Havreite celebrates 101 years

A woman who lived on the Hi-Line starting more than a century ago celebrated her 101st birthday Sunday with dozens of people at the Eagles Manor.

"This is more attention than I have seen in my longer years," Goldie Maze said.

It also gave her a chance to see some people she has't seen for a long time, she added.

"Some of these kids I haven't seen since they were like this," she said, holding her hand two feet above the floor. "It's really nice to see everyone."

She was born in Poplar in 1918, but her parents, Elsie and Jay Pasma, soon moved to a homestead west of Havre.

While Havre may not be the same as it was while she was growing up, there is no other place she would rather call home, her son, Larry Maze, said.

"It has a lot of friendly people. She has never been treated so nice as when she came back to Havre," he said.

She spent most of her life in Havre but after her husband, Archie Maze, died in 1984, she moved to a number of places around Montana and the country, living with her children. She was living with her son Larry Maze in Kentucky when she decided to move back last fall, moving into Havre's Eagles Manor where her mother also lived.

"She always decided that those places in the south didn't measure up to Montana," Larry Maze added.

The town has changed, but she wanted to come back to Havre, he said. She wanted to be back where "Havre people" were.

"Everybody's been very kind and welcoming to her, so she's happy here," he said.

Dozens of people attended the celebration Sunday, with her co-residents coming to wish her a happy birthday and share cake, along with some of her children, nieces and nephews, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

None of Maze's great-great-grandchildren were able to attend, although other well-wishers, like Larry Maze, crossed state lines to wish her a happy birthday.

Her oldest grandson, Bret Mayo, who works at North Dakota State University in Fargo, said he remembers growing up and keeping his grandmother busy as she tried to keep him out of trouble.

"She tried to keep us safe," he said. "Sometimes, it's a full-time job. We kept her hands full."

Her nephew Gary Mueller said his aunt hasn't changed much in recent years - she still has the same voice and attitude.

"It's just like it was 25 years ago," he said.

He said she was still doing her lawn and raising her own garden - she always raised her own food, he added.

"She did her own lawn and stuff way into her 90s," he said,

He added that some of her relatives think not eating processed food, eating out, and staying active is part of her longevity - although her mother lived to be 96, he said.

And she likes to talk about what she has seen, and sometimes remembers it better than he does, Mueller said.

"She'll say, 'Do you remember this?' Sometimes I don't, but she will talk, and I will go, 'Oh yeah,'" he said.