Flagstaff Centenarian Advises Others to ‘Eat Right’

Survivor of typhoid fever, the Great Depression, World War II celebrates 108th birthday

By Bonnie Stevens and Frances Bryant, FBN

“I never smoked. I didn’t drink. I eat right,” said Helen Boswell, who enjoyed her 108th birthday in a celebration that included four generations of family members at The Peaks, A Senior Living Community in Flagstaff on Thursday, July 6.

“It was delightful because she enjoyed it so much,” said her daughter, Susan Rieck, who joined the party with her daughter, Allison, and granddaughter, Jaden. “She loved it and that’s the biggest thing for me. She is friendly and sociable, but she’s quiet. People drove up from Prescott, friends from the church were there, along with residents of The Peaks, who are lovely. Everyone is so kind and patient.”

Boswell was born in 1915, in East Lansing, Michigan, and grew up in Adrian. As a child, she contracted typhoid fever before antibiotics had been discovered and she fought for her life. The doctors told her that they didn’t think she would make it. “You really surprised us,” she recalls her doctor saying when she beat the odds and was cured.

At age 15, the country was thrust into the Great Depression, and she learned to cope with scarcity.

She recalls having a lot of friends, being fun-loving and athletic. She played volleyball and did cartwheels and handstands at a time when girls’ and women’s athletics were not encouraged. She has always loved swimming.

As a young woman, she went to beauty college and became a “beauty operator.” She did shampoos and sets, permanents and manicures and worked until she married. She had at least two marriage proposals, but she chose the “handsome” engineer. At that time, she quit her job to take care of her home, her husband, and eventually, her children.

She married in 1940. “I was very lucky. I had a very good husband. He never cheated on me and I never cheated on him,” she said.

Not long after the wedding, her husband joined the U.S. Army to support the country in World War II.

When her first child was about to be born, Boswell had another brush with death. The doctor told her husband that he might be able to save either his wife or the baby, but not both and maybe neither. However, both Boswell and her baby survived, although her baby was three months early and weighed only three pounds. Boswell rode the streetcar to the hospital every day for many weeks to nurse her baby. Today, that child is a tall, healthy man who recently returned from a mission trip to Africa.

Two years later, she had a baby girl. After the war, the family settled in Ohio. Boswell says her happiest days were at home with her husband and children. She took great pride in creating a happy home that was always neat and clean. She also grew flowers and vegetables.

After the children went away to college and started their own lives, Boswell worked as a cashier at the high school, where she was one of the students’ favorite cafeteria workers.

“Miss Helen has always kept busy, and I admire her,” said The Peaks Life Enrichment Director Frances Bryant.

Family members and friends say she knitted beautiful sweaters, quilted bedspreads, painted watercolor and acrylic pictures and did many other crafts, such as decoupage. She also attended women’s groups at her church, played bridge and met with friends to do ceramics.

“I love the water,” said Boswell, noting that some of her favorite memories are from time spent at Burt Lake in Michigan.

Boswell and her husband moved to Arizona when he retired. He died in 2004, after 64 years of marriage, and she lived on her own until she was 103 years old. “She did her own grocery shopping and cooking and even made a pie every week to take to the neighborhood potluck,” said Bryant.

At age 103, she moved to The Peaks, where her favorite activities are the church service on

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