{"id":115744,"date":"2014-12-19T23:42:35","date_gmt":"2014-12-20T06:42:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/cortez-resident-celebrating-100th-birthday\/"},"modified":"2014-12-19T23:42:35","modified_gmt":"2014-12-20T06:42:35","slug":"cortez-resident-celebrating-100th-birthday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/cortez-resident-celebrating-100th-birthday\/","title":{"rendered":"Cortez resident celebrating 100th birthday"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Virginia
Virginia Henneman is celebrating her 100th birthday.<\/span>Sam Green\/Cortez Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI really don\u2019t know if there\u2019s a secret to it (living long), I\u2019ve worked, I\u2019ve been busy \u2026 it\u2019s just ordinary living,\u201d she said. \u201cThere were lots of things I did that I shouldn\u2019t have done, and lots of things I should have done.\u201d<\/p>\n

On that list of things she should\u2019ve done, she says, is jump from an airplane<\/p>\n

When she was a senior in high school in Wisconsin during the 1930s, Henneman and her cousin got a free ride from a biplane pilot who was making a stop in town. She remembers circling thousands of feet above her family\u2019s home, and the pilot making upside-down loops in the air as her mother watched from ground.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe saw the plane above the house and watched it, and had no idea we were onboard,\u201d she said with a mischievous grin. \u201cI\u2019ve always loved flying after that; I always thought I would jump out of an airplane.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before she and her late-husband Roy settled in Cortez they lived in many cities all over the U.S., and upon Roy\u2019s retirement, the two traveled extensively. One of their favorite places was Naples, Italy.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe went to lots of places, but we really enjoyed Italy.\u2026 Naples was very nice, and the food was closest to what we were used to,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Upon settling in Cortez in 1972 to run the Aero Motel, the Hennemans dove right into local life. Virginia has been a Denver Broncos fan since the team\u2019s inception, and still doesn\u2019t miss a game. Roy got involved with local politics. Virginia, who as a young girl was accepted to Juilliard School of Music, used her talent to play organ at Trinity Lutheran Church. She served as Trinity\u2019s organist well into her 90s.<\/p>\n

She credits the people in her life as the central reason she\u2019s been able to ride out the hard times and major health scares over the years, including colon cancer. Despite the trials she\u2019s had along the way, Henneman still maintains a sharp sense of humor and a sunny disposition.<\/p>\n

\u201cI haven\u2019t had any major disasters,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019ve had bad experiences, and I\u2019ve had good experiences, and through the worst, I\u2019ve always had good people around me, and that helps very much.\u201d<\/p>\n

Through her lengthy time on earth, she\u2019s learned quite a bit, but the most important lesson she can pass on is a simple one: be kind, even when its difficult.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the best thing to learn for both children and adults is to be pleasant, friendly and thoughtful,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a very pleasant \u2013 how many years?,\u201d she asked with a laugh.<\/p>\n

Virginia Henneman\u2019s birthday celebration is Sunday Dec. 28 at Trinity Lutheran Church in Cortez from 1 to 3 p.m.<\/p>\n

The Broncos take the field at 2:25 p.m., so arrive early if you don\u2019t want to miss her.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Virginia Henneman is celebrating her 100th birthday.Sam Green\/Cortez Journal \u201cI really don\u2019t know if there\u2019s a secret to it (living long), I\u2019ve worked, I\u2019ve been busy \u2026 it\u2019s just ordinary living,\u201d she said. \u201cThere were lots of things I did that I shouldn\u2019t have done, and lots of things I should have done.\u201d On that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":115745,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5843],"tags":[21],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-115744","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-living","tag-cortez"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115744","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=115744"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115744\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/115745"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=115744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=115744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=115744"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=115744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}