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Elliott tells stories from a long life

By the Post-Register staff
July 01, 2010

Naomi Elliott smiles during her 100th birthday party last week.

So what did Naomi Elliott think about turning 100 years old on Wednesday?

“Nothing,” she said with a straight face. “I say I have no reason for doing it. I feel that they can ask somebody else.”

Elliott celebrated her 100th birthday last Saturday with a party at the Quincy Valley Medical Center care center, where she is a resident. Nearly all of her three daughters (Mary, Nancy and Susan), eight grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren were in attendance.

Even though it was her party, Elliott relished in listening to her family member’s exploits.

“It was a lot of fun,” Elliott said. “There was a lot of family there. I got to learn a lot about them by talking to other people.”

Elliott was born in St. John, Stafford County, Kan., in 1910, the youngest of three children (she had two older brothers). Her father was the minister of a Presbyterian church. She went to college — a rare feat a for a female in those days — at Southwestern College, a Methodist school in Winfield, Kan. She taught home economics for two years in Inglewood, Kan., before marrying Larry Elliott in 1935. She took several years off before they moved to Quincy in 1952.

She taught home economics at Quincy High School from 1956 to 1974.

“I enjoyed that very much,” she said. “I still see some of my former students.”

Before Larry died in 1986, they had the opportunity to travel extensively after they retired in 1974.

“I’ve been to just about every state in the union,” she said.

For several years, the couple spent winters in Apache Junction, Ariz. It was there that Elliott found a new passion — painting.

“I took painting lessons there,” she said.

Three of her paintings currently hang in her room at the care center. One features a nature landscape with mountains, trees and a river, painted in 1985. “That’s one of my favorites,” she said. Another features a water wheel and a brown building. “That’s the first one I ever painted,” she said.

Elliott was also a member of the Presbyterian Church and enjoyed playing the piano and organ and singing in the church choir.

Elliott has lived at the medical center for the past four years. Before that, she spent eight years at The Cambridge Assisted Living Facility.

“I like it here,” she said, “but I don’t like that I feel so confined. I don’t feel as free.”

There are three reasons for Elliott’s longevity in life, according to her daughters: finding a purpose bigger than herself, having a strong faith and eating chocolate ice cream at least once per day.

“I think that would describe me well,” she said.