by Bea Peterson
Nineteen twelve was a leap year. It was the year the Titanic sank and the year Harriet Quimby became the first woman to fly across the English Channel. It was the year the fifth renewed Olympic Games opened in Stockholm, Sweden. It was the year Danny Thomas, Jose Ferrer, Jackson Pollock, Brian Nelson, David Astor, Pat Nixon, Sonja Henie, Foster Brooks, Perry Como, Sam Snead, Woody Guthrie, Julia Child, Gene Kelly, Pope John Paul I, Barbara Hutton, Lady Bird Johnson and Rose Hewitt were born.
And on Tuesday Rose celebrated her 100th birthday!
[private]Born in Brooklyn, raised in Stephentown, Rose spent the majority of her life living in Petersburgh with her husband Lloyd Hewitt. They were married for 58 years. He passed away in 1996. The couple have one child, Margaret, who has always been a big part of her mother’s life.
Rose graduated from the old Berlin High School. She worked at the Pittsfield Coal and Gas Company for seven years before she married Lloyd at Our Lady of Lourdes Shrine in New Lebanon. Following their marriage Rose became the bookkeeper for the family business, H.V. Hewitt & Sons. She held that job for more than 25 years.
For many years Rose was active with Lloyd in the Green Mountain Antique Car Club. She was also active in the Petersburgh Fire Department Auxiliary and the Taconic Valley Home Bureau.
Rose has many other interests. She always loves gardening and birdwatching. She and her friend Elizabeth Reynolds enjoy rug hooking and toll painting. According to her niece, Lilly Hewitt-Goodermote, Rose is a “very serious Scrabble® player and makes the best chocolate chip cookies in the valley!”
On her birthday Rose’s room at the Hoosick Falls Health Center was overflowing with floral bouquets. She also had a huge cake, stacks and stacks of birthday cards and a framed certificate from Rensselaer County commending her for reaching 100 years. We wish a happy birthday to an amazingly well-loved lady.[/private