Church Comes Together to Mark Milestone 100th Birthday for Centralia Woman

Surely it would be a crime to reach 100 years old without getting a birthday party. 

Peace Lutheran Church came through for one of its longstanding members in a major way on Saturday to mark that milestone at a time when large gatherings have been banned due to the novel coronavirus. 

The church’s congregation formed about a 70-car caravan that paraded around the front entrance of Stillwater Estates Retirement Community to celebrate the birthday of one of its beloved constituents,  Margaret Schwarzkopf.

On Saturday, Schwarzkopf, a member of Peace Lutheran since 1947, was planning on celebrating her 100th birthday. Except due to the coronavirus pandemic, a wrench was thrown into her birthday party plans.

The initial plan — had the coronavirus restrictions not forced her retirement community to be on a strict lockdown — was for friends and family to gather over the weekend for a big birthday bash, Schwarzkoph’s daughter Noni McMinch said.

“People were going to be flying in from all over until the virus hit and they got locked down and everyone else got locked down,” McMinch said.

She said family members were supposed to be flying in from Texas, Georgia, Utah and Wyoming. McMinch, who lives in Spokane, and her siblings, Nancy Jarmin of Alexandria, Virginia, and John Schwarzkopf of West Plains, Missouri, were also planning to make the trip for their mother’s century mark celebration.

With the prospect of a birthday party thrown out the door, Peace Lutheran Church — Schwarzkopft’s “second family” — stepped in with a contingency plan that was carried out Saturday.

As cars filed through the roundabout nearing Schwarzkopf, seated in a red velvet chair with her hair done up and a crown sitting on the top of her head, passengers in the cars rolled down their window and held out endearing signs or shouted “We love you, Margaret!” and “Happy birthday!”

One of the signs held out of the window read, “Happy Birthday, 100 years young!” An appropriate sign when you take into account how Peace Lutheran Church-goers describe Schwarzkopf.

“I’ve been pastor (at Peace Lutheran) for 18 years, and she predates me by a long way,” Pastor Daniel Freeman said of Schwarzkopf with a chuckle. “She is a heavily involved member, attending every Sunday, except when her health doesn’t allow it, and also attending our mid-week Bible study.”

Katie Foss, the member of Peace Lutheran who coordinated Schwarzkopf’s birthday caravan, characterized her as a walking book of institutional knowledge for the church.

“You name it, she’s held that position in our church,” Foss said. “We call Margaret whenever we are trying to remember something from the past because she remembers it all.”

After the parade had concluded, Schwarzkopf said in a phone interview she loved hearing all the voices that she is used to hearing every Sunday at church.

Schwarzkopf thanked the staff at her retirement community who helped her get her hair ready for the event while salons are closed, and they put the cherry on top by placing a birthday crown on her head. Schwarzkopf said she was still wearing the crown a few hours after the parade.

Though family could not be in attendance, McMinch extended kind words to Peace Lutheran for giving her mother a 100th birthday celebration.

“It’s huge, Peace Lutheran is truly a second family to my mother,” McMinch said.