Leon Wadsworth, 103 Shines with Father Time

“How much were soybeans in the early 1900s, Dad?” asked his daughter Vida.

“Three dollars for a 100-pound sack,” replied Leon Wadsworth.

Wadsworth, now 103, was honored as part of a recent Father’s Day celebration at the Gladstone Park Adventist Church, south of Portland, Ore. His daughter-interviewer, Vida Beaulieu, is 71 years old.

“How many centuries have you lived in?” she asked him, continuing the interview.

“I was born in 1899, so I have lived in three centuries,” he replied.

“And to what do you attribute your longevity?”

“Fresh air, sunshine, a vegetarian diet, and walking four to five miles a day,” he replied. “Today I still do my own shopping—like at Fred Meyer’s.”

Both of his daughters, Irma Schulden and Beaulieu, remember their father as a good disciplinarian and family man. He has kept a daily diary since he was a young man.

Wadsworth now lives alone at Sumerset Village, a retirement home in Gladstone. He also has two sons, eight grandchildren, and 11 great-grandchildren. •

Featured in: September 2002

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