Centenarian Shares Secrets of Longevity : Camarillo resident Leona Lee, at 101, refuses to let physical obstacles get in her way.
Until recently, the scientific community thought that your best shot at the fountain of youth lay in a good gene pool and the right dietary and exercise habits.
But some initial studies of centenarians suggest that your life may be extended more by five lifestyle components than by a low cholesterol level.
In observing seniors older than 100 who were still living happily and at least semi-independently, experts noticed that they all were mobile and exercising, able to adapt to change, passionate about an interest and engaged in their community or society.
And after meeting 101-year-old Leona Lee and her only daughter, Juliette Lee, 77, I can appreciate the value of cultivating these elements.
Despite encroaching blindness, Leona Lee still avidly keeps up with her mail and reads the TV guide with the aid of a large magnifying glass she wears around her neck. A hearing impairment makes telephone conversations difficult, but she refuses to let physical obstacles interfere with her role as hospitality hostess at the United Methodist Church in Camarillo, where she has been a member for nearly 30 years. And instead of worrying about her health, the spunky matron turns her attention to a close friend who has been hospitalized for weeks due to a fall.
“Somebody from church takes me to visit her every week,” Lee said.
“Mom stopped driving when she was about 73,” recalled her daughter, who never married. “She’d cook and help clean while I was at work. And I would take her to the store when I got home. But she didn’t want to wait. So that’s when she started walking everywhere.”
Even though she had a hip replacement at age 92, Leona Lee walks about four blocks a day to keep fit. And she still enjoys working in the garden of the ranch-style house in Camarillo she has lived in for nearly 30 years, since she arrived newly widowed from Nebraska to live with her daughter.
During my visit, I talked with the women on their sun porch. They sat side by side in floral-upholstered wingback chairs whose headrests were protected by ecru-crocheted antimacassars. And the seat cushion of the senior Lee was built up to help her get out of the chair without assistance.
Leona Lee commented on the secret of her longevity in the rich accent of her native Alabama.
“I’ve always lived a clean, healthy life,” she said. “I don’t smoke or drink. And I don’t never swear. I don’t know what people get out of saying naughty words.”
When asked what changes in the world she most values, Lee responded: “I’ve seen so much, honey, that I don’t know what is the best to tell. But I’m happy about civil rights. And I’m so glad women have the right to vote. That’s why I started working on the polls in Nebraska years ago--so women could vote.”
When Leona Lee turned 100 in April, 1992, her church congregation marked the event with a party, gifts and a videotaping of some oral history. In addition, she was honored by the Camarillo Chamber of Commerce as 1992 Senior Woman of the Year because of her community involvement.
“I love to sit and read every card and compare the verse to the person who sent it,” she said.
We walked down the hall to her room, where she showed me some prized possessions. One was a portrait of Lee painted by friend Ardeth Jones, who requested that the painting be given to the church upon Lee’s death.
“But I ain’t gonna wait till I die to give it,” Lee said.
The topic of death does not upset her. But Lee did become emotional over a framed photograph showing the cabin where, in 1892, Charlotte R. Thorn began the Calhoun Colored School in Lowndes County, Ala., with trustees including Booker T. Washington.
“I completed my education from that high school and I went back there last year for the ceremony,” Lee said.
Juliette inherited her mother’s pride in learning. And since her retirement in 1982 as director of psychiatric nursing education at Camarillo State Hospital, Juliette Lee has kept up her license as a registered nurse.
“After I retired, I went to UCLA and took a 25-unit certificate course in gerontology. My great joke was I’m going to learn how to take care of me and Mom.” She then dismissed the family connection, saying, “We’re two old women living together.”
But she follows Mom’s example of fitness and involvement. Early each morning, you can find her lifting weights at L.A. Workout. And she belongs to two Afro-American civic organizations that raise funds for community needs.
“I think all of those health things and genetics are important,” Juliette Lee said. “But you have to get beyond yourself. Each person has to find their own hobby that they can do and enjoy alone. I play piano. Mom enjoys television. She used to like soap operas. But now she prefers real-life programs like ‘Rescue 911,’ where people have succeeded in helping others and they have a positive, uplifting outcome.”
Not content to spend too much time in front of a television, Leona Lee is planning a visit to her 79-year-old son, who lives in New York. And although she is twice a grandmother, she will not be satisfied until she sees another generation of Lees.
“I’m over 100 years old and not a great-grandmother,” she said. “I tell those girls to hurry up and find a husband so I can be called great-grandmother.”
