Ethel Gerard

At 100 years old, Ethel Gerard of Powell attributes her long life to good genes.

“My mother lived to be 103,” she said.

Gerard reached the rare milestone on Aug. 19, and has received dozens of birthday cards, which included a few different designs specifically for a 100th birthday.

“We were laughing about how much demand is there for cards for 100-year-olds,” Gerard said.

She was born Aug. 19, 1919, in Thermopolis, as the youngest child of Barbara and Scotty Edmonds.

“Both of my parents were born in Scotland, so what I say is I’m 100 proof Scotch,” Gerard said.

After immigrating to America, her father first worked in a lemon grove in California, then got an oilfield job that led him to Wyoming.

When she was a young child, the family moved from Thermopolis to Billings and then to Cody. Gerard arrived in Park County as a fourth-grader in 1928 and went on to graduate from Cody High School in 1937. She then attended the Eastern Montana Normal School, receiving a teaching certificate in 1941.

Gerard taught five students in a one-room schoolhouse in the Sunlight area for a year, which she said was a fun experience.

“I lived in kind of a dude ranch, and I had a cabin of my own, but then I ate at the main house,” she recalled. “I walked to school, so I took my fishing pole to school in the morning and then I fished all the way home.”

Gerard caught little brookies that the cook at the dining room would prepare.

Following her time in Sunlight, she moved with her sister to Texas, where she attended the University of Texas at Austin for two more years, receiving her bachelor’s degree in education.

In 1947, she married Foard Gerard in Cody. They had gone to high school together, but didn’t know each other well during those years since he was a senior when she was a freshman.

“He was in the war [World War II] ... and when he came back, we started going together,” she said.

They moved to Powell, and Foard worked as a trainman at the depot. He then got a job with Marathon Oil at Byron, and the young couple moved there.

“We rented a house for $15 a month,” Gerard said.

However, the move proved temporary.

“We had three kids, and then we had another one, so we had four kids and the house in the Byron field wasn’t big enough, so we moved back into Powell,” she said.

The couple’s four children — Barbara, Ken, Greg and Cheryl — all went to school in Powell and graduated from Powell High School.

When looking back on her long life, Gerard said she is most proud of her four children.

“I loved being home and taking care of my kids and playing with them,” she said. “We did a lot of playing.”

Her family has grown to include three grandchildren and three great-grandchildren, including a new great-grandson who was born on Aug. 13.

Last week, Gerard’s family organized a 100th birthday party for her at Union Presbyterian Church.

“It was wonderful,” she said.

Gerard worked in the church for many years. She also enjoyed playing golf and belonged to two different bridge clubs.

Her husband Foard worked in the Byron oilfield until his retirement, and the couple enjoyed traveling and going to Yellowstone. Gerard is thankful to live in Wyoming.

“We are really so lucky,” she said. “In an hour, you can be in the mountains, whichever way you go.”

Living in Powell for 70 years, she’s seen it change a lot over those decades.

“Some of the changes are very good,” she said.

But shopping is now limited with the closure of retail stores. She recalled that a friend took her grandchildren to Billings to buy shoes and asked, “Where would you buy shoes in Powell?”

Gerard also mentioned hearing on the news that most shoes aren’t made in the United States, but in Asia. That shift to foreign markets is one of the many changes she has seen in her lifetime.

In years past, “anything from a foreign country was kind of special, but now it’s the other way,” she said.

Gerard has lived at The Heartland for about a year and a half, and resided at the Rocky Mountain Manor before that.

As she reflected on her 100th birthday last week, Gerard is content with the life she has lived.

“I don’t want to do it over again,” she said. “I wouldn’t change much.”