By LYNDON ZAITZ of the Keizertimes
Love life. Love people. Love being on earth.
That is the life philosophy of Vesta Kerns, who celebrated her 105th birthday on Nov. 25. A resident of Avamere Court at Keizer’s senior living facility, Kerns was honored by family and friends at a luncheon on her birthday.
Born in 1919 in Denver, Colo., to George and Fern Morgan. Her father was a railroadman. Vesta had three brothers, all who have passed.
A mother of four children, three boys and a girl, Carol, who was with Vesta on her birthday. Her three sons have also all passed.
Vesta has eight grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
She attended Powellhurst elementary school, then Gresham High School. After earning credentials for nursing, she gained experience at a veterans hospital in San Mateo, Calif. She eventually took a nursing post at a Portland hospital.
Vesta’s hobby of knitting benefited others as she made hats for Simonka House and School Bell, a south Salem organization that donates clothing to children in need.
Golf was another of her hobbies.
“I played a lot of golf,” she said.
Though she can’t articulate the reasons for her longevity, she said she never drank alcohol or smoked tobacco.
“Just good healthy living,” she said.
Asked what she considered the greatest invention in her lifetime, Vesta said, without hesitation, “Television.”
She cast her vote for U.S. president in 1944 when she choose Franklin Roosevelt.