TO GIVE
Back to Blog

Clay Center resident joins elite club

Maxine Neill turned 100 in August, joining three other Clay Center Presbyterian Manor residents who are proud to say they’re “centenarians.”

Maxine’s family held a come and go reception on August 15, with a host of friends attending to help Maxine celebrate this milestone.

Other members of the centenarian club include Winnie Barker, 102, Harold Hartner, 103, and Ruth Butterfield, 100.

The residents have seen many significant technological and cultural changes in their lifetimes.

Here are a few fun facts about life 100 years ago:

  • The average life expectancy was 47. (The average now is 78.)
  • There were only 8,000 cars in the United States and 144 miles of paved roads. (There are now 276 million cars with 2.7 million miles of paved roads.)
  • A pound of sugar was .04 cents. (The current commodity price is .12 cents.)
  • The tallest structure in the world was the Eiffel Tower (Now it’s Burj Khalifa, a skyscraper in Dubai..)
  • The average wage was .22 cents per hour. (Now it’s $23 an hour)
  • The population of Las Vegas was 30. The remote desert town was inhabited by only a handful of ranchers and their families. (The population today is 3.09 million.)

PHOTOS: At the very top are Maxine and her daughters. In the bottom photo are, left to right, Winnie Barker, 102, Maxine Neill, 100, Harold Hartner, 103 in November, and Ruth Butterfield, 100.

Back to Blog