A century of family, friends, faith: Elgin woman reflects on 100th birthday

Jan Breitmayer of Elgin recently turned 100 years old. It’s a milestone she says doesn’t deserve any special recognition. “A lot of people get to 100 these days,” she said.

Not so, say her daughter Wendy and various family and friends who got together to give this occasion the attention it deserves.

“You’re the first in our family to make the century mark,” said her sister Vivian Noblett, who is five years Jan’s junior and who has researched the family tree.

Born near Cleveland, Breitmayer grew up in Lakewood, Ohio. She described the home as a “double house.” Sometimes called an over-under house, it was popular in the Cleveland area at the time.

“My paternal grandparents built the house,” she said.

In 1930 — at the beginning of the depression — Breitmayer’s sister Vivian was born. It was a difficult time financially, she added. Her father, who was very artistic, worked in a large Cleveland department store as a window decorator.

“I remember the day he came home almost crying, saying he had to take a 25% cut in his salary,” Breitmayer recalls.

Breitmayer occasionally visited her maternal grandparents, who she described as devoutly religious, and who lived about an hour away. During one of those visits she attended an outdoor church revival meeting.

The 11-year-old Breitmayer stepped forward during a portion of the service to make a public profession of faith, which she says changed her life forever.

“The feeling has never gone. It’s embedded,” said Breitmayer, who says her faith is central to her life. She has been a leader in the United Church of Christ throughout her life, including her current church, First Congregational Church of Elgin.

She recalls the day “a father, a mother, a girl and three boys” moved to Lakewood, Ohio, and joined her church. The oldest was George, to whom she would eventually become engaged to for three years and married to for 65.

“It was a quiet Sunday afternoon, Dec. 7, 1941, and we were reading and listening to music on the radio,” she recalls. “All of a sudden, this voice came on and our lives changed in an instant. We’d been attacked by the Japanese and were at war.”

George, who was taking classes to become an engineer, was drafted and spent three years in England. He worked as a cryptographer with the Office of Strategic Services, a precursor to the CIA.

Shortly after his return they were wed. George’s career as a chemical engineer took the family to the Chicago area.

Eventually settling in Lake Zurich, the family later moved to Barrington for an easier train commute. Breitmayer worked as a medical technologist, a job she said she enjoyed. One research project she worked on was pancreatic cancer in the 1940s.

The family grew with the addition of their son David and daughter Wendy. In later years, their family would grow to include two grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.

Following her retirement, she and her husband moved to Florida, where they helped start a new church. After 65 years of marriage, George passed away. Jan moved to Elgin, where she now lives with her daughter Wendy.

“She has done many good works in the communities in which she's lived, quietly and without drawing attention to herself,” said friend Sherry Lenz. “She is concerned and asks about the welfare of others.”

In the early 1980s she was one of about two dozen people in the Barrington area who were in the first class of training to become hospice volunteers. This would be the beginning of what is now the JourneyCare hospice program.

Asked if she had any advice for a long and healthy life, Breitmayer said that she has always stood more than she sits.

“I picked this up working in a laboratory,” she added.

“She never did much sitting, and still doesn’t,” said daughter Wendy.

“Stay active and move more,” Breitmayer said. “People have to learn to enjoy each day. Look at the little things. Things are going to happen, so go with the flow.”

Breitmayer loves all kinds of different art forms. Her favorite hobby was painting on porcelain.

“It’s been a long life, but I can’t imagine 100 years … they went so fast!”