Family help blow out birthday candles

Joan Rowe’s sons say she was a loving hard working mum who fed them well.

And on Saturday Joan celebrated her 100 years with family and greatgrandchildren.

Born on August 12 at Hunterville, the sixth of nine children, Joan lived on the family farm at Silverhope.

She was a pupil at Silverhope School and rode there on horseback, but had to walk home because the boys needed the horses to get home to help with milking.

Joan trained as a hairdresser in Auckland and then moved to Wellington and up to Greytown to continue her trade before returning to the Rangitikei to open her own hair salon in Marton.

Christmas Eve in 1953 Joan was working late in Wellington and missed the train back to the Rangitikei. It was the train that crashed into the Whangaehu River at Tangiwai, killing 151 passengers.

Joan married Doug in 1954 and they have three sons, Brian, Bruce and Peter. Doug died in 1984. The family worked on dairy and beef farms in the Ra¯ ngitikei, Manawatu¯ and Taranaki before settling in Tokomaru. Joan moved to Palmerston North in 2005 and in 2014 she became a resident at Peppertree Rest Home.

Her sons, their wives and seven grandchildren and five greatgrandchildren live locally. Joan has one surviving sibling, Max, who is 98.

Joan Rowe is helped by her great-grandchildren to blow out the candles at her 100th birthday celebration on Saturday.