Celebrating 100th birthday
Elizabeth Bechtel, the oldest living resident in Olpe, will be 100 on Sunday. She was born Jan. 20, 1908, at home to Nicholas and Elizabeth Trear Brown. She grew up on a farm three miles northwest of Olpe and married William Bechtel on April 24, 1935. They moved to the Bechtel family farm one mile east of Olpe where they remained until 1987, when they moved to Olpe, where she lives in their home. She had six children (five living and one deceased), nine grandchildren, 10 great-grandchildren and four great-great-grandchildren.
The immediate family will celebrate her special occasion with a dinner and 100 years of memories and stories on Saturday. A Mass will be celebrated at 5:30 p.m. Sunday at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Olpe, which she has attended all of her life. Friends and family are welcome to join her at Mass. Elizabeth said, “I have lived in the best times; I have seen the world go from horse and buggy, to automobile, to going into space.”