When Port Townsend resident Marian Kruse was told that a reporter from The Leader had arrived at her 100th birthday party, she asked, “You mean I had to turn 100 to get into the newspaper?”

When asked about the secret to her longevity, she said, “Oh, I don’t have any secrets. Secrets would be dangerous to keep, at my age. Don’t tell me anything you don’t want repeated!”

While the attendees of Marian’s birthday party at the kitchen shelter of Fort Worden State Park chuckled at her wry wit, they also expressed their gratitude for her warm heart. As she told them, “It’s worth living this long to have friends like all of you.”

Although Marian had moved to the Victoria Place Senior Living retirement community a couple of years ago, she was still joined at her birthday party by Eric and Carol Jorgensen, her former neighbors from the Towne Point community in Port Townsend.

“So often, when I looked out on my front porch, I would discover that Carol had left behind some beautiful baked goods for me,” Marian said.

Which is not to say that Marian hasn’t made plenty of friends at Victoria Place. Another of her birthday guests, Pam Rogge, brings pets to the retirement community for its residents to pet and play with, and has come to know Marian in the process.

Her life has also been enlivened with family, some of them gone. Son Ed Kruse was at the party. 

One of Rogge’s poodles reminded Marian of a poodle she’d owned and learned to groom years ago, and Marian showed affection to the dog while wistfully recalling her husband, and raising two “wonderful” sons.

Marian Lillian Bryant met Ken Kruse on Indian Island, and they married at the Quilcene Presbyterian Church in 1942.

“So I married a blonde Swede,” Marian laughed. “He was a pretty good-looking guy. He loved me, and I loved him.”

Marian said she didn’t know how to cook at first, so Ken would suggest they go to Quilcene, because his mother always cooked a lot for dinner.

Marian ultimately became a very good cook, and with Ken, raised their two sons, Ed and Barry.

“Before I became a mother, I’d thought I wanted girls, but I had fun raising boys,” Marian said.

While Barry and Ken died around the turn of the century, Ed came from Everett to take part in the first of his mother’s two birthday parties, since she was born on Aug. 18, but she also celebrated an earlier birthday party on Aug. 15, just so she could celebrate with everyone who’s close to her.

Ed insisted Marian was “the best mother,” even after she laughingly chided him not to tell “any lies,” as he recalled how even her most stern discipline was never too harsh, and she always managed to amuse her sons during rural winters, and “she was always friendly to our friends.”

Marian kept busy through much of her life, moving to Port Townsend from Tacoma during her last year of high school, after her parents purchased the Four Corners gas station and food store, and hopscotching from one side of Puget Sound to the other for her employment.

Not only did Marian work at the family store at Four Corners, but she also worked at a Seattle window drapery business, at what was then the J.C. Penney store in Port Townsend, and at Naval Magazine Indian Island, keeping track of ordnance.

Marian also assisted Ken in his musical career, during which he played and taught the accordion, including when Ken directed a concert of 1,000 accordions playing at once, in a Seattle concert hall.

As much as Marian spoke about how much she cherished her marriage and motherhood, she also appreciated the simple pleasures of camping and travel, which included a cruise to Alaska.

“I loved taking trips in our RV, when we would pack everything up for the weekend and just go,” Marian said.

Another of Marian’s friends at her birthday party was Larry McKeehan, a retired teacher of 40 years with the Quilcene School District, who also serves as a founding member of the Quilcene Historical Museum.

McKeehan noted that Marian has lived through 17 U.S. presidents, from Calvin Coolidge to Joseph Biden, and has retained enough clarity that she was still driving until she turned 97 years old, and found herself increasingly challenged, not by driving itself, but by parking.

“The closer I got to the garage door, the narrower it got,” Marian said. “Whoever thought I’d live to be 100?”

McKeehan invited well-wishers to send their birthday cards to Marian Kruse at Victoria Place, No. 139, 491 Discovery Road, Port Townsend, WA 98365.

A call for centenarians. If you know someone in Jefferson County who’s turning 100, please contact Kirk Boxleitner at kboxleitner@ptleader.com.