors: Their Stories and Secrets” (Wide Horizons Press, $8.95).

Line, himself an octogenarian, says the book provides glimpses into the lives of remarkable older citizens who have made--and continue to make--valuable contributions to society. Its focus is on the positive attributes of aging and “living as long as you live.”

As credited on the cover, the book was written with the assistance of Helen E. Line, 82--Line’s wife of 61 years.

Line says they got the idea for “Super Seniors” when “we just began to realize we’ve had so many wonderful friends over the years. In a way, we wanted to share them with the public.”

Among the 18 Orange County residents included in the 175-page paperback book are Mabel Hutchinson, an 86-year-old Capistrano Beach artist; Marla Gitterman, a 77-year-old Ms. Senior America for California in 1987 and vice president of the Laguna Niguel Seniors, and 86-year-old Lillian Bronson of Laguna Niguel, a former Hollywood actress who served as the model for Los Angeles’ first freeway mural, known as “The Old Woman of the Freeway.”

As Line defines it in his introduction, “this book creates word pictures of vigorous, much-alive, fully matured individuals whose outlook on life is ‘youthful’ and whose ‘principal source of support’ is not so much a ‘pension’ as a ‘penchant’--a penchant for real living, looking ahead, savoring adventures, whether physical, intellectual, artistic or spiritual.”

“In general,” Line said, “it was just the friends we had known who had lived right to the hilt in a creative way and always looked forward and had a youthful approach to life.”

Here’s Hulda Crooks, who climbed Japan’s 12,388-foot Mt. Fuji when she was 91, on her philosophy for a healthy life:

“Begin to count the happy moments of each day. Try to be grateful for whatever good comes to you, be it seemingly ever so little. Talk of the things that meet your needs and give you joy. Linger over each ‘find’ with thankful heart. This will grow into a most rewarding habit.”

Line said he felt a sense of urgency to complete the book and, indeed, four of the Super Seniors died before it went to press. “But,” he said, “those that died were active right up until the time of their death.”

At 85, Line himself is a “Super Senior” in good standing.

Fourteen years ago--after a 37-year career of making travel-adventure and educational documentaries--the couple, as Line says, “put our cameras on the shelves and started writing books.”

“Super Seniors” is Line’s seventh book.

One of the first was a book on St. Francis of Assisi, the subject of one of their educational documentary films. Another, “Adventure Unlimited,” is the story of the couple’s film-making days traveling all over the world. And “Foot By Foot Through the USA,” which Line co-wrote with his brother, Winfield H. Line, chronicles the brothers’ yearlong hike through every state of the union after high school graduation in 1922. Line said they worked their way across the country “and had enough left over to pay our tuition for college.”

Francis and Helen Line still have adventure in their souls.

For the past dozen years they have hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon on their wedding anniversary on May 1.

“This year my daughter (Adrienne Knute) and I hiked down, but my wife thought it might be too much of a hike,” Line said. However, the couple did hike together along the Rim trail. “We plan to go there every May 1, I suppose, as long as we live,” Line said.

The couple’s 58-year love affair with the Grand Canyon--they made their first visit in 1931--naturally led to another book, “Grand Canyon Love Story,” which they co-authored five years ago.

Line already has an idea for his eighth book.

“Well,” he said with a laugh, “I swore I wasn’t going to do another one, but the other night I got a great idea. The thing of it is we got to thinking about a lot of interesting episodes that weren’t in any of our books.”

The new one will deal with the time, in 1959, when the Lines became stranded on one of the Greek islands. Line hasn’t actually started writing it yet: He said there are so many other things he should be doing.

“But I wake up in the night and make notes on it,” he said, chuckling: “I guess I love to write books.”

“Super Seniors” may be ordered from Wide Horizons Press, 13 Meadowsweet, Irvine, Calif. 92715.

Top honor--Elizabeth George, the critically acclaimed British mystery writer from Huntington Beach, won the Anthony Award for Best First Novel (“A Great Deliverance”) at the Bouchercon--an annual convention of mystery professionals and their fans named after the late critic Anthony Boucher--held in Philadelphia. George, who just completed a 20-city publicity tour for her latest mystery, “Payment in Blood,” left Friday to speak at a gathering of the Jane Austen Society of North America in Santa Fe, N.M. Later this month she will appear on two panels at the Vancouver Writer’s Festival, and in November, she returns to England to complete research on her fifth British mystery, “For the Sake of Elena.”

Writer’s Digest--Phyllis Droesch of Mission Viejo was sitting in the library doing research for a suspense novel when her Costa Mesa writing partner, Lynn Hamilton, shoved the October issue of Writer’s Digest magazine under her nose.

“She had this funny look on her face and said, ‘Look at this,’ ” Droesch said.

The magazine listed the winners of its annual writing competition and there, listed among the winners in the article category, was “Phyllis Hamilton, Costa Mesa” (their combined pen name).

Droesch and Hamilton’s 1,800-word article was extracted from a nutrition and recipe book they have just completed and hope to sell which deals with a nutrient that boosts and repairs the immune system.

The two writers were No. 55 out of the 100 writers recognized in the article category. (The category generated 653 entries.)

A total of 5,000 writers nationwide submitted entries in the magazine’s four categories: poetry, script, article and short story. In addition to “Phyllis Hamilton,” eight other Orange County writers were among the top 100 in their respective categories.

The other Orange County winners receiving certificates of achievement are: Kathleen Gunton Deal of Santa Ana (poetry), John Portilla of Buena Park (script), Jeffrey J. Hardy of Fountain Valley (script), Arthur Winslow of Westminster (script), Belle Tuckerman of San Juan Capistrano (article), Clay L. Ottenson of Garden Grove (article), Kathy Kolf Spillar of Tustin (article) and Ramona Taylor Grant of Balboa (short story).

Children’s authors--The Society of Children’s Book Writers fall workshop will be held from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. today at Griswold’s Inn, 1500 S. Raymond Ave., Fullerton. Children’s author Nathan Aaseng will discuss nonfiction writing, and author-illustrator Kathryn Hewitt will discuss writing and illustrating picture books. Cost: $20 for members and $25 for non-members; includes lunch. To register, call (714) 637-6586.

Book signings--Robert K. Tanenbaum will sign “Depraved Indifference” from 10 a.m. to noon today at Waldenbooks, 665 N. Tustin Ave., Orange. He’ll also sign today from 1 to 2:30 p.m. at Waldenbooks at MainPlace, 2800 N. Main St., Santa Ana, and from 3 to 4:30 p.m. at Waldenbooks in the Mall of Orange. . . . Children’s author Audrey Wood will sign “Little Penguin’s Tale” from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. Thursday at the Children’s Bookshoppe, 1831 Westcliff Drive, Newport Beach, and from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. Thursday at Half Magic: A Children’s Bookstore, 13011 Newport Ave., Tustin.

Romance writers--Novelist and Orange Coast College writing instructor Raymond Obstfeld will speak during the pre-meeting workshop of the Orange County chapter of Romance Writers of America at 10:30 a.m. today in the Fullerton Public Library, 353 W. Commonwealth Ave. Cost: $3 donation for pre-meeting and $3 donation for general meeting at 1 p.m.

Book talks--The Let’s Talk Books meeting will be held at 7 p.m. Tuesday in the community services room of Main Library, 101 N. Center St., Orange. Discussion topic: “The Land Down Under and Behind the Bamboo Curtain.” For information, call (714) 532-0355.

Laguna poets: Los Angeles poet Carine Topal will read at 8 p.m. Friday in the Laguna Beach Public Library, 363 Glenneyre St. Cost: $3 donation. For information, call Marta Mitrovich at (714) 494-8374.