and we play on a different course every Thursday. I’m still playing in it.” How would Kelley like to celebrate his 101st birthday? “Just like I celebrated the last one,” he says. “I had pretty near 200 people at my 100th birthday party, and I liked it fine.”
Secret to a long life: “I have no answer for that. I did everything you shouldn’t.”
Helen Wittee Born: Dec. 8, 1908, in Mt. Pleasant, MI
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the Heritage Room, a small museum in the community.
Secret to a long life: “I think I have good genes on my mother’s side.”
Kenneth “Red” Simmons Born: Nov. 1, 1908, in Wright Township, MI
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enneth “Red” Simmons is the University of Michigan’s oldest living former head coach. More than 10 years before Title IX, the act designed to level the playing field for women collegiate athletes, Simmons and his wife, Betty, organized a women’s track club in Ann Arbor called the Michigammes. “Betty and I had gone to the Olympics in Rome in 1960, and the U.S. women’s team didn’t do well,” says Simmons. “So we decided to come back and start a track club for women. Within two years we won the state AAU championship, and we won many, many years after that.” In 1976, Simmons was named the UM’s first women’s track and field coach. Sports had been a big part of Simmons’ life since childhood. He attended a oneroom schoolhouse in Grand River. “When I was in seventh grade, a man came to teach, and he had a farmer mow a place for us to run and make a long jump and high jump. He told my parents I needed to go to high school because I was going to be a great athlete someday.” And he was. Simmons led his high school and later college track teams. He was a member of the 1932 Olympic track and field team.
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He remains active today, working out at least five days a week and, with his second wife, Lois, staying very active in the university’s programs. “We retired in ’82 and we’re busier now than we ever were,” says Simmons.
Secret to a long life: “Picking good parents and a good wife, and I did both.”
John Kelley Born: Jan. 5, 1910, in Cleveland, OH
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ohn Kelley grew up on a farm. “I didn’t care too much for farm chores, and my sister didn’t care for housework, so we swapped,” says Kelley. “I helped out my mother in the house, and I actually became a pretty good cook. After we were grown, my sister would call me all the time and ask, ‘How did mother make this dish?’” Kelley enrolled in the International Business College in Ft. Wayne, Indiana, with his sights set on sales. His plans were soon put on hold. “The Depression came along and I had to drop out,” he said. “I never did get to go back and finish.” Once the economy came back, Kelley embarked on an ever-changing series of jobs. He worked at a steel plant, a power plant, an airplane parts factory and an industrial machinery concern. In between, he owned and operated a garage and two bowling alleys. He also married, divorced and raised two children. The one constant through his many changes has been golf. “I first played in 1927 and I’ve never stopped,” he says. “I ran a golf league for years. We have about 90 players
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ne of the things Helen Wittee is proudest of is the fact that six former students she taught in kindergarten still contact her regularly. “And they don’t just write to her,” says Betty Lewis, Wittee’s daughter. “Some of them come to see her once or twice a year!” Wittee taught kindergarten and first grade for 25 years, but she didn’t begin her teaching career until 1945. Before that, she traveled with her first husband and cared for her young daughter. “Stanley played the saxophone and the clarinet, and that’s how he supported us through the Depression years,” says Wittee. “People couldn’t afford other types of entertainment, but they could afford to dance. So we traveled all around with his music.” When Wittee’s daughter was old enough to start school, the family settled down in Michigan. Both Wittee and her husband taught school. Today, Wittee lives with her daughter and son-in-law in Cheboygan. Though her eyesight is failing and she has had to give up crossword puzzles and needlework, she maintains her passion for reading by listening to books on tape. “I’m listening to biographies of presidents right now,” she says. “But I love to read everything. I always have.”
Secret to a long life: “If you like people and have a good relationship with your family and friends, that probably keeps you going better than anything else.”
Howard Bryant Born: Dec. 25, 1906, near Eureka, MI
H
oward Bryant wears a sweatshirt that reads “Plays in the dirt.” Indeed, the Ovid man has been playing in, or working with, dirt for more than a century. Bryant grew up on a farm north of Eureka. When it was time to go to Michigan Generations