Elgin woman celebrates 100th birthday

Asked whether she expected to reach 100 years of age, Elgin's Genevieve Hogrewe answered, "Who does? You have to pinch yourself to believe it."

Still with a sharp mind, if somewhat hard of hearing, Hogrewe celebrated the end of her first century with a party at Randall Oaks Park in Dundee Township attended by 65 friends and family members.

Her son Chuck Hogrewe said that the then Genevieve Becker was born Nov. 18, 1916, on a farm near Kenosha, Wisconsin, - one of 13 brothers and sisters. At 16 she visited the Century of Progress World's Fair in Chicago.

As a young woman, she worked as a housekeeper for wealthy Elgin families summering in the area called "the Elgin Club" on Geneva Lake in Wisconsin. As a result, she moved to Elgin, where she attended Epworth Methodist Church and met her future husband, Marvin Hogrewe, at a church social. They raised three children (Bonnie, Charlie and Rick), and she now shares her home with her daughter Bonnie.

Prior to becoming a full-time mother and housewife in the 1950s, she worked as a secretary and recordkeeper at Saint Joseph Hospital in Elgin, where her husband also worked in the hospital offices. Marvin died in 1983.

Hogrewe said her favorite hobby is baking and she still makes 25 coffee cakes for friends every Christmastime.

As for why she has lived so long, she said, "Only the Lord can answer that. I asked him that and he told me something, but I'm going to keep it to myself."