{"id":25471,"date":"2024-10-03T16:43:00","date_gmt":"2024-10-03T22:43:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/cortez-resident-celebrates-100th-birthday\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T05:17:42","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T05:17:42","slug":"cortez-resident-celebrates-100th-birthday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/cortez-resident-celebrates-100th-birthday\/","title":{"rendered":"Cortez resident celebrates 100th birthday"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Betty
Betty Donahoo on her 100th birthday. (Cameryn Cass\/The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Friends, family and community members came together to celebrate Betty Donahoo\u2019s 100th birthday party the afternoon of Oct. 2.<\/p>\n

Workers at Vista Grande, the nursing home where Donahoo lives, decorated a main room in pink and white balloons and metallic streamers in her honor.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not every day someone turns 100,\u201d said Kim McDonnell, a worker at Vista Grande. \u201cShe\u2019s a fantastic woman. To live 100 years is certainly a milestone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Donahoo was picturesquely positioned under rose gold balloons that spelled out, \u201cHappy Birthday,\u201d with the number \u201c100\u201d beneath it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt kind of snuck up on me,\u201d said Donahoo. \u201cI can\u2019t adjust to being that old.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the early stages of the party, City Manager Drew Sanders congratulated Donahoo on turning 100. On behalf of the city, he gifted her a black Yeti tumbler with \u201cCortez\u201d etched into its side.<\/p>\n

Not long after, Donahoo stood up and said, teary-eyed, \u201cThank you all for coming. You made my birthday very special, and I\u2019ll always remember it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Four
Four generations of the Donahoo family. In the very back, Paula Donahoo with her arms on the shoulders of her husband, Dick Donahoo. Lanea Donahoo is beside Betty on the left. To Lanea\u2019s left is her daughter, Althea McCluhan, then Zenon McCluhan and Eden McCluhan. Cameryn Cass\/The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

In an aside, she said, \u201cI\u2019ve enjoyed everything in my life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Betty was born on Oct. 2, 1924, in Omaha, Nebraska.<\/p>\n

At the time, Calvin Coolidge was president, the world\u2019s population was under 2 billion, and a gallon of gas cost 11 cents.<\/p>\n

When Betty turned 5, the Great Depression began, which would inform some her frugal behaviors later in life, said her granddaughter, Lanea Donahoo.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything always had another purpose,\u201d Lanea said.<\/p>\n

She even struggled throwing away some of the paper plates from the party, wishing to wash them instead.<\/p>\n

Lanea said Betty met her husband of 62 years in Omaha.<\/p>\n

At the time, Betty lived in the German area of the city, and the man who would become her husband, Harold \u201cHonk\u201d Donahoo, lived in the Irish part, Lanea said.<\/p>\n

When Betty was about 17 years old, she first noticed Honk walking by the house. And so one day, she timed it so they\u2019d cross paths \u201cand she captured his heart,\u201d Lanea said.<\/p>\n

While Honk served in World War II, Betty drew blueprints of airplane parts. She\u2019s always loved art, whether it be decorating cakes or painting Easter eggs or practicing calligraphy.<\/p>\n

After the war, they got married and eventually moved to Buffalo, Wyoming, where some of Honk\u2019s relatives lived. There, they had their two sons, Dick and Gary.<\/p>\n

In 1950, Honk\u2019s job transferred the family of four to Cortez.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey built their life here,\u201d Lanea said.<\/p>\n

When they first got to the area, they lived out of a trailer they had pulled behind their car.<\/p>\n

A few years passed, then they bought 20 acres of land on Lebanon Road. Lanea said they used to have to haul water to the house, the area was so undeveloped when they got there.<\/p>\n

But it was always Honk\u2019s dream to own property, some cattle and a horse, their son Dick said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey turned it into a really nice place,\u201d Dick said.<\/p>\n

\"One
One of many cakes at Betty\u2019s birthday celebration. (Cameryn Cass\/The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Honk died in 2007, but Betty stayed in the house, and kept living there until about three years ago when she moved into Madison House Assisted Living in Cortez.<\/p>\n

Though she lived alone for a while, Dick said he\u2019d frequent the place and help care for it and her.<\/p>\n

Honk would\u2019ve been two years older than Betty if he were still alive.<\/p>\n

In 2018, Betty lost one of her sons, Gary, to cancer.<\/p>\n

At the birthday celebration, Dick said that above all, his mom taught him to be kind.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt sounds blas\u00e9, but I learned to be a good person,\u201d Dick said.<\/p>\n

He went on to describe his mom as a caring, giving and hardworking individual.<\/p>\n

Throughout her life, Betty had many difficult jobs, Dick said.<\/p>\n

She picked apples, wrapped meat. Her easiest and most well-paid job was as a clerk for Mountain Bell, where she worked for 19 years.<\/p>\n

When that company shut down and Betty was laid off, she delved back into art.<\/p>\n

\u201cI did a lot of painting,\u201d Betty recalled. \u201cAn official looked at my work one time and said it was good, and that made me feel really good.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the party, the family brought a photo album which, among other memories, showcased Betty\u2019s art. She created beautiful, realistic oil paintings, primarily of nature scenes, like the mountains, lakes and animals.<\/p>\n

Beside a few images of her art pieces were images of Betty painting them, en plein air, canvas in hand, surrounded by paints and brushes and other supplies.<\/p>\n

\"A
A snapshot from the photo album. Three images are of Betty\u2019s oil paintings, and the bottom right is her en plein air painting. (Cameryn Cass\/The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Her vision took a turn for the worse and she struggles seeing now-a-days, so she no longer paints. But her great granddaughter Eden McCluhan said she sometimes plays harmonica in her room.<\/p>\n

Sitting beside the family at the party, I witnessed Lanea and three (of four) of her kids remember their great grandmother.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe taught me how to make bread, tell time and clean houses,\u201d Lanea said. \u201cI spent a lot of time with her.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lanea described Betty\u2019s recipe book, which is so lovely it\u2019s akin to a scrapbook, that she now has. It has all her recipes in her cursive, calligraphy print.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s absolutely beautiful,\u201d Lanea said.<\/p>\n

Betty\u2019s great granddaughter Althea McCluhan remembered how good of a cook she\u2019s always been.<\/p>\n

Chicken noodle soup was one of her specialties, since she made the noodles from scratch. So were peanut clusters, which were a family favorite.<\/p>\n

Dick said Betty would make the treats and pass them out to just about anyone, or gift them in tin cans she found at a secondhand store.<\/p>\n

Lanea said Betty had always been a \u201csparkle of health,\u201d having swam, ate well and been able to touch her toes throughout her whole life.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut she also never compromised on her sweet tooth,\u201d Eden added.<\/p>\n

Dick said she\u2019s had her health struggles, but the past 15 years have been kind to Betty.<\/p>\n

\u201cHer vitals would make you jealous,\u201d Dick said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Donahoo turned 100 on Oct. 2<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25472,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[21,1429,28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-25471","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-cortez","tag-cortez-city-council","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25471","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=25471"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25471\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78952,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25471\/revisions\/78952"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25472"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25471"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25471"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=25471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}