Clarabelle (Haslag) Dorweiler, of Linn, who will celebrate her 100th birthday on Feb. 20, said she has enjoyed a very good life, and said the reason for her longevity is simple.

“I was blessed with good health,” she said. “I never smoked or drank, I love my vegetables and I don’t eat too much meat.”

That’s exactly what she told former Gov. Jay Nixon, who sent her a congratulatory note when she turned 90, and it has remained true, even as she recently survived a bout with COVID-19.

“I didn’t even know I had it,” she said. “I fell and had to call the ambulance, and when they took me to the hospital, they told me I had coronavirus.”

After three weeks in the hospital — without the need for a ventilator — she was released for two weeks of rehab at General Baptist Nursing Home in Linn, after which Dorweiler returned to the farm where she has lived since the mid-1940s.

“It takes a lot out of you,” said Dorweiler of COVID. “The only thing different now is that I have to use a walker because I kept falling.”

Dorweiler added she has also always had her faith, and is a long-time active member of St. George Church in Linn.

The worst part for the family was that they couldn’t visit Dorweiler while she was in the hospital.

“I’d never been in the hospital before that,” said Dorweiler. “I’m still in good shape. I don’t even have arthritis in my fingers.”

Her only daughter, Theresa Arlen, said it’s remarkable how little medical attention her mother has needed over the years.

Born in Frankenstein, Dorweiler is the daughter of August and Gertrude (Stiefferman) Haslag and grew up on the family farm.

“We didn’t have much but I loved my parents and they did their best,” said Dorweiler. “They worked very hard.”

She recalls that back then, there were no buses so walking a mile-and-a-half to St. Mary’s School was the only option. “It would get so cold and windy sometimes that I had to walk backward for a while to catch my breath,” Dorweiler said.

She would walk for a while with a neighbor, who gave her a Valentine’s Day card in elementary school, which Dorweiler still has as a prized possession.

“They don’t make them like that anymore,” said Dorweiler, whose love of knickknacks and memorabilia began as a child. “My parents would give us a quarter each to spend in town and I always came home with a knickknack. My brother would spend his on a peppermint stick and by the time we got home, he had eaten the whole thing.”

Dorweiler had three brothers, Raphael (Ray), Sylvester (Syl), and Bert Haslag.

While attending St. Mary’s, Dorweiler had perfect attendance and did well in school. “One year, I had perfect marks in all my studies,” she recalls. “The sisters made you walk the line.”

She did her homework at school so that when she got home, after chores, she was free to play and loved to fish in the Big Loose Creek.

“I would dig worms and then catch perch and catfish for dinner,” Dorweiler said.

Dorweiler completed her schooling in the eighth grade. “The only options we had were to go to Fatima or Linn, and my parents couldn’t drive me,” she said, noting the first car her parents bought was a Model T Ford, which had to be cranked by hand. On one occasion, the car backfired and broke her dad’s arm. “There were no buses so that was it.”

Instead, she worked on the family farm, which had no electricity or running water. “We used coal-oil lamps and Aladdin lamps,” Dorweiler said. “You had to be real careful not to bump them.”

Dorweiler also loved to dance, and would spend time with friends at various farms, where furniture would be cleared to create a space for the house dance. A variety of people would play instruments.

“We always had a lot of fun,” Dorweiler said.

She met her future husband, Cyrus, at one such house dance, and they enjoyed going to the Paul Maassen Dance hall in Frankenstein.

There was one interesting situation in Dorweiler’s dating life, which most likely led to the bond they shared for 62 years as husband and wife.

“He called me one night and said we had a date, and I told him we did not,” Dorweiler recalls. “I was planning to go out with someone else but Cyrus told me he paid a dollar to go out with me instead.”

A little later, she talked to the other gentleman, who told her couldn’t make it. “He didn’t give me a reason at all but admitted that he took the dollar,” said Dorweiler. “He figured he could take the money and then go out with me some other time but I wasn’t having it. That dollar was worth more to him than me.”

Clarabelle and Cyrus were married in 1941, just before the United States entered World War II.

“We were married on a Saturday and Monday, I went to work in the Oberman Manufacturing Co. pants factory in Jefferson City,” said Dorweiler. “I had never used an electric sewing machine before so it was a challenge.”

That job lasted a year and with the country engaged in war, Dorweiler said her husband was not satisfied to merely watch.

“Cyrus wanted to do his part and fight in the war but he didn’t qualify medically,” said Dorweiler. “So we did what we could.”

In 1942, the couple moved to St. Louis, where they were hired by Universal Match to work in a defense plant. Cyrus was a powder mixer and Clarabelle was a primer setter for aircraft signals, a job they did for three-and-a-half years.

Working from 3:30 p.m. to midnight, Dorweiler said she needed something to do during the day, so she began buying materials to embroider. That skill was learned at St. Mary’s, and Cyrus was also taught the process, something that would come in handy later in life.

During the war, everything was rationed and stamps were required for purchases of items such as gasoline, and soap. “My mother-in-law would send us gas stamps so we could drive out to the country,” said Dorweiler.

When Cyrus’s mother decided it was time to leave country life and move to Linn, Clarabelle and Cyrus bought the farm near Pointer’s Creek and settled in to make a life.

“We truly were a team,” said Dorweiler. “We helped each other with whatever needed to be done. If he was cutting wood, I went with him, and he helped me with my summer garden and all the canning that had to be done. We lived off the land.”

The couple raised beef cattle, chickens, and hogs, but there wasn’t much money in it, so Clarabelle went to work at the Linn Pants Factory, a job she held for nearly 10 years before the plant closed.

Clarabelle did not drive, so she walked a quarter-mile to the mailbox, where a coworker picked her up for the trip to the plant.

“I tried to drive one time and I didn’t take a turn very well so Cyrus told me to move over and let him do it,” Clarabelle said. “I was never really comfortable with it.”

She did, however, occasionally drive a tractor on the farm, just to help out when she could.

With no water or electricity in the house, Dorweiler said coal-oil lamps were used for light but the biggest challenge was using an outhouse. “Cyrus didn’t believe in having indoor plumbing,” Clarabelle said.

Arlen noted the family farm continued to use an outhouse until the late 1970s.

During the winter, when there wasn’t as much outdoor work, Clarabelle and Cyrus combined their efforts to produce quilts. “Cyrus would embroider and I would quilt everything together,” she said.

Back then, quilts were one size, and Dorweiler would usually get about $20 each, though one time Cyrus in response to a question about cost suggested $100. “The lady paid it gladly,” Dorweiler recalls.

Dorweiler provided quilts for customers all over Missouri.

The couple made “Tree of Life” quilts for each grandchild as wedding gifts, including one for granddaughter Angie McCalter. “Grandpa had finished the embroidery but he passed away before my wedding,” McCalter said, noting that Cyrus passed away in 2004 at the age of 89. “Grandma finished the quilt and it’s so beautiful.”

In addition to quilting, collecting salt and pepper shakers, putting puzzles together, and crocheting, Dorweiler also loves to play rummy and preference.

“I’ve always liked collecting things,” said Dorweiler, who has more than 1,600 pairs of shakers, none of which are the same, along with porcelain dolls, while she makes doilies, and potholders by hand and gives them to her grandchildren and great-grandchildren. “I like to keep busy.”

Over the years, Dorweiler has put together and framed more than 400 jigsaw puzzles, many of which were personalized gifts. Her last puzzle was completed just a couple of weeks ago.

Dorweiler also enjoys watching the birds at the feeder on the back porch, and tending to her favorite flowers, African violets, and rose begonias.

Another fond memory is watching her grandchildren, Diana, Linda and Angie, grow up, and sharing her knowledge with them. Dorweiler especially enjoyed working in the kitchen with her three granddaughters. Diana (Kain) had to stand on a box to do dishes. Linda (Dudenhoeffer) helped and watched Dorweiler make gravy without any lumps, and Angie (McCalter) helped make homemade sauerkraut.

“It was nice having extra hands to work the crops they harvested from the garden,” said Dorweiler, adding she looks forward to every day and takes it as it comes. “There have been ups and downs but it comes with life. You just have to be positive.”

As she nears the century mark, Dorweiler said that the biggest difference between life when she was growing up and today is the fact that everything is so handy.

“I think it’s a mess,” she said of the world. “People get spoiled and think they have everything coming to them. There is too much reliance on electronics and fast food. We didn’t buy stuff with a lot of preservatives back then.”

All in all, Dorweiler has one thing to say about her early life: “Those were the days!”

While there is no major party planned due to COVID, the family welcomes birthday cards, which may be mailed to Clarabelle Dorweiler, P.O. Box 931, Linn, MO, 65051.