Former teacher says key to longevity is being ‘ornery’
Published in the May 11-25, 2016 issue of Morgan Hill Life
By Marty Cheek
Belle McCormick celebrates her 110th birthday with family.
Photo courtesy
McCormick family
The day Belle McCormick came into the world, the city of San Francisco lay as smoldering rubble, hit by a massive earthquake only two weeks before. One hundred and ten years later, the former Morgan Hill school teacher celebrated her long life with a gathering of family and friends cutting a birthday cake and singing happy wishes.
“I have a wonderful life,” the woman said in a voice radiating awe at her incredible longevity. “I’ve loved it. I’ve had a wonderful life.”
Born in Billings, Mont., May 2, 1906, McCormick saw more than a century of change including two world wars, the Apollo moon landings, and the emergence of a global computer system called the Internet. Her lifetime also witnessed the phoenix rise of San Francisco.
She was ahead of her time, too, showing a streak of feminism long before that term came into vogue, said her daughter Maggie Escover.
Belle McCormick on her wedding day.
Photo courtesy McCormick family
“She’s had a fascinating life,” Escover said. “She was like a ’90s woman before women were really independent. She bought a new car, a brand new little car when she was about 25 maybe, and she and her mother drove from Billings to Long Beach. They wore gloves and hats the whole trip.”
McCormick still resides in the Morgan Hill home on a small ranch property along Edmundson Avenue where she has lived since she and her husband Bill McCormick moved into it with their three daughters in 1951. Infirmed by age, a caretaker named Rose has tended to her needs for the past three years, allowing her to stay in the house.
A reporter congratulated McCormick on living so long and asked what might be required for such an extraordinary span of life. Hard of hearing, McCormick looked blank for a second.
Escover repeated the question loud into her left ear. “What’s the secret, mom, to living to be 110? What’s your secret to your health and longevity.”
McCormick gave a sly smile. “Oh… just be ornery,” she said.
The room burst with laughter from family members.
“I love the family and the outside,” she said.
Belle McCormick as a young woman.
Photo courtesy McCormick family
McCormick grew up on a ranch in the cowboy state of Montana where she learned to ride horses before she could even walk, Escover said. She came from Nordic stock. Her father was an immigrant from Sweden who made the voyage to American all by himself when he was 10 years old.
She started teaching in Yellowstone County, Montana in the fall of 1925. At age 19, she had only six months of teaching training and was hired because the state of Montana needed educators so much, Escover said.
“This is the story she told us girls. They sent her out to a one-room school house with five or six students. She lived with a family,” she said describing her mother’s early career in education. “They only had school six months of the year because the (winter) weather is so bad. She had to ride a horse to the little school and back. That was her first teaching experience.”
After one year of this, the young woman became homesick and lonesome being stuck out there in the “boondocks,” Escover said. The teacher returned to Billings and went back to school to became a career woman. There Belle met Bill McCormick.
Belle McCormick talks with Tim Escover during her 110th birthday party.
Photo by Marty Cheek
“My dad was an Irish cowboy, a real cowboy. He broke horses for a living in Montana. He was a little, wiry Irishman,” Escover said. “She was 29 and he was 40 so they were kind of old for their generation. She loved to dance, especially with my dad.”
The social expectations for educators in Montana at that time restricted matrimony, she said. Belle and Bill got married, but kept it secret.
“When my mom and dad got married, school teachers were not allowed to be married so they had to sneak around,” Escover said.
The marriage produced three daughters they named Mary Ellen, Maggie, and Annie. In 1951, the family moved into a fixer-upper home in Morgan Hill. They came here for the better climate because of their oldest daughter Mary Ellen’s health concerns. Belle found a substitute teaching job at Machado Elementary School. She later earned a degree and taught at Burnett School, the site that now serves as Central High School’s campus. In 1966, she moved to San Martin School and worked there as a vice principal.
Belle poses with her grandson Nino Saso and his wife Janette Saso.
Photo courtesy McCormick family
When Belle retired from teaching in 1973, she kept busy volunteering and learning new skills. She studied the art of making stained glass windows from her former third-grade student, Tim Lantz. She also learned the craft of caning chairs. She found time to build a small barn and put up a wood fence on her property by herself. She also devoted much of her time to spoiling her grandchildren (she has 22 now) with trips to Monterey restaurants or Nordstrom’s, her favorite department store.
“She’s an excellent seamstress. She could always sew anything for us girls,” Escover said. “We were always wanting something new. She sewed beautiful clothes. My mom’s stitches were perfect, nice neat little stitches.”
A reminder of her big cross-country trip to Long Beach with her mother, Belle showed a passion for a head-turning car all her life, she added.
“She liked to drive fast. She was the sole supporter of our family with her teaching job, and so when Annie and I got married and life was a little easier for her, she bought a Buick Riviera, which was a really classic car at that time,” Escover said. “Then she went to an Oldsmobile Toronado. She just liked nice cars.”
Sometimes she would take her grandchildren for rides in the country, playing classical music or opera on the CD player as they glided along the asphalt.
Belle with newborn great grandbaby and family.
Photo courtesy McCormick family
In 1987, the Morgan Hill Chamber of Commerce honored her as its “Woman of the Year” for her volunteer work and many years teaching. She stayed active with the American Cancer Society Thrift Shop in Gilroy, the Children’s Home Society, and the Friends of the Morgan Hill Library. She also served as president and area director of the Delta Kappa Gamma International Society for Women in Education, raising funds for scholarships for students majoring in teaching. She served for many years as a member of St. Catherine’s Altar Guild, in charge of the altar linen.
In 2006, she donated to the Morgan Hill Historical Society a bell from a 1906 Baldwin steam locomotive which had once been in her home’s yard. The bell is known as “Belle’s Bell” and is proudly displayed in the society’s Villa Mira Monte rose garden.
Belle was also an environmentalist before the term was popular. She loved working with animals, especially horses, Escover said.
“She had a horse, a little Shetland pony, for 35 years and every morning she would go outside and say, ‘Pepper, who’s going to go first, you or me?’ And then she’d let Pepper out,” Escover recalled. “And every night, she would say, ‘Pepper, it’s time to come in now.’ And that horse would come right back into the corral. She was like a pet.”
Belle gets a birthday hug from her friend Irma.
Photo by Marty Cheek
Belle softly cooed a comment at the memory: “I love children. And the animals. Oh yes. It’s a wonderful life. I just love being here. Everybody’s so good to me.”
Grandson Kirk Rocheleau gave Belle a hug and commented how his grandmother always enjoyed an occasional shot of Courvoisier brandy to warm her up. The woman would also tell stories about her past to his children, describing how she would ride horses in Montana and life as a teacher in a one-room school house.
“The kids didn’t like it at first, but they listened and started to learn the stories and then they couldn’t get enough,” he said.
In the patio by her home as the family gathered around her sipping on lemonade, someone brought out a sheet cake with “Happy Birthday, Belle” written in frosting letters.
“Do you know how old you are?” asked Rocheleau’s wife Tami.
Belle reflected on the question: “Well, I did think about it this morning,” she responded, triggering loud laughter.
“I don’t try to take things too seriously,” she said. “Everybody is so good to me.”
She began to share a few words of wisdom learned from 110 years of living. “What makes life worthwhile is all the friends you have. I have friends of every walk of life, and I sure enjoy them. I never say anything mean to anybody,” she said. “Thank, you, thank you. Friends make your life worth living. I’ve had some wonderful friends here. I dream about them a lot. I wake up at night and think about them, this one or that one who have been so wonderful to me.”
