Thursday, Oct. 2, 2008 | midnight
Lucille Salter, 103, with her dog Princess, was honored at Presitge Assisted Living in Henderson Sept. 22, National Centenarians Day. Salter was born June 27, 1905.
Teddy Kreuter, 101, was honored during National Centenarians Day, Sept 22 at Prestige Assisted Living in Henderson. Kreuter was born June 21, 1907.
Lucille Salter and Teddy Kreuter were born in a world when Scotch tape and penicillin did not exist. Traffic lights had not been invented yet. The women were in their 20s when ballpoint pens came about, their 30s when aerosol cans hit the market.
The two were honored Sept. 22, National Centenarians Day, at Prestige Assisted Living, 1050 E. Lake Mead Parkway, where they both reside. Salter was born June 26, 1905, in Malvern, Iowa, and Kreuter was born June 21, 1907, in Carleton Place, Ontario, Canada.
At 103, Salter, a great-great-grandmother, has outlived two husbands, her two daughters and her siblings, except for one brother.
She moved to Nevada on July 31, 1931, she recalls. Her husband had come to work on Hoover Dam. The town was young, and she was 25. She raised her two daughters in Southern Nevada, and her great-granddaughters and great-great-grandchildren still live here.
"I've seen the old and the new," she said, "and I'm glad I did."
Each day she walks her 10-year-old Pomeranian, Princess, and says there is no secret to living such a long life. "Take life as it comes," she said. "Live a good, clean, happy life. And go to church."
Kreuter and her husband, who were married for 50 years, moved to San Francisco in 1929 and then later to Beatty after they retired. Eight years ago she left her home in Beatty and moved to Las Vegas. She moved into Prestige 2 1/2 months ago, at the age of 101.
Kreuter, who never had children, spent her life traveling with her husband, collecting rocks and working with copper. She enjoyed playing craps and, every Friday night, she enjoyed a glass of scotch, she said.
She laughed when asked her secret to a long life. "The good life I've lived," she said, "Sleep all day and all night."
The staff credited her past as an outdoors woman and hiker for her good health.
The two women were honored with cake, corsages and certificates from the mayor. Princess wore a pink bow around her neck to match the women's pink rose corsages.
Diana Cox can be reached at 990-8183 or [email protected].
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