Life has taken her from farms to foreign capitals
Lillian Jeffrey met her future husband when he showed up at her front door, selling sweepers. Before they were married in May 1937, she told Salvator Jeffrey that she wanted to live in the country. He made his new bride happy by buying a farm in Prospect, Butler County, and later farms in Erie and Harlansburg to supply fruit and vegetables for sale in Pittsburgh.
Mrs. Jeffrey, who walks daily and stays in shape by lifting gallon jugs filled with water over her head, will turn 100 years old on Labor Day. She was born Sept. 7, 1915, in the Evergreen section of Millvale, the seventh of eight children born to Joseph Fierst and Mary Ann (Wahl).
She grew up in Mars and graduated from Mars High School. Her husband, the son of farmers, sold the farm in Prospect after several years and bought 25 acres in Erie and 67 acres in Harlansburg, near New Castle. In addition to trucking their produce to the Strip District, the Jeffreys had a stand at the farmers market on the North Side and a roadside stand in Harlansburg. When the North Side market closed, they sold produce and Mrs. Jeffrey’s jam, jellies and canned fruit at other area markets.
After the first few years of marriage, the couple built a cottage in Largo, Fla., and spent the next 30 winters there. They spent the next 17 winters in a condominium in Waikiki, Hawaii. They also traveled often in wintertime. Her favorites were Hong Kong, Venice, Switzerland, Italy, Austria, Scotland and New Zealand. She also loved sightseeing around the Rock of Gibraltar.
She attended St. Christopher’s Church in Prospect and belonged to the grange and a bowling league. Although her eyesight is poor now, she enjoyed reading Zane Grey novels, and doing embroidery, crocheting and rug hooking.
Her husband died in April 1992 after 55 years of marriage. Mrs. Jeffrey lived alone for the next 22 years on 11 acres in Harlansburg. She moved to Home 2 Me, a personal care home in Slippery Rock, at age 98.
Mrs. Jeffrey has two godchildren, JoAnne Suwalski of Ross and and Walter Fierst of Grove City, and a nephew, James Irwin of State College, all of whom visit her often. She has many other nieces and nephews.