The age gulf between Eleanor Smoak and some of the people who came to see her on her birthday on Tuesday was almost a century, but that didn’t dim the heartfelt emotions between Smoak and her friends.

Landon Freeman, 5, and Kiley Freeman, 3, brought Smoak cards from students at the St. Ann’s School in Carthage celebrating Smoak’s 103rd birthday at the St. Luke’s Nursing Center.

Other members of St. Ann’s Catholic Church, where Smoak worships, came to see her on her special day, as did her daughter, Barbara Anderson, visiting from Buffalo, Mo.

Anderson said her mother’s longevity may have something to do with genetics. Smoak’s mother lived to be 101 and her grandmother lived to be 108.

“I go for a checkup every year and the doctor says see you next year,” Smoak said. “He tells me if he had very many patients like me, he’d be out of business.”

Anderson said her mother was born in southern Poland, a town named Tytczyn. 

She emigrated to the U.S. when she was 5 years old.

Smoak said she can still remember Ellis Island in New York Harbor where she and her family entered the U.S. and they weren’t pleasant memories.

“I was there when it was dirty, filthy, terrible,” Smoak said. “Now it’s nice, they don’t have any rats anymore.”

Smoak and her family lived in New York City for a time, then moved to Utica, New York.

Anderson is Smoak’s only child. Anderson met a Navy man from Carthage in New York City, married him and moved back to Southwest Missouri with him. She brought her mother here to live in this area more than 40 years ago.

Smoak is a long time parishioner at the St. Ann’s Catholic Church. Her daughter now lives in a nursing facility in Buffalo and only gets to Carthage to see her mother once a year.

Dementia is starting to rob Smoak of some of her memories but she seemed to enjoy the attention she received on Tuesday. 

Becky Freeman, mother of Landon and Kiley Freeman, said Smoak is still a very special person in the church and she brings her children to visit her several times a year.