Celebrating some milestone birthdays: Elsie Rich turns 109 surrounded by many, many friends

When Elsie Rich of Santa Rosa turned 106 three years ago, a big group of her friends wanted to throw her a party. The big question was, would Elsie attend?

“I usually don’t make plans,” she said at the time. “I go day-by-day. At my age, anything might happen. But they wanted to throw me a party, so I’ll be there.”

Elsie Rich celebrates her 109th birthday at her residence in Santa Rosa.

The first party was on Aug. 6 — Elsie’s actual birthday — at the Vintage Brush Creek assisted-living facility where Elsie lives. She celebrated with the residents, staff and many women she knows from Hadassah and from her synagogue, Congregation Beth Ami in Santa Rosa. She also has many friends from Congregation Shomrei Torah in Santa Rosa and Congregation B’nai Israel in Petaluma.

The second party was later that day, a “barbecue and barchu” at Beth Ami, and while more than 150 people attended, Elsie was too tuckered out from the daytime party to make it.

On Aug. 7, the same day her picture and an article about her appeared in the Santa Rosa Press Democrat, another party was thrown at her residence. Among the many guests was someone Elsie had met at Hadassah in Petaluma more than 60 years ago.

Elsie was born Elsa Schiffman in Austria on Aug. 6, 1901. One of five children, her father died when she was 12, and she had a tough childhood, working in the family’s textile factory. She married Henry Rich in Austria in 1932, and a few years later they left to escape the Nazis, eventually making their way to Santa Rosa in 1943.

Elsie and Henry never had any children, and after Henry died in 1976, Elsie began exercising more rigorously than ever before. She could do the splits and headstands into her early 90s, and she exercised vigorously into her early 100s. She still attends exercise class, but only if she’s feeling up to it. She was a lontime yoga enthusiast as well.

She said she never smoked, but doesn’t deny ever taking a drink. And until a few years ago, she used to gamble regularly at several of the casinos in Northern California, one of which sent a limo for Elsie and 10 friends, treating them to a day out in honor of Elsie’s 106th birthday.

Although she now uses a walker, gets tired easily and is a bit more frail than even two or three years ago, Elsie can still take steps on her own, and she gets up every day to have breakfast — and then usually spends the rest of the day with visitors. On one day last week, she had already had four visitors before 10 a.m.

“They are everywhere and there are so, so many of them,” said Elisabeth Van Nuys of Elsie’s friends. “So many, in fact, that we exhaust the poor woman with all our visits.”

Elsie is still a “sharp cookie,” Van Nuys said. Last week, during an interview with the Press Democrat reporter, all of a sudden she asked the reporter for a map. People in the room were bewildered, but Elsie quickly located her own map, unfolded it perfectly and promptly pointed to a spot in Sonoma County. “Here,” she said, “this is where we had our chicken ranch.”