A century is a long time to live in one place.
Ileana Crites Williams chose to spend it all in Tallmadge.
"Where else would you be?" she said. "It's the best place there is."
Williams was born in Tallmadge, got married in Tallmadge, raised her family in Tallmadge and still resides in Tallmadge — just up the street from the Tallmadge farm where she grew up.
She is celebrating her 100th birthday this month and expects to live at least five more years in her favorite city. After all, there's a family record to break.
Calvin Coolidge was president, Ronald Colman reigned in Hollywood, Al Jolson ruled the radio and gasoline cost 23 cents a gallon.
James and Iva Crites welcomed a baby girl Sept. 24, 1926, at the family home on a nearly 50-acre farm on the edge of Tallmadge. Ileana Marion Crites was the youngest of six siblings after Wanda Jeanette Crites, twins Wilburn and Wilma Crites, Hilda Irene Crites and Ruby Phyllis Crites.
"I was the last of the brood — they saved the last for best," Williams said with a laugh.
The two-story farmhouse was built in 1873 on what is now East Avenue. Country homes didn't need to be numbered. The family's mail was addressed to Tallmadge RD 8, which stood for Rural Delivery Route 8.
The three-bedroom home felt a little crowded — to say the least — during the Great Depression.
The parents had the first room, the two oldest girls shared a bed in the second room and the three youngest girls shared a bed in the third room. Willie, the only boy, slept on a cot in a long, narrow closet off the bathroom. At least he didn't have to share a bed!
Williams said she enjoyed living on the farm and didn't mind all the daily chores that the kids had to do.
"We fed the cows and the horses and the pigs and the chickens and the rabbits. I think that's it," she said. "We had to do all the work ourselves because that was expected of us."
The family grew corn, tomatoes, beans, apples, peaches, pears and other crops. They canned fruits and vegetables for later use and made apple butter in copper kettles every fall.
The kids also operated a produce stand.
"That was nice," Williams said. "I got to see people."
Besides running the farm, her father, James Crites, was a carpenter foreman at Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. One day, he took her to a pasture, gave her the keys to the Plymouth, and said: "Drive around until you learn how to do it."
"He wouldn't help me," Williams said. "He said, 'You can do it.' "
And she did! She put her hands on the steering wheel and stepped on the gas pedal.
"I just started driving," she said. "I did fine."
Williams remembers when stately, old homes rimmed the eight-spoked Tallmadge Circle. Then, as now, First Congregational Church and the Old Town Hall were landmarks, but so was the old Tallmadge Methodist Church, which the Crites family attended. It's no longer there.
Bruce and Leone Kramer operated a store that sold groceries, meats, chinaware, dry goods, candy and more.
"It had everything that you could figure out in a grocery store," Williams said.
The market was torn down for a Pure Oil station.
Williams walked a couple of miles to Tallmadge Elementary School and Tallmadge High School in all kinds of weather. She graduated in 1944, serving as co-valedictorian with Karl Starks in a class of 26 seniors.
She had bragging rights after edging her best friend, Margaret Orr.
"I beat Margaret out by just a few points," Williams recalled.
The two girls continued their studies at the Idabelle Firestone School of Nursing at Akron City Hospital and served in the U.S. Army Nurse Corps at the end of World War II.
Unfortunately, Williams contracted tuberculosis during nurse's training.
"I got over it," she said. "I'm all right now."
But her plans changed. She didn't pursue a nursing career after graduating in 1947 and passing the board exam.
The best friends served in each other's weddings a month apart.
Margaret married Herbert Bumpas on May 1, 1948, and co-founded the Tallmadge Circle landmark Bumpas Drug & Emporium in 1950.
Ileana married her high school classmate Donald A. Williams, a U.S. Navy veteran, on June 12, 1948, in Tallmadge Methodist Church.
"I remember my dad took me up to the altar and said, 'My wife and I give Ileana to be married,' " she said. "Then they gave us a lunch. Everybody got lunch."
The couple lived on South Munroe Road, started a family and moved to West Avenue. They had five children: Donald Alan Williams, Bonnie Sue (Williams) Lawley, Paul Willard Williams, Roger Jon Williams and Julie Kay (Williams) Earnest.
Her husband worked as a plasterer, managed auto stores and retired in 1990 from the Chrysler plant in Twinsburg.
Williams was a diligent homemaker and talented cook. Rumor has it that she baked the best strawberry pies in Tallmadge history.
She and her husband belonged to the Tallmadge Grange and Tallmadge Alumni Association for decades.
The couple enjoyed taking strolls to Tallmadge Circle, and witnessed many changes over the decades. Homes went up where farms used to be. Old homes got torn down. Landmarks like Bumpas Drug & Emporium closed.
After 66 years of marriage, Donald Williams passed away Oct. 18, 2014, at age 86.
His widow was the first resident to move into Danbury Tallmadge when it opened in November 2016. It's about 3 miles from her childhood home, which her nephew Robert Kaufman owns.
When the assisted living home was being built, Ileana Williams selected a room with a view of Tallmadge Circle because she wanted to be able to see the steeple of First Congregational Church.
Williams uses a wheelchair now. She can't see or hear as well as she did in her younger years, and she uses an oxygen tube to help with breathing.
"I didn't always have this thing in my nose," she confided to a visitor.
But she remains active, participating in the bell choir, playing bingo, going to the hairdresser and attending exercise class six days a week.
And she's so happy to live in Tallmadge.
Williams has 11 grandchildren, 24 great-grandchildren and one great-great-grandchild. She celebrated her birthday early with a party Sept. 6. Relatives came from as far away as California.
She attributes her longevity to living a good life and helping people.
"What else could you do," she said.
Genetics may have played a role, too. Her aunt Ona Halterman (1887-1993), a sister of her father, lived to be 105.
"I'm going to go past her," she said.
"Wonderful!" Williams said. "I'm going to live to 105. At least."
Mark J. Price can be reached at [email protected]
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Local history: Tallmadge Circle is center of creation
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: 100 years in Tallmadge! Lifelong resident says it's the best place