Blanche (May) Almendinger turns 100

By MONTE TURNER

Mineral Independent

What was going on 100 years ago in 1920?

The League of Nations was established (the United States did not officially join the League of Nations due to opposition from isolationists in Congress).

America had a de-facto woman president. (President Woodrow Wilson suffered a massive stroke leaving him paralyzed and unable to perform his duties.

First Lady Edith Wilson effectively acted as de facto President of the United States in order to keep Vice President Thomas R. Marshall from assuming his duties).

Babe Ruth began playing for the N.Y. Yankees, and, Blanche (May) Almendinger was born in Miles City, Montana.

This Oct. 15, Blanche, who lives with her daughter ‘Willy’ in Alberton, will see triple-digits as she has lived in rural Montana her entire life.

Her dad was a miner so moves were common.

She went to Eldergrove (outside of Billings) for grade school, Big Timber for high school, Garrison, a short time in Avon (where her family was the first to own a television), but Harrison, Montana was home for the large part.

Marrying David Almendinger in 1939 and raising five children while being a rancher's wife wasn’t an easy task.

“Yeah, there were tough things we had to do, but something we did that I enjoyed so much was going as a family to dances at the community center. Guy and Millie Potratz playing the banjo and piano had the whole room up dancing and singing. I don’t know if those are around anymore, but those were lots of fun,” she says with a fond smile.

“But Yellowstone Park is a place I don’t care to go again as that was the only place we ever went. David took us every year, it seemed, and Old Faithful never changed in all of those years.”

On tough times: “The depression was no fun, I know that.”

The two of them would cut cedar, cure it, and make chests and small furniture to give away for graduations and wedding presents. As many others who lived through those years, Blanche became frugal, thrifty and a saver.

“She had boxes of needles, thread and buttons and knew the story of every one of the buttons and where it had come from,” said Willy. Besides Yellowstone Park, David and Blanche fished more often than she cared to.

“I had no choice. But I outfished him plenty of times and he never caught one as big as the 7-pound rainbow I got on the Little Blackfoot.”

But she has never fished again since she lost Lou in 1994 and Willy is her only surviving child. She visited one of her sons in Australia, twice, with the last time in her 80s to say goodbye as he made the decision not to seek medical help for his prostrate cancer.

“That was the trip I had kangaroo pie and I could taste it for four days,” she said.

While making Harrison her home over the years, she was the secretary of their American Legion Post for 32 years. She was a notary and even became their Justice of the Peace.

A campaign to wish her a happy birthday has Blanche receiving cards from strangers and friends alike.

For those who'd care to participate, write Blanche Almendinger at P.O. Box 3 Alberton, Montana, 59820. It would make this centenarian’s day even more special than it already will be Oct. 15.

Already, she has received more than 150 cards including birthday wishes from Minnesota and Wisconsin and even several inmates at the state penitentiary in Deer Lodge.