senior assisted living blog

GreenTree at West Lafayette recently celebrated a 100^th birthday.

Dorothy Garrison was born in Young America, IN.,
on May 18^th, 1910. 

At an early age, she and her mother were inflicted with spinal meningitis. Her mother passed away. Dorothy survived, but was not able to walk until she was 3 years of age and was sickly for the first 14 years of her life.

She had four older sisters; but, said that she was her "father's boy", since he had no sons. All of her sisters helped care for Dorothy.  Lucille and Helen attended "teaching school" to help out with the family finances.  One taught school between Young America and Logansport and Dorothy was in her 4^th grade class. When Helen went to school she told Dorothy to pick out a book and she would read it to her that evening. Her favorite poems were "Song of Hiawatha" and "Snowbound". Her sister would read "Snowbound" to her whenever they were snowed in. She remembers lying on the floor listening to her sister read and tried to imagine what her sister was reading. Her father would stop reading the newspaper to listen, too. 

Dorothy was first married to "Cac" Hagenbuch. They were married in 1949 and lived in Fowler. He died in 1954 and left her a life estate in 160 acres of farmland in Benton County. Dorothy managed the farm for many years.   She met Kent Garrison at the Benton County Country Club while playing golf.  She was an accomplished golfer and an avid bowler. Kent and Dorothy were married in 1956. Kent was the owner and manager of the family grain elevator business in Earl Park, IN. Dorothy was employed as a legal stenographer for several years.  She is a member of the First Presbyterian Church in Fowler and was Past Matron of the Order of Eastern Star, receiving her 75-year award in 2003. Kent and Dorothy enjoyed to travel and did so often.  On one such trip to Boston, MA, while on a walking tour of the city, they viewed the original manuscript of the poem "Snowbound". 

It meant so much to Dorothy and brought back so many happy memories of her childhood and all the staff at GreenTree loved the opportunity to share her 100^th birthday celebration.