December 4, 2020 – Barton, WI – It was December 18, 2017 during her 107th birthday party when Clara Moll declared “I’m going to live to 110.”
As Clara clomped out of the kitchen with her walker her daughter Mary Moll said, “We’re going to take it a day at a time.”
That was three short years ago and on December 18 the Barton-gal Clara Moll will be celebrating her 110th birthday.
During a recent lunch at the Moll farmhouse stories were exchanged about Clara’s youth when her mother would stand and rap at the window as Clara did a cartwheel and her dress went over her head and neighbors could see her undergarments.
There were stories about wearing out roller skates, skipping rope, being so limber she could swing her leg and kick the back of her head. “Tomboy activities” according to Clara. “I’d rather dance than eat” she would say. “I could climb trees nobody could climb. I could swim across Wallace Lake like it was nothing. I never played with dolls, never.”
Adopted by her godparents, Hugh and Sophia Henry, Clara was about 5 years old when she relocated from Oklahoma to her current residence, 1912 Salisbury Road.
The home, built in 1908, was seldom without extra people as Clara and her family often rented out rooms as a boarding house. In 1949 extra bedrooms were used by employees from the gas company and in 1954 for Western Electric Telephone employees as the area was being converted to dial telephone.
A 1925 graduate of St. Mary’s Catholic School, Clara was honored in 2000 with the Distinguished Alumni Award. She recalled her days when the classroom was heated with a pot-bellied stove and kids had to put on their coats in the winter to use the outhouse bathroom.
Clara has lived through history-making events including two pandemics more than 100 years apart, the 1918 Spanish flu and COVID 19.
In 1981 when a tornado came through West Bend, Clara was safe at St. Joe’s Hospital on the hill, recovering from a hysterectomy.
Clara also took milk in a pail to Young America where they made cheese. She baked stollen and angel food cakes and “if you would have ever told me there would be people living in the West Bend Company building… I’d have said you were crazy.”
Clara’s godmother Sophie was a woman of faith and she was strict. “She’d send the boys home,” according to Clara who was first allowed to date at 18. “When I went to school, I knew the Apostles’ Creed, the Our Father and the Hail Mary, and in this house the rosary was said every day of the year, even when we had company.”
Below is a picture of Clara, on the right, and her older sister Martha. The photo is believed to be from 1918 when Clara was 8 years old.
Below is Clara’s birthday story from 2017.
Dec. 21, 2017 – How often can you say that you sang the “Happy Birthday song” to someone who turned 107 years old.
This week in a cozy farmhouse in Barton, Clara Moll celebrated her 107th birthday. She was born in 1910, right after the coffee filter and paper cups were invented.
“Exercise is what keeps you young,” said Clara. She was making a couple laps in the dining room area. Thick white shoes, long strides, and an aluminum walker for balance.
Clara bragged that at 107 she didn’t need glasses but she admitted her hearing was going…. or gone, but it didn’t seem to matter.
At 107 she was still loving life. “I’ve lost my taste buds….,” she said. Her daughter Mary, her primary caretaker, said that had been going on the past few months.
A big wicker basket full of birthday cards sat on the kitchen table. It was surrounded by sweet rolls wrapped in clear plastic bags, daily prayer books, and the latest edition of the Wall Street Journal.
Below are some of the articles I’ve written about Clara over the years.
Dec. 18, 2015 – Clara Moll turns 105 and Happy 105th birthday Clara Moll.
“The biggest thing that’s changed on this block is the makeup of the family,” Moll said. “My husband died when he was 74 and he said, ‘Clara you watch, when women all go to work there will be nobody home to cook and there will be nobody home for the kids; you’re going to have hard times.’” Animated, Moll points out the window from house to house to house announcing she has dubbed the block “Divorce Street.”
Clara Moll is a pip! On Sunday, Dec. 18 the life-long Barton gal turned 106 years old.
She celebrated with family and friends. Pizza, her favorite, was the supper of choice.
We prayed and passed a plate.
Clara reminisced. She was prompted by her daughter Mary. “Remember in 1976 when you took advantage of the Greyhound Bus offer… 99 days for $99?”
Clara remembered. She traveled the U.S. and saw all her relatives. “Don’t get married,” she advised. “Travel.”
Meantime the group at the party tried to recollect where the Greyhound stops were in West Bend; the consensus was on S. Main Street in front of the Centrum building and outside George Webbs in the West Bend Plaza.
Clara touted “exercise” as the secret to longevity.
If you’re wondering what to get a woman who turns 110… how about surprising her with an outpouring of love, prayers and birthday cards.
Please send to Clara Moll 1912 Salisbury Road, West Bend, WI 53090
