Pomona woman celebrates her 100th birthday
Margie Lorraine Hennen of Pomona celebrated her 100th birthday Tuesday at her home at Mt. San Antonio Gardens.
She was born April 20, 1921, in Ladysmith, Wis., to Mary Smrcek Jandrt, a native of Czechoslovakia, and Rudolph Jandrt, who was a barber. She was the youngest of nine children and was born on her mother’s birthday.
She grew up in Bruce, Wis., and graduated in 1939 from Bruce High School as valedictorian of her class.
After high school, she moved to Milwaukee where she worked for the Armour meat-packing company. She met her husband, Harold Hennen, through a coworker at Armour, and they were married May 18, 1946, after Harold returned from service in the U.S. Army in Europe during World War II.
In 1951 they moved to Mequon, Wis., and in 1961 to Tustin.
Her husband worked as an automobile mechanic for Bob Black Oldsmobile, in Milwaukee from 1950 to 1961 and in Santa Ana from 1961 to 1976.
While they lived in Tustin, she worked in the admissions office at Chapman College (now Chapman University) in Orange from the mid-1960s to the mid-1970s.
In 1977 they sold their home and traveled around the United States for seven years.
They settled in Pomona in the mid-1980s and her husband died in 1992.
She has two children, son Richard Hennen and his wife, Robin, of Phelan, and daughter Kathleen Bridgham and her husband, Gene, of Pomona. She also has three grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.
She is an avid knitter and crocheter and has won many blue ribbons at the Los Angeles County Fair for her handwork, according to daughter Kathleen Bridgham.
She has collected U.S. postage stamps since she was 5 and she is a fan of the Angels baseball team, watching every game she can, according to her daughter.