William Glenn was born June 5, 1909. A century later, he is more than willing to show his natural sense of humor, given any opportunity.
Glenn was honored with a reception on Saturday, June 6, at Hillcrest Nursing Center. Days prior to this event, Glenn said he was looking forward to the party.
Faced with a barrage of questions from reporters, Glenn laughingly repeated that he’d “done everything” over the past 100 years.
Glenn said he has four sisters and eight brothers. Asked if he and his siblings had played well together, he said, “We fought like cats and dogs.”
Glenn said he grew up on a farm and later bought one of his own. There, he raised “everything.” He said crops included corn, watermelons, cantaloupes and more. He recalled fishing and hunting with his brothers as well, and said that he’d caught lots of fish over the course of his lifetime.
Glenn and his wife have one daughter, Aristien Willis. Willis said her father also worked at Potlatch and had worked at the ammunitions plant at Hope for a period of time. There, gunpowder exploded, costing Glenn the sight in one eye.
Willis said that Glenn, having only one daughter, was somewhat strict.
“He made sure he kept up with me,” she said.
Despite that, she recalls that her father “wasn’t a hard fellow.”
In the Glenn family, Mr. Glenn tended to be the one telling jokes and laughing while his wife was the more serious of the two, Willis said.
Willis said that her father had done the best he could by his family and for himself.
“People back then, they did all they knew to do,” she said. “You didn’t have anything but work.”
Glenn himself said that he’d worked from a young age though he also remembers attending school as a youngster.
His sense of humor was never more evident than when he was asked if he’d been “cute” as a child. He replied that he had, but then he’d grown into a man.
As he shook the hand of the reporter at the end of the interview, he managed to get one last laugh from those gathered.
“You didn’t put anything in my hand,” he said.
Nurses at Hillcrest Nursing Center say that Glenn’s typical quote is “keep on living.”
While there’s lots of time for naps, Glenn certainly doesn’t mind taking time out for visitors. After all, that’s part of living.
Prescott, Ark. —
