Photo provided Family members gather for a group picture to celebrate the 100th birthday of Lorene Gregory.
A lot has changed over the past 100 years; mankind landed on the moon, sliced bread was invented and the creation of the internet connected people all over the world.
But one thing hasn’t changed throughout the past century, and that’s Columbus resident Lorene Gregory’s go-getter attitude. She recently celebrated her 100th birthday with her family on Sept. 27, including a visit and proclamation from Mayor Mary Ferdon declaring Sept. 27 to be Lorene Parker Gregory Day.
Lorene Parker Gregory was born on Sept. 29, 1925 to Clint Parker and Sallie Lee. She, her three brothers and three sisters grew up in the country around Gallatin, Tennessee. She lived in Tennessee, working as a waitress and in a shoe factory until 1951, when she and her husband Lymon Gregory moved to Columbus.
“It’ll be 29 years in December that he passed away,” Lorene said. “And he was in World War II and we weren’t married at the time he was in there, we married when he came home from World War II.”
She and Lymon had four children; Lymon Jr., Theresa, Sandy and Peggy. Lymon worked at several different jobs, but he worked at Hamilton Cosco when he and Lorene moved to Columbus. Lorene worked at Arvin, manufacturing radios, televisions and exhaust systems.
“And she was a go-getter at Arvin,” Sandy, who now has the last name Cain, said. “She became a union rep. She, I think, was instrumental in getting some of the safety stuff passed, especially at the Gladstone plant when she went over there.”
Retiring from Arvin in 1989, Lorene took a job as a hostess in Brown County at a lodge and then worked as a substitute cook within the Bartholomew County School Corp. But now, Lorene spends most of her days doing housework in her Columbus home.
“I’ve tried some (hobbies) but I’m not too good at them,” Lorene said. “I’ve tried painting and sewing, I used to love to sew.”
Having lived 100 years now, Lorene said everything has changed so much and so quickly. The biggest change she experienced and her favorite was getting electricity out in rural areas where she lived.
“Because now you have lights in your barn and all around, but when I was a kid, we didn’t have all that,” Lorene said. “We had a coal, little lamp like I still got…”
Cain said she and her siblings, who all live very close in surrounding communities and counties, visit their mother at least once a week to help her with shopping and doctors appointments. On some Sundays, they all get together for a meal that Lorene prepares.
“But my kids, I don’t know what I’d do without them,” Lorene said. “They are my life really, because they’re the ones that take care of me. They go to the grocery store for me and straighten out my messes when I get in them or in a jam, they’re the ones that really take care of them, is my children. I have the best children I think anybody could ever have.”
Lorene said she doesn’t have a secret to living a long life, saying she just lives day to day. She said she sometimes wonders why she has lived as long as she has, but she said it’s not up to her and she is thankful for the days she has gotten and has. Cain said she is grateful to have had Lorene in her life for as long as she has, describing her mother an independent and strong woman.
“She’s a very determined woman, and I think that’s one reason that she’s where she is because not very many people come back from a broken hip at 90 years old,” Cain said. “At 90 years old, she broke her hip and had to have two surgeries due to a therapist messed something up, but she was determined that she was going to walk again. And she is.”
Friends and family of Lorene, including her relatives from Tennessee and Kentucky, gathered this past Saturday to celebrate this milestone with a surprise open house party at St. Peter’s Lutheran Church. Belinda Gregory, Lorene’s daughter-in-law, estimates 75 to 100 people attended the party.
“She was totally surprised,” Belinda said.
Tables at the party held photos of Lorene, her husband Lymon and her family, as well as memorabillia from the Kentucky church she and Lymon married at. Coincidentally, Johnny Cash also married at that church, so Belinda said they had fun facts about the two couples.
One table also held a book celebrating 100 years of Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry that Lymon Jr. had gotten her as the Opry also turned 100 this year. On the wall above one table was a picture of a Smucker’s jar with Lorene’s name on it. Belinda said Lorene loved to make jelly, so she commissioned the picture from Advantage One Graphics in Columbus.
“She wasn’t expecting a party, I think we got her,” Belinda said. “She’s a gift, she’s been a gift and it was just amazing to see how many lives that she had touched through the years that they all showed up. A lot of her kids’ friends from growing up days, her childhood, their childhood friends were there, that made it really special… it was so great. It was great to be a part of it.”
