Beverly VanOeveren celebrates 100 at Parkview Heights

Beverly VanOeveren celebrated her 100th birthday in her apartment at the Parkview Heights assisted living facility in Imperial. She was born on Nov. 6, 1923 in Broomfield, Colorado.
“I celebrated my birthday here in my apartment because I had Covid at the time.” I did have a regular party after I went off quarantine though, she said.
“I graduated from high school in 1941, several months before World War Two broke out. That was from what was known then as Adam’s City in the northern part of the Denver area.”
During the war years I worked for Paul Weiss Optometrists in the Denver area. After the war, on June 14, 1946, I married Harold VanOeveren, who I had known since high school. We had one daughter, Linda, in 1949. She lives in Imperial and visits me almost every day.
Harold had been in the Merchant Marines during the war and after that had a career with Shell Chemical. My career was being a housewife and raising my family. Back then most families got along fine with one income.
Harold’s career involved a lot of travel and I was happy with that. We lived in Holland for a year and that was interesting. We went to Europe three times, Canada, Mexico, Panama, South America, and the far east with Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand, and Taiwan. “We were bitten by the travel bug,” she said. “In the years after the war world travel was safe and easy.”
“I have seen and experienced a lot of changes in 100 years. The most significant ones were the World War Two years and for several years after that. The whole world had been in such upheaval for several years, and then a peace and people starting lives.”
“I had two older brothers and one older sister. I have one younger brother, Dennis, who is 94.”
“I guess I am not surprised I have lived to be 100, because I had a great aunt on my mother’s side, Florence Clark, who lived to be 102.”