BREAKING THE CENTURY MARK: TWO WOMEN RECALL THEIR CENTURY OF LIVING

Erna Tucker was born more than 100 years ago in Egypt Mills north of Cape Girardeau.

Four-year-old Kathie Scott, left, great-great-granddaughter of Erna Tucker, received a hug during Tucker's 100th birthday party last fall.

Florentine Wagner and Erna Tucker have lived for more than a century.

They grew up on Southeast Missouri farms, where the bathroom was an outhouse and automobiles were an uncommon sight.

Wagner grew up on a farm in Jefferson County. Tucker grew up on a farm in Cape Girardeau County.

Today, both women live in the Lutheran Home in Cape Girardeau.

Cape Girardeau County is home to six people who have broken the century mark. Statewide, more than 200 Missourians are 100 years old or older.

Two women in separate nursing homes in Southwest Missouri are the oldest residents of the state. Both are 111 years old.

At age 103, Wagner is hard of hearing. She depends on a wheelchair to get around.

She watches television and plays bingo. Her favorite soap opera is "As the World Turns." She said she has watched it for years.

She likes to remember the past, tucked away in life's snapshots and preserved in her photo albums.

Wagner was born on April 18, 1893. The oldest of four children, she helped her mother around the farm.

There was no running water. The family had a cistern. There was no indoor bathroom either.

"My dad had a car. My sister learned to drive, but I never did," said Wagner.

As a child, she visited the St. Louis World's Fair in 1904. She remembers it as an exciting place.

One of her favorite books is one that has photographs of the World's Fair.

"I remember they had an agriculture building," recalled Wagner. "They had fruits and apples and things like that from the northern states," she said.

The first ice cream cones were sold at the St. Louis World's Fair. Wagner said she tried the cold treat. "It was good."

At age 18, Wagner taught in a country school in Pevely. She had to stop teaching after a year because she got married. In those days, married women couldn't teach.

Her husband was an electrician. They lived in St. Louis, and later in Caruthersville and Jackson.

So what is her secret to longevity? "I always treated everybody like I wanted to be treated," she said.

"I believe in going to church," said Wagner. "I taught Sunday school and sang in the choir. I couldn't sing, but I tried."

Tucker is three years younger than Wagner. Tucker was born on Sept. 12, 1896. She grew up in the Egypt Mills area.

"We lived on a farm until I was grown," Tucker said.

Cars were just appearing on the scene when she was growing up. The first car she saw made quite an impression.

"We heard a noise coming down the road and it was my father's cousin with an automobile he used as a taxi," she said.

"I thought it was great," she said of her first car ride.

The family later moved into a house at Egypt Mills that had indoor plumbing. The town was thriving at that time.

"They had a flour mill there, barber shops and quite a few houses," said Tucker.

A friend of her father's opened up a photographer's studio. His first photograph was of Tucker.

"He just took me the way I was. I had a little, pink dress on."

Years later, she ended up back in his studio. "I had a job in his shop tinting pictures. At that time, they didn't make color pictures."

Years ago, the Mississippi River often froze over and people would walk across it.

Tucker said she never tried to walk on the frozen river. "I was afraid the ice would break."

She and Leslie Tucker married and raised three children. The couple operated L.A. Tucker truck line in Cape Girardeau for several years.

For many years, she was employed at the Rust & Martin furniture store in Cape Girardeau.

"I was a jockey of all trades," she said. "I would fill in for whatever they had to do."

Tucker later moved to St. Louis and worked for a few years at a Famous-Barr store before retiring.

She was 72 when she quit working.

She attributes her long life to living right and eating right. "I don't eat any kind of junk food," she said.