While Hendricks doesn’t have a lot to say about her 112th birthday, the oldest living Iowan can still recite the Pledge of Allegiance and sing “You are My Sunshine.”

“She amazes us,” said Sara Casey, administrator of Shady Oaks Care Center in Lake City, where Hendricks has lived since 2010. “A strong will and love of family keep Bessie going. She appreciates life so much.”

When Hendricks turned 111, she said she was 18 when people asked how old she was. Now that she’s 112, she’s still young at heart. She’s also approximately the 55th oldest person in the world.

Hendricks has always had a knack for not letting stress bother her, says her family. She also has some advice on how to live a long, healthy life.

-Messenger photo by Darcy Doughterty Maulsby
This photo from a few years ago shows Bessie holding one of the then newest members of the Hendricks family at the time. The hands helping Bessie Hendricks hold the photo are Bessie’s daughter Glenda.

“Hard work,” Hendricks noted when she turned 110.

Her other secret? “She said, ‘Stay away from doctors,'” said her daughter, Glenda Hendricks of Lake City, who noted that her mother takes hardly any medication.

Bessie Hendricks also eats what she wants and doesn’t pass up dessert — or birthday cake.

“Mom loves her sweets,” said her son, Leon Hendricks of Lake City.

Pie is always a hit with Hendricks, said Minnie Huster, who has served as the certified dietary manager at Shady Oaks Care Center for 45 years.

-Submitted photo
This old black and white photograph show Bessie Hendricks sometime in the late 1920s or early 1930s. Hendricks turned 112 on Thursday.

“Bessie is fun to be around,” added Huster, who has known Hendricks for years. “Her family makes sure she has a special hat or head band for every holiday and special occasion.”

Supercentenarians remain rare

Hendricks is a supercentenarian(the term for people who live to their 110th birthday and beyond). It’s an elite group. While there are approximately 60,000 centenarians (people who have reached their 100th birthday) in the United States, in 2017 there were only about about 70 supercentenarians in America, according to Dr. Thomas Perls, a professor of medicine who directs the Boston University School of Medicine’s New England Centenarian Study.

Perls’ research is uncovering the secret life of supercentenarians. Studies show that once people live beyond 100, the older they become, the less time they’re likely to spend with age-related diseases such as cancer, heart disease, dementia and stroke. They’re also more likely to remain physically and mentally sharp for a greater proportion of their lives than folks just 10, 20 or 30 years their junior.

Living to 110 and beyond is largely genetic, said Perls, who noted in 2017 that there were about 350 supercentenarians worldwide.

Hendricks embraced farm life

While Hendricks has achieved a milestone few people in the world ever reach, her beginnings were much the same as countless Iowans more than a century ago.

Hendricks was born on a farm in Carroll County a few miles southeast of Auburn on Nov. 7, 1907. She was welcomed by her parents, Hugh and Mattie (Clark) Sharkey, along with older siblings John, David, Laurence and Ethel. A younger sister, Anna, was born in 1910 after the family had moved in 1908 to a 160-acre farm two miles east and one mile north of Lake City in Calhoun County.

At age 5, Hendricks began attending first grade (there was no kindergarten) at the country school across the road from the family’s farm. When she wasn’t in school, she helped with chores at home.

“We kids were always getting into mischief when the folks were gone to town,” Hendricks recalled in her memoirs, which she wrote in 1998-1999 while in her early 90s.

One day Hendricks and her siblings decided to make taffy candy.

“Oh yes, it was good, but we couldn’t eat it all, so we had to get rid of it before the folks came home,” Hendricks recalled. “So guess what? We took the taffy to the barn and fed it to one of the horses by the name of Fox. We sure had a laugh, watching him wallowing his tongue around that candy, but he got rid of it.”

By the time Hendricks entered seventh grade, the local country school was closed to due lack of pupils, so Hendricks attended Central School in Lake City. A more profound life change would occur, however, when Hendricks’ mother passed away from illness on July 2, 1921. Suddenly 13-year-old Hendricks had to assume many more household responsibilities.

She continued her education, however, and graduated from Lake City High School in May 1926. A little over 90 years later, she attended the all-school reunion in Lake City in the summer of 2016.

“She enjoyed it,” said Glenda Hendricks.

During her high school years, Hendricks completed a normal training course that allowed her to teach country school following her graduation. Starting in the fall of 1926, she taught country school in the Lake City area for four years.

Hendricks had 21 students in school during her first year of teaching.

“That was considered a big country school,” said Hendricks, who noted that some of her older students were nearly her age.

Did she enjoy teaching school?

“Well sure I did,” she said.

Just before she started her last year of teaching, Hendricks attended a dance in Lohrville one evening with a friend named Art Hendricks, who had an older brother named Paul.

“While she came to the dance with Art, she left with Paul,” said Hendricks’ daughter, Shirley Hunziker, of Lake City.

After Paul and Bessie married on June 27, 1930, at the Woodlawn Christian Church in Lake City, the couple lived in Rands for nearly three years. Paul Hendricks worked at the grain elevator and depot, in addition to running a small store. The couple’s daughters, Shirley and Joan, were born during this time.

In March 1933, the young family moved to a farm east of Lake City that would be the Hendricks’ home place for the next 47 years. The family expanded to include Roland (Ron), Glenda and Leon.

“We worked hard on the farm,” said Bessie Hendricks, whose husband raised crops, hay, cattle and hogs, while she grew a large garden, canned up to 800 quarts of vegetables and fruit a year and served as a 4-H leader.

Live life to the fullest

After Paul and Bessie Hendricks retired and held their farm sale in 1979, they moved to a home in Lake City in July 1980. The couple were one month shy of celebrating their 65th anniversary when he passed away on May 25, 1995.

“He was a wonderful man,” Hendricks said.

In her later years, Hendricks stayed busy helping her family with various projects, including processing 500 chickens one summer. She was also active in the Woodlawn Christian Church, where she has been a member for more than 90 years.

Today, Hendricks is comfortable with her life at Shady Oaks, where her family visits often. This great-great-great grandmother loves to see babies and young children.

“She lights up when the little ones come to Shady Oaks,” Casey said.

With no major illnesses and only a couple prescription medicines in Hendricks’ daily routine, her physician, Dr. Derek Duncan of Lake City, calls her his “miracle lady.”

Hendricks sets a great example for others, Casey added. “She reminds all of us to take joy in every interaction and live life to the fullest.”

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