South Elgin resident celebrates 100th birthday
In the year Erie Rosson was born, Woodrow Wilson was president of the United States. Charlie Chaplin made his film debut. World War I was beginning, and Martha, the last passenger pigeon, passed away.
Rosson, who celebrated her 100th birthday on Wednesday, Oct. 29, in South Elgin, has seen a lot of changes over her lifetime, but she lives to tell tales of growing up and raising her own family on a farm in Anna, a community 20 minutes east of the Mississippi River in southern Illinois.
Rosson was born Erie McCommons in 1914. She grew up with her two sisters, Mary and Clara. She used to love to roller skate and do flips down the street, and play hide and seek with the neighborhood kids, "who were mostly boys," Rosson said, and sometimes enjoy a milkshake after school.
Her sister, Clara Barnett, would go fishing with her on the farm as well; Rosson recalls her sister picking the worms out of the ground and going fishing on one of the two ponds on the farm.
"I did love to go fishing," said Rosson.
In 1930, at the age of 16, she married Charles Rosson and continued the farming life, raising chickens, pigs and cows. The couple raised four children; Bob, Louis, Virginia and Charlene.
"I used to milk the cows and make chicken and dumplings and pies on the farm," Rosson said.
Rosson then left the farm and moved into town to work as a nurse's aide for 22 years. In her free time, she always loved to crochet. Throughout her life, she would make countless blankets, ponchos and dolls which she still keeps with her.
In 2004, Rosson moved when her husband passed away at the age of 90 and now lives in South Elgin where her family visits her frequently. Rosson has many family members still living including her sister Mary, two children, six grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.
She enjoys her simple life, as she has always has, and when asked why she thinks she has lived such a long, healthy life, she replied by saying "I don't do anything I shouldn't."
Rosson now spends her days playing board games, watching movies and making crafts.
Her granddaughter, Donna Gould Jessen of Elgin has many fond memories of spending time with her grandmother.
"I remember when I was 10 years old, she would let me cut and tease her hair and she would always say how pretty she looked. Looking back it now, I can't believe she let me do that," Jessen said.
Family members fondly recall Rosson's aphorisms and sayings, such as "that's as handy as a pocket on a shirt."
Rosson has taught her family many lessons to living a happy life.
"I've learned (from my grandmother) to always be honest, loving and caring and live by the golden rule; treat others as you would like others to treat you," Jessen said.