Meet June Langer, the High Desert’s newest and active centenarian
Surrounded by friends and family, retired school teacher June Edith Langer celebrated her 100th birthday at The Community Church at Jess Ranch in Apple Valley.
Nearly 150 people attended the milestone celebration for Langer, who was born on June 21, 1923, back when gas prices were under 20 cents per gallon and the automated traffic signal was invented.
At 100, Langer’s active lifestyle includes reading, painting, writing, sewing, dancing, playing canasta, church activities and spending time with family. When she’s not making cards, she writes a monthly column or poetry for The Sun City View.
What is the secret to Langer’s longevity? “No secret,” she said.
“It sneaked up on her while she was busy doing what she loves,” according to Langer’s daughter, Mary Langer Thompson.
The last 100 years
Langer said she’s seen many changes over the last century, such as the transition from the horse and buggy to the automobile.
Also, the icebox to the refrigerator, the radio to television and the two-party telephone line to the cell phone.
She also saw the development of penicillin in the late ‘20s and Dr. Jonas Salk’s invention of the polio vaccine in the ‘50s.
Langer said she witnessed the birth of Mickey Mouse in 1928 and the opening of Disneyland in Anaheim in 1955.
Despite the changes in technology, Langer uses email, automatic bill pay and is active on Facebook.
Langer said she’s also seen the following transitions:
From typewriter to computer.
From a 10-cent big loaf of bread to sliced bread.
From oven to microwave.
From silent movies to the first talkie in 1926.
From black and white TV to color, and small screen to big screen.
From milkman delivery to supermarkets to Instacart
From “closed on Sunday” to “Open 24 hours a day.”
From boiling water in a percolator to Keurig.
From home cooking to TV dinners, to fast food like White Castle and McDonald's.
A late bloomer
Thompson said her mother calls her a “late bloomer” as she started her teaching career at age 40, began painting at age 80 and began her forthcoming memoirs dubbed “Bits and Pieces,” at age 88.
In her mid-90s, she became a member of the writing critique group, “Wise Women,” for women aged 90 and over. She is a lifelong learner and cannot wait to discover something new to learn.
June’s ambition at 100 is to finish her memoir, paint more good pictures, and write more poems.
June loves children and hopes she has influenced many. She notes that the children she taught would be grandparents now.
The south side of Chicago
With her father assisting, Langer was born at home in Chicago to David and Helen Long.
Growing up in Chicago’s south side, Langer wanted to be a teacher from her first day of school, her family said.
“As a child, she enjoyed roller skating on the sidewalk, playing games like ‘I spy,’ reading, and motoring with her family on weekends around farms,” Langer’s daughter said.
During the summer, Langer enjoyed visiting her grandmother on her Wisconsin farm, where she played and ate strawberries in the garden patch.
“One birthday, her grandmother served her bird on toast after climbing up into the nest,” Thompson said. “June’s parents considered her stubborn because she did what she wanted to do.”
Langer’s mother took her to see every film at the movie theater where it cost 25 cents to get in and they gave free coffee cups but no coffee.
Langer loved visiting Wisconsin, Sunday drives to watch the corn grow, and Christmas shopping at Marshall Fields in Chicago.
In 1941, Langer graduated from Fenger High School in Chicago, the same school that graduated Eliot Ness, who would later become a Prohibition agent known for his efforts to bring down gangster and businessman Al Capone.
After high school, she attended Chicago Teachers’ College until the beginning of WWII.
Remember Pearl Harbor
On Sunday, December 7, 1941, June and her sister, Pauline, were out with friends. When they got home, they started getting ready for the school week.
During that time, her parents were listening to President Franklin D. Roosevelt when she heard her mother weeping.
The Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service had conducted a surprise military strike on Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Hawaii.
“We were at war,” Langer’s mother said.
After the bombing, Langer completed her first semester at college and then “went to war” in a war plant replacing a man as a heat treat inspector, a “Rosie the Riveter" job, her daughter said.
The plant made lift trucks for the Navy. She inspected gears, sprockets, drive shafts, and all that made them run.
June met her husband, Herbert “Herbie” Langer while working at the war plant.
Starting a family
Herbert and June were married for 57 years. During that time, they had a daughter, Mary, and a son, David, who died in 2013.
Their grandchildren are Matthew Thompson and Tara Smith, who is married to Scott Smith. Also, Bradley Langer, whose wife is Chelsea Langer.
Her great-grandchildren are Dixon Smith, Grayson Smith, Lydia Langer and Christopher Langer.
Herbert Langer was 101 when he died in 2003.
Traveling Route 66
Herbert and June packed up their children and drove Route 66 to California, where they settled down in Glendale.
Continuing her formal education, Langer attended Glendale College and then California State University, Los Angelesto earn her degree and teaching credential. Langer taught elementary school for 23 years in the Garvey School District in San Gabriel.
“She began her teaching career at age 40 but has never stopped learning herself,” Langer’s daughter said.
Achievements
June has sold several of her watercolor paintings and has been published in several High Desert California Writing Club anthologies.
In addition to her column in The View, she was a member of a writing critique group, “The Wise Women,” for writers over age 90.
She participated in the Dorothy C. Blakely Memoir Project which linked high schoolers with senior citizens, and was a judge for several years of the National Scholastic writing contest.
She has been a church deacon and a Stevens Minister visiting shut-ins, as well as a Sunday school teacher and choir pianist.
Langer has worked as a poll worker, juror, and volunteer reader at the Glendale Public Library and Kaiser Permanente while children wait to see a doctor.
She’s been a PTA president, part of a Women’s Missionary Society, a Delta Kappa Gamma member, and an active member of The Community Church at Jess Ranch in Apple Valley.
Daily Press reporter Rene Ray De La Cruz may be reached at 760-951-6227 or RDeLaCruz@VVDailyPress.com. Follow him on Twitter @DP_ReneDeLaCruz
This article originally appeared on Victorville Daily Press: June Edith Langer celebrates her 100th birthday in Apple Valley
