Wadsworth woman turning 106 on Wednesday

WADSWORTH — Thought to be the oldest person in Medina County, DeLean Dotter will turn 106 on Wednesday. She was living in the Western Reserve Masonic Community, but came to live with her daughter in Wadsworth during the coronavirus pandemic. One "competitor" for the oldest person moniker is Stan "The Man" Wolczyk, who lives in The Village of St. Edward, also in Wadsworth. He will turn 104 in December. "I've always tried to be good and think about other people," Dotter said about her secret to a long life. She lives with her 78-year-old daughter, Marilyn Hankins, and will celebrate her birthday with her family this weekend. "Her health is wonderful," Hankins said. "She's had a wonderful life and (many) experiences." Dotter took a fall in the bathroom at Western Reserve about two years ago and sustained a concussion, spending three days in intensive care before coming home. After that, she had an irregular heart beat, which is being regulated with a blood thinner. As a result, she now uses a walker. She had been walking almost two miles a day before the fall, her daughter said. "She would still be doing that," Hankins said. "We gave up her independent living apartment and moved her here to Wadsworth about a year ago." Dotter is still active and likes to go shopping and to the grocery store with her daughter. Hankins wants to take her mother to First Watch restaurant in Summit Mall in Fairlawn on her birthday for some cranberry pecan pancakes. They also will browse Dillard's and Macy's. "I tire more easily than she does," Hankins said. Dotter was born July 14, 1915, in Paulding. Her father, who lived to be 104, operated an apple orchard while she grew up. It led to a lifetime of eating fruits and vegetables. "She never cared for meat," Hankins said. "She doesn't drink pop. She drinks a cup of coffee in the morning and seven or eight glasses of water a day. She doesn't like a lot of sweets. Things that are good for you and me, she likes naturally." Dotter and her husband, who died when he was 42, had two daughters, Marilyn and Carolyn, who died four years ago. When she taught fourth grade in Sherwood, in the northwest corner of the state near the Fort Wayne, Indiana, border, she had the pleasure of having both her daughters in class. "Everyone thought we were the teacher's pet because she was our mother," Hankins said. "We had to march to her commands. She had to be strict. "She truly did (love teaching). Every one of her students were like her own children. It didn't make any difference what kind of home life they had. They knew she would protect them. I honestly remember more from that year I spent in her classroom than in any other year (I was in school). When she spoke, everyone listened. She had a way to speak that would go right to the heart of every child that came through (her class)." Dotter taught for more than 35 years in three different Ohio school districts in Sherwood, Zanesville and Elida. Hankins' daughter, Kristi, and son-in-law both are retired colonels in the Air National Guard and served in Afghanistan. They currently live in State College, Pennsylvania. Her other daughter, Jennifer, lives in Medina with her husband and two daughters. They will all get together this weekend to honor Dotter. Hankins doesn't like the fact her mother lost a year of her life during the pandemic. "It was awful," she said "We are just starting to get out and get around." Hankins said when her mother was taking physical therapy after her incident with arterial fibrillation while at Western Reserve, the staff there remember Dotter. One of them told Hankins, "Now I've seen it all. We had a 105-year-old lady doing physical therapy in high-heeled shoes." Dotter dresses to "the nines" every day, her daughter said. "Even when she's not feeling well. She wears high-heeled shoes every day in her life," she said. Contact reporter Bob Finnan at (330) 721-4049 or rfinnan@medina-gazette.com.