By ANGELA ASSAF
cnlife@crescent-news.com
Like routine, Dorothy Knoop picks up the newspaper the moment it hits the doorstep and leafs through the pages to her favorite section " the obituaries " or "death column" as she jokingly calls it.
"You would too, at my age," quips Knoop, who has outlived most of her classmates and people with whom she grew up. Not to mention the ladies she socialized with over the years as a member of Eastern Star and in the religious circles at First Presbyterian Church where today she holds the distinction of being a 60-year member. Back a half century ago, she used to help teach the Sunday school classes there.
The church was the perfect setting for the occasion to mark Knoop's 100th birthday that was attended by some 150 relatives and friends who traveled from near and far to help celebrate the special milestone.
Dorothy Knoop was born on April 20, 1908, in Paulding County to John and Cora Andrews. She married Orville Knoop in 1931, a local barber and longtime love interest. They had two children, Marilyn Smith of Defiance and Fred, New Martinsville, W.Va. There are three grandchildren, three stepgrandchildren, three great-grandchildren and four great-stepgrandchildren.
During the event the youngest of Knoop's grandchildren, Jim Smith, 40, presented her with a large vase filled with 100 roses in her favorite color, pink. He read the proclamation given by Mayor Bob Armstrong announcing it as "Dorothy Knoop Day."
Also attending was local physician, Dr. Allen Gaspar. He gave Knoop a brand new pink cardigan.
"He said he gives all his patients a sweater when they turn 100."
She recalled, "Dr. Gaspar once tried to give me a shot for the flu. I said, "A shot? No, I don't drink.' "
Knoop has never had a serious illness. Her only complaint is a little arthritis in her joints. "They bother me sometimes when I knit," she mentions, examining the knots on her fingers.
She took up the craft after learning the basics from a neighbor years ago. "It's such a good pastime," she relates. "When I was young, I would sit down after work and knit for hours."
To date she has knitted some 500 washcloths. For the party she made washcloths for all the women present. She is also good with a needle and thread and is equally skilled at crocheting. "I made afghans for each of the grandchildren," she points out.
Knoop has lived 61 years in her southside Defiance home where today she is helped by her daughter, Marilyn Smith, who stays with her.
"Mom still wants to be very independent and I think that's great. She is proud of what she can do at her age. She goes to the grocery once a week, writes her own checks and does her own banking.
"She likes to be at home and keep a clean house. Mom has always been a routine person. She has something to do each day of the week."
"I'm not on any special diet and I've never been one to exercise," remarks the petite Knoop. "I eat what I want " but NO fast food. I stay active " I don't just sit around. And I cook my own meals."
"Mom makes the best baked chicken," comments Smith. "The way she browns it " Mmmm ... It's so good with mashed potatoes and gravy on the side. She still makes noodles from scratch."
She makes a batch of cookies almost weekly and a couple different kinds of pie.
"I just take after my mom," says Knoop with a shrug. "She was a good cook."
Knoop grew up on a farm in Arthur along with her seven siblings. "I left milking the cows to my two sisters," she says. "My job was in the house helping Mom."
"I would make pancakes for everyone on three long skillets all lined up. I was the first to get up and the last one to sit down to eat " all before going to school."
She describes her upbringing as "strict" but nurturing and family-centric. Weekly church attendance was a given. During the summer months she helped her father shuck corn in the field. In the evenings he would gather the children to play ball in the side yard.
"On Sundays, Mom had company over for dinner and would always invite the preacher. We never knew how many to cook for."
Knoop recalls doing class time (first through eighth-grade) in a one-room schoolhouse. "The teacher made me stay after school every day because I could not pronounce Delaware."
At age 18 she took up doing housework for young couples just starting a family. She developed an especially close relationship with Frank and Dorothy Bahmers while taking care of their two children. (They owned the Defiance Sausage Works which later became Eckert's Meats.)
When the son of the couple, Eddie Bahmers, who today is 80, made a surprise appearance at Knoop's 100th birthday bash, she was visibly overwhelmed.
"I don't know how he found out about it or who would have told him, but he was there," she says.
Knoop took her sweet time (13 years) before taking the plunge into marriage. She says during that time Orville was going to barber school and just getting started in the business. "He said he worried about how he was going to support me."
But on the Saturday night before July 4th, she recalls, he suddenly got up his nerve.
"He asked Rev. William Rex, "Do you want to marry me now? Or after I get off work at 5:30 a.m.?' He married us that night at around midnight in his home."
They spent their honeymoon at her parents' house, then traveled the next day to the big town of Wooster. Starting out the first seven years they lived in Arthur.
"We lit the house with oil lamps and had to carry our water in from a well outside. When we got electricity it was really something."
The next "big thing" to come along was the radio, she recalls.
"It was the first time that you could find out what was really happening in the world. I would get the reports on the war every day. When the kids were older they had programs that they liked to listen to."
The Knoops bought their first TV in the 1950s, after they moved to Defiance.
"That was really big for some people. I was not into TV and I'm still not." (She would rather sit and play euchre or dominoes.)
"I know how to operate a remote control and all that, but the new things " I don't want any part of it. Sometimes I turn the TV off when I hear about what people are doing today and the war. I just can't take it."
Even at her vintage age, Knoop admittedly pines for the good old days when making homemade ice cream was a family event. Moms had to plead with their children to come indoors after playing outside all day with the neighbor kids. A Saturday night out for parents included couples dancing at the Eagles.
"Mom and Dad were big fans of the Big Band music and the war songs," mentions Smith.
Smith says back when she was a teen-ager most families could afford to take about one major vacation period. By that time her father was self-employed. "He gave up a couple weeks of income to take us out West. It was the most fun that we ever had as a family."
Knoop took her first and only airplane ride when she was 75 to Denver. She tried living for six months in Florida while her husband was still living, but says they couldn't stand the heat. Today, all of her family members except her daughter live scattered all over the map. She made her last annual road trip to see her son in West Virginia this last year.
"I'm not going to travel any more. They can come to me," she announced.
After Orville died, she worked for several years in the cafeteria at Defiance Middle School then finally called it quits.
"Mom still went to vote up until a couple years ago," says Smith. When asked if she plans to participate in this year's election, Knoop replies flatly, "I have no interest in that."
"I just always try to live a good life," says Knoop, reflecting. "Nobody expects to live to be 100."
This past year Knoop lost her remaining two siblings, a sister, Zylpha Shisler, 89, and a brother, Walter, 94, both of Oakwood.
"Walter was like me " active. He still farmed and drove a car. Zylpha had been in a nursing home for 12 years.
"Now that they're both gone, I feel it's time for me to go, too," she says in a rather matter-of-fact tone.
Knoop had a light stroke recently, shortly after the party, but bounced right back after a brief recovery at a nursing home.
When she found out mid-week that she would be going home on Friday, she appeared spry and immediately began making Mother's Day plans for her and her daughter.
"We're going to grill out and have strawberry shortcake."