Aug. 9 — Life at 99 and beyond

Puyallup and Sumner seniors attribute their longevity

Roxanne Cooke / of the Herald

Good health, favorable genes and maybe just a little bit of chocolate have helped three seniors live to 99, 101 and 102.

Martha Sawyer, Esto Brewer and Sarah Tevis didn’t plan for such long lives, but their senses of humor and caring sons and daughters keep them going strong.

Sawyer takes walks just about every day; Brewer still plays his harmonica well and Tevis’ zest for chocolate still exists.

Although all three have a little trouble with sight, hearing or both, none have any serious health concerns.

None have any regrets about their lives, either.

A sharp mind at 99

Every time 99-year-old Martha Sawyer goes to the doctor, he tells her “Martha, you’re going to live to 105 for sure.”

Sawyer turns 100 on Nov. 11 and has enjoyed a long, healthy life. Her 70-year-old son, Tom Sawyer, visits every other day. He admires his mother’s alertness and sense of humor in her old age.

“She’s sharp,” Tom Sawyer said. “She knows what’s going on.”

Sawyer said she isn’t sure what has kept her going strong for so many years.

“I have no idea,” she said. “You’re gonna live and you’re gonna die.”

Her son offered this: Good genes.

Sawyer’s sister Freda Craig, who lives in Tacoma, is the only other sibling of Sawyer’s still living. She’s 90 and visits Sawyer every week.

Another sister lived to 101, but was very close to 102 when she died, Tom Sawyer said. She wasn’t in nearly as good health as his mother is, though.

The entire Sawyer family survived the 1918 Spanish flu. Siblings who died young died of disease; otherwise, everyone else lived into their 80s, 90s or 100s.

“There was something in the gene pool that gave them longevity,” he said.

Sawyer was born Martha Pedee in 1907 in Alberta, Canada, as one of 14 children. She was the first to be born in North America. Her German parents emigrated from Russia, where her father, August, served in the Russian Army.

In Canada, and later when the family moved to Oregon, Sawyer worked on her father’s farm delivering milk. Her father hauled freight in addition to farming, and her mother took care of the family.

The family moved from Canada to Oregon when Sawyer was 11, and then to Puyallup a few years later. There, her father ran a blackberry farm in southwest Puyallup in the 1920s.

Sawyer married Ellsworth Sawyer in 1930, and the two had their only child, Tom Sawyer, in 1937.

The couple ran their own auto parts store in Puyallup — Valley Parts — until the 1970s. In retirement, they traveled to Mexico, Europe and Arizona.

Ellsworth Sawyer died in 1994 at the age of 91. Sawyer continued to live in her own home until two and a half years ago, when she broke her hip.

That’s when she moved into Merrill Gardens, an assisted living community near downtown Puyallup. Sawyer broke the same hip again soon after, and then the other hip, but she’s still going strong and nearly 100.

At Merrill Gardens, Sawyer takes walks often with her walker.

“It’s about the only thing you can do,” she said.

Sawyer drove and worked in her garden up to the age of 96. She misses those things, but still participates in activities with other residents at Merrill Gardens, she said.

She has three grandchildren and seven great grandchildren.

At 101, still playing

With his harmonica in hand, Esto “Duke” Brewer still has the lung power to skillfully play tunes. He learned at the age of 6 or 7 from his father. He used to play mandolin, too, and enjoys listening to music on a portable CD player or the radio.

Brewer was born June 25, 1906, in North Dakota to Earl and Nancy Brewer. He was the middle of 10 children, four of which died at an early age. Today, he’s the only one still living. He’s 101.

“I’m the only bugger that’s left,” Brewer said.

Brewer didn’t live in North Dakota for long – his family moved to the Wenatchee area, where he spent most of his childhood.

When he was 4 years old, Brewer enjoyed watching his brothers and neighboring American Indians swim in a creek near his home. One day, he noticed the boys whispering. They teamed up and yanked him into the water.

He sank to the bottom, he said, but then managed to paddle back up to the top.

“I found out I could swim,” Brewer said.

When he was a bit older, Brewer met his future wife, Elda Luxon, at a Christmas party. She was 13.

“I thought she was just about the prettiest thing in the world,” he recalled.

After Brewer married Elda Luxon on Sept. 3, 1932, the two moved to Carbonado, where they lived until 1996. They were married for 71 years.

“He really misses her, I know,” said Brewer’s daughter, Joanne Brewer.

He and his wife had three children together: Don, Joanne and Bruce. He has seven grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.

For a living, Brewer worked as a laborer in orchards and a shipyard, then on an airplane carrier and later at Weyerhaeuser as a pipe fitter, where he worked for 25 years.

Brewer has lived in the Puyallup area since 1996, and at Franklin House, an assisted living community in Sumner, for about two and a half years.

Joanne Brewer visits often and takes care of her father.

“She’s been mighty good to me,” Brewer said

As for Brewer’s longevity, he said he takes one day at a time, but didn’t expect to live so long.

“I don’t understand it,” he said.

Good genes may account for his long life – his parents both lived until they were almost 95 years old.

He still retains his sense of humor, too.

“Yeah, I’m happy,” Brewer said. “Bring me a bottle of Manischewitz.”

A result of chocolate and hard work

Chocolate may not be the reason 102-year-old Sarah Tevis is still around, but it certainly didn’t hurt her.

She ate enough to make an impression on her middle son, Jim Tevis, who knows the characteristic well.

“I love chocolate,” she said.

Tevis was born Sarah Mathers on Aug. 14, 1904, in Iowa. She’s one of three siblings in her family who are still living – her younger sister is 90 and her older sister is 106. Other siblings either died young or died of cancer.

The 102-year-old is one of seven girls born to William and Mary Tevis, who owned a farm in Iowa. All the children worked on the farm, Tevis said.

“With seven girls, you about had to work,” she said.

Tevis met her husband Russell at a dance, and the two married in 1925. Russell, who was a farmer, also hauled milk seven days a week when the family’s farm was no longer profitable during the Great Depression.

The couple had seven children. All except one is still living and most still reside in the area.

Before she married, Tevis was a schoolteacher. As a wife, she took care of her children, and later worked for an unemployment agency before she and her husband opened their own nursing home in Puyallup in 1958. Tevis trained to be a nurse while she and her husband ran the home.

Tevis Nursing Home ran for 10 years, and now is a church on Fruitland Avenue.

Russell died in 1975, more than 30 years ago. Tevis said she likes to joke that he must think she was sent the other direction because it’s such a long time to be apart.

“He’s still waiting,” Tevis joked. “He thinks they sent me to the other place.”

Tevis guessed her long life is due to good health and hard work.

“Hard work is good for you,” she said.

For her 100th birthday, Tevis was picked up in a restored version of her very first car – a 1923 Model A Ford.

Her last car was a 1965 Ford Mustang. Jim Tevis joked that his mother had been pulled over a few times in that car.

“I always talked them out of it,” Tevis said of never getting a ticket.

She drove until she was 95 years old.

Reach Reporter Roxanne Cooke at 253-841-2481 ext. 314 or roxanne.cooke@puyallupherald.com.