By Samantha Kupiainen
Lorita Bobeck reached a rare milestone Aug. 16 when she turned 100 years old. The longtime Carmel resident credits her longevity on keeping up her physical fitness, never smoking and rarely drinking.
“I haven’t had to change much in the way of my lifestyle, and that’s important to me,” she said.
A native of St. Louis, she and her husband, son and daughter moved to Carmel in 1953 after her husband accepted a job at the finance center at Fort Benjamin Harrison. Bobeck had worked as a secretary but left the position after she had her first child in 1950.
“In those days, that was usually the end of your career,” Bobeck said. “They asked me to come back, and I did come back for a while, but it just didn’t work out, having a baby at home and having babysitters.”
When she was 40, Bobeck went back to work part-time as a Democratic Party precinct committeeman, a job she continued to do until she was 75.
Bobeck she said she is amazed how Carmel has grown through the decades. It had only had one stop light — Main Street and Range Line Road – when she became a resident.
“When we moved here, there was nothing really here,” Bobeck said. “Just some little shops, a couple little tiny grocery stores. Carmel was just a bypass.”
The Bobecks didn’t have a car during their first year in Carmel. They used public transportation to shop in the Nora area in Indianapolis and to attend church on Sundays at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Catholic Church, where she is a founding member.
Bobeck and her family lived in the first house they bought in Carmel for nearly 70 years. She eventually relocated to a home that placed her closer to her son as she got older, while her daughter moved into her childhood home. Her daughter is now retired and cares for her mother, taking her to and from appointments and everything in between.
Her husband, John, died in 2011 at age 92.
To celebrate becoming a centenarian, Bobeck had a simple dinner with close family members flew in from across the nation.
“You only get to be 100 once, you know,” she said.
