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Centenarian hasn't lost glint in her eye

Photo

Ida Stenger

JANESVILLE — At 101 years old, Ida Stenger's eyesight, hearing and memory are fading.

But she hasn't lost that glint in her eye.

She recently celebrating the century-plus-one mark with her family at St. Elizabeth Nursing Home, Janesville, and boy, did she pack a lot into those years.

"Life went too fast," she said.

Ida moved to Janesville when she was 10 years old and ended up dressing hair for some of Janesville's most prominent families. She knew everybody and everything, especially local gossip, said her grandson, Timothy Stenger.

"Probably some of the stories you wouldn't want to reprint," he said.

As the oldest grandson, Timothy, who lives in Colorado, has become the de facto family historian. Now he repeats the stories his grandmother told him.

"There are so many stories that she would tell me about just living in Janesville in this whole period," he said. "It's really remarkable."

She was born in Switzerland and came to America at age 3. The family moved from Baltimore to New Glarus before finally settling in Janesville in 1918.

"One of her earliest memories (in Janesville) was playing out on the street out on Washington Street and people calling her a nasty German because people thought they were German," Timothy said.

Her father made her drop out of school at 13 to help support the family, and she became a hairdresser. She dressed hair for the Parker, Bliss and other well-known Janesville families and married another hairdresser, George, the first male hairdresser in Janesville.

Ida was known for her mischievous spirit. Her lifelong best friend, Marjorie Van Galder, wrote a book about growing up in the Monterey neighborhood and dedicated it to Ida. The dedication reads: "You brought the spark of imagination and the flame of joy into our lives."

Another passage in the book phrases it a different way: "Our ringleader, Ida, was always coming up with fun things to do and telling us things we weren't supposed to know." The accompanying photo shows a laughing young woman playfully slapping her forehead, brushing back unruly dark curls.

Today the dark hair has turned white, but Ida still shows that same mischievous streak. She sticks out her tongue whenever a camera comes into view, and she lets a four-letter word slip out now and then.

She enjoys talking about her childhood. She describes her home near the Monterey Bridge and the stores along Center Avenue.

On a recent visit, her daughter, Sarah Owen, told about the time Ida borrowed her brother's car so she could learn to drive. She couldn't remember how to stop, so she drove the car round and round until it ran out of gas.

"They had to wait for the dust to settle to find the car," Sarah said.

Ida listened with a satisfied smile.

"We had good times," she said.