Former ‘Rosie Riveter’ Celebrates Her 108th Birthday

Excerpts provided by Carriage House Manor, written by Dorothy Marie Maertins’s three children:

My Mother: Dorothy Marie Maertins born Feb 4, 1917. She is 108 years old today..HAPPY BIRTHDAY. I’m her daughter Beverly and would like to share a bit of background on mother. She was born and raised in Iowa on a farm. She was raised in Mennonite religion and accepted Jesus at a young age.

In her early twenties she taught school in a one room school house. She rode her horse Darling to school each day, several miles from home. Later she attended College for two years in Kansas.

During World War Il she became the first woman welder for Beechcraft Aircraft.
She also at that time pursued her flight training but didn’t get the opportunity to
solo.

She moved to San Francisco and met my father and got married and had 3 children, my brother James, Sister Gloria and myself, Beverly. During this time she also took
care of 6 foster children. I remember she told me this story of a neighbor who had a new baby that would not nurse her mother and was dying. My mother was nursing me at the time and took this baby and nursed it with me and saved the babies life.

She moved to Dallas from San Francisco and started working at Texas Instruments, A semi conductor business soldering transistors for around 10 years. Fast forward, when she was 51 years old she decided she wanted to be a nurse, she enrolled and became a licensed vocational nurse, LVN. She mainly did private duty nursing but also worked as a med nurse at a nursing home.

I made a list of a few things my mother survived during her life:

• She survived a head on collision with a head injury and a broken wrist and recovered
• She survived female cancer and had a hysterectomy and recovered.
• She survived cancer on her forearm and had t removed and recovered.
• She survived a fall tripping over her cat and broke her elbow in 2 places had pins to mend and recovered.
• She has survived 48 years of widowhood.
• She has survived nine plus falls at nursing home slipping out of her wheel chair with no injuries.
• She still enjoys dressing up and loves her animal print clothing and never forgets her costume jewelry.

My mother has been very adventurous in her life, just a few things she has done. My sister took her to Hawaii, viewed on helicopter, Caribbean cruise, rode Seadoos at my sisters lake house of course with her pearls on. I took her to Cayman Islands and she snorkeled at 74 years old . She has ridden on a 3 wheeler with my son and also on the back of a dirt bike with my other son. Now, she comes to our ranch house and rides on our golf cart with her favorite cat Snowball.

People ask her how have you lived so long, and she will tell them it is her relationship with Jesus. My mother has read her bible daily over her entire life.And has been so blessed.

She has 3 children:

• James Maertins
• Gloria Lawrence
• Beverly Gottfried Gooch
• 6 grandchildren, 14 great grandchildren and 1 great grand child.

Her life has been a blessing not only to her family as an example but she has also supported many missionaries oversees with all she had and was a great prayer
warrior. She has no major illnesses, takes no medicine, feeds herself and can still tell you what to do and how to do it!!! I want to say thank you for being my mother and for all the special years we shared.

I would like to share a few scriptures that speak of her life:

• Psalms 37:25 – I have been young, and now I am old, yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor His seed begging bread.
• Psalms 92:12-15- The righteous shall flourish like a palm tree: he shall grow tall like a cedar in Lebanon. Those that be planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God. They shall bring forth fruit in old age: they shall be fat and flourishing: to show that the Lord is upright: He is my rock and there is no unrighteousness in Him.

My mother loves for my husband Jimmy to sing to her every time we visit, she loves the old hymns. Her two favorites are In the Garden and I’ll Fly Away, so he will sing for her now. I would like to thank Carriage House and all the staff for the excellent care my mother receives. Blessings on them all!