The good thing about reaching 100 is that it takes so long to get there.
For Grace Myers it’s been an enjoyable journey that includes living through the Depression, enjoying a brief teaching career, being married to Dr. Gene Myers and raising a family.
Grace turns 100 on Oct. 6.
She’s lived in Iola since 1948, so long that “I can’t remember living anywhere else,” Grace said from her room at Windsor Place where she’s lived since the spring.
For the most part Grace has lived in a brick and clapboard house at the intersection of Jackson and Cottonwood streets, kitty-corner to Iola High School.
“It was the best place in town to raise a family; so convenient to everything,” she said.
Grace was born in Wetumka, Okla., a small town 88 miles east of Oklahoma City. She was one of nine children. Her father was an attorney, “more of a jack of all trades back in those days.”
Out of the batch, Grace was the “runt,” never reaching more than 4 feet 10 inches. She attributes her feisty spirit to her diminutive size. She’s the only one of the nine to attain a degree from a university.
So eager was she to drive, she took it upon herself to take the family car out on the roads.
Concerned parents awaited her return. And promptly enrolled her into the proper course.
To this day Grace has never driven without the addition of a plump pillow in the driver’s seat to enable her to see the road.
Of steering wheels, Grace said, “Good thing they’re not solid.”
Grace studied music at Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, minoring in organ and majoring in piano.
She graduated during the depths of the Depression, accepting a job first in Wetumka for three years and then in El Reno, Okla., about equidistant from the state’s capital city to the west.
“The first year I taught school, everything was fine up to January. Then the state ran out of money. From January to June, I received no salary. It was pretty slim pickings trying to get by on what I could borrow.
“In truth, it wasn’t that bad. Everybody was in the same position.”
