Lillian (Whitty) WYTHE

WYTHE, FARRELL, WHALEY, WHITTY, HOMERDING

Posted By: Sarah Thorson Little (email)
Date: 4/7/2008 at 11:19:14

[daughter of Thomas Whitty and Susan (Homerding) Whitty of Troy Township]

Long Beach Press-Telegram (CA)
April 7, 2008

Lillian Wythe, 102, had century of health

Faithful churchgoer, grandmother enjoyed scotch and milk, family life and travel. Lillian Wythe always said if she was going to have a drink, she had to stay healthy while doing it.

And healthy she was, living for 10 decades while regularly drinking a glass of scotch, a glass of milk and eating whatever she liked.

"She had an iron-clad stomach," said her daughter, Barbara Farrell. "She could eat anything and everything right up to hot sauce on her food and she loved scotch and milk, which we all kind of laugh at."

Wythe, 102, died of natural causes, March 31, two months shy of her 103rd birthday.

Born to Irish immigrants in Eagle Grove, Iowa, on June 6, 1905, Wythe moved to Long Beach in 1952 after the death of her husband.

A loving mother and grandmother, her life revolved around her family and her church, her daughter said.

"She was a special lady who was the light of everyone's life," said Farrell. "I never knew anybody who didn't like my mother."

Wythe was a devout Catholic and was a faithful member of St. Matthew Catholic Church since 1952.

"She had a spirituality about her," said her daughter. "She didn't wear it on her shoulder, but everybody knew it and respected her for it."

Wythe loved to travel with family and friends, going to such places as China, the Panama Canal and Alaska.

And, despite being of retirement age, she continued to work well past 65.

"She worked for Buffums and Walkers until she was in her 70s," said Farrell.

According to her nephew, John Whaley, a retired chiropractor in Chicago, she was the epitome of health.

"It's amazing to me that up until a year ago a 102-year-old woman would walk four blocks to church several times a week for 8 a.m. Mass," he said. "She had the genes and most of her siblings lived to be quite elderly."

Wythe, who had nine siblings, was the last of them.

"Nonnie," as Wythe was affectionately known, also loved to crochet and enjoyed a good game of solitaire.

"She was playing solitaire in the rest home about a week before she passed away," said Farrell.

Wythe had lived with her daughter, who said the absence of her mother will be ever present to her.

"I will miss her companionship," said Farrell. "She wasn't just my mother, she was my best friend. We did a lot together."

Besides her daughter, Wythe is survived by her son Michael Wythe, six grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.

Memorial services are at 10 a.m. Tuesday at St. Matthew Catholic Church, 672 Temple Ave., Long Beach.

pam.hale@presstelegram.com, 562-499-1476
Copyright (c) 2008 Press-Telegram