SAN FRANCISCO
At 109, city resident still going strong
Woman born in 1896 says minding her own business is the secret to her long life
Carl Nolte, Chronicle Staff Writer

Friday, December 30, 2005

Lucille Meyer wears her years with grace. She is an erect old lady, a bit deaf, with a husky voice like a much older Lauren Bacall. Meyer may be the oldest living native San Franciscan. She turns 109 today.

She was born at home on Montgomery Street near Broadway in North Beach at the end of 1896, when Grover Cleveland was president of the United States, when the czar of all the Russians still ruled, when Kaiser Wilhelm was still a young man, Puerto Rico and the Philippines still belonged to Spain, and the world we know now was still in the far future.

She can see the distant past in her mind's eye: see the horsecars that ran on San Francisco streets, see sidewalks made of wood, see the flowerbeds of geraniums that grew in the Presidio. "We had a two horse shay,'' she said. "No automobiles.''

She can see the old city that was destroyed in the spring of 1906, when she was 9.

She was Lucille Kilhofer then, staying with family friends on Easter vacation in San Mateo, in the country. Just before dawn, she and the other little girls were awakened by the great earthquake, knocked out of bed. "I could see the swinging of the lamps, back and forth,'' she said.

It was clear, even to a young girl, that something terrible was happening, and later in the day, the people in San Mateo saw San Francisco burning. "You could see all the smoke from the city,'' she said, "You could see bits of ashes coming down from the sky.''

Her parents were at the family home at Seventh and Mission streets in the city, and one of her brothers was in Alameda staying with friends. "I didn't know if my folks were alive or dead,'' she said. There was no way of knowing, either. Not long afterward, her father showed up at the door to bring her back to the city; she was a San Franciscan, after all, and they had a place to stay.

Though the family home had burned to the ground, a friend owned a vacant house on Precita Avenue, near Bernal Heights, outside the zone burned by the fire. The family -- father, mother, Lucille and four brothers -- moved in.

It wasn't bad. Others had to live in Precita Park in tents and later in tiny houses provided by the city.

But San Francisco was a mess, and she remembers it clearly, even after nearly a century. "Everything was flattened from the Ferry Building to 20th Street,'' she said, shaking her head. "I don't want to see that again.''

"Every time we get a little quake,'' she said, "I get shaky.''

The family moved to the Ocean View neighborhood, out by the county line. It was like the country in those days; small truck farms, and plenty of mushrooms the kids could pick in winter.

She went to Sheridan School, but only to the eighth grade. Then, she went to work. She has worked all her life, pretty much. She knitted swimsuits and women's underwear at a factory south of Market Street. Later, she worked as a timekeeper for a firm that made batteries.

She met Norbert Meyer and married him at St. Michael's Church in the Ocean View district in 1924. He was killed four years later when he was repairing a car and the engine somehow caught on fire. It was the tragedy of her life. She was left with a daughter, a son and another son on the way.

In the 1920s, there was no such thing as Social Security. She had three small children and had to work. There were not many opportunities for young women in this situation, so she cleaned other people's houses.

She moved to Daly City; she remembers going back and forth to San Francisco on the big old interurban streetcars that ran up the Peninsula. It was not an easy life. She remembers the county helped out a bit: $20 a month. When the kids were old enough, they got jobs -- the boys delivered newspapers, set pins in bowling alleys, sold magazines. If they earned too much, she said, the county would cut her $20 payment.

She was always in delicate health. Stomach problems, the doctors said. At 70, she had a big operation and gall bladder surgery at the age of 75. After that, her health improved.

The doctors are amazed, said her daughter, Audrey Meyer, who is 80. "They asked my mother her secret,'' Audrey Meyer said. "She told them, 'I mind my own business.' "

That's right, she said, "I mind my own business. That's the secret.''

Lucille Meyer lives with her daughter in Burlingame now and expects many people in her family to visit her on her birthday today. Besides her daughter, there is a son, Charles, 14 grandchildren, 20 great-grandchildren, and one great-great grandchild, born this fall. "I like company,'' she said.

She is possibly the oldest survivor of the 1906 earthquake, but probably will not attend the 100th anniversary celebration this spring. She doesn't like celebrations, she said.

But she will celebrate the turning of the year Saturday night. "I always stay up to midnight,'' she said.



ssb-109 damn. imagine what she's seen and how the world has completely changed around her. It also makes me very grateful for the things I do have and that I don't have the struggle she has had. at least not yet.

I was just thinking about how much has changed in the past 100 years. I was doing some dusting and my 8 year old was with me. I was dusting the shelf where I have some Prince music, and I have an old Controversy ALBUM. I showed the album to my daughter and she was like She'd always thought I had it for the picture on the cover.

I showed her (over-simplistically) how it went from albums, do tapes to cds.


Now imagine that 1,000 times over.

I took "typing" on type-writers in Jr. High. My oldest is taking "keyboarding".
My house had one tv and one phone and it was a land line. Now we have several tv's and everyone in the house has a cell phone.

That just scratches the surface. It is amazing how much things have changed.

Nothinbutjoy said:

Not to mention the political and world landscape. I was hoping they would ask her for a nugget about what she thinks about the world today even in general...but no such thing. That would be something I would really want to know. SHe prolly thinks we're Fu****.

superspaceboy said:

Or that we're all a bunch of spoiled, lazy gits!

Nothinbutjoy said:

that too. but you know she survived and adapted we will probably do the same.