NEWS

Coshocton woman celebrates 100th birthday

Eric Lagatta

COSHOCTON – If you ask Gladys Reed her secret to living to 100 years old, she’ll tell you she doesn’t have one.

But a clue to her long life might be found in the way she has lived it. A lifelong resident of Coshocton County, Reed has spent her days gardening, baking, crocheting and reading.

“I never worked,” Reed said.

Now a resident at Signature HealthCare on South Whitewoman Street, Reed also was a member of the Eastern Star organization and the Coshocton Methodist Church.

Born April 18, 1915, in Utica, Reed went to school in the River View School District. She married Gerald Reed in 1935, and the couple had two daughters, Jane and Marilyn. She also has five grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

“I was No. 1 in her eyes,” said her daughter, Jane Bergamo. “Both of her daughters were. ... She always put the children first.”

Bergamo remembers growing up in Coshocton, when her father, who died in 1992, was self-employed as a carpenter and welder. She graduated from Coshocton High School and eventually moved to Arizona with her husband, with whom she has three sons.

She said she still tries to visit her mom a few times a year.

“(Mom) was a loving and caring and giving person,” Bergamo said, reflecting on her childhood relationship with her mother. “She kind of lived her life through the things I did.”

Reed was an avid gardener, mostly growing flowers and vegetables, Bergamo said. She also baked and cooked.

“She was always making something for someone,” Bergamo said.

And it also seems Reed has an adventurous side. She loved to travel, and at 90 years old, Reed was able to check riding a motorcycle off her bucket list.

And though living a century is a check off the list itself, the birthday also allowed Reed to appear on a specially made Smucker’s jar — a friend of Bergamo’s designed the jar as a gift.

“She’s a good person, and she always thought of the other person beyond herself,” Bergamo said. “At that age, you shouldn’t be thinking about anything but living and being happy.”

elagatta@gannett.com

740-450-6753

Twitter: @EricLagatta