A century of rocking and rolling

104-year-old Tracy woman celebrates long life marked by big quakes

Nature's hiccups have a way of following Gladys Schmolck.

She was not quite 3 years old when her uncle held her tight as a massive earthquake struck San Francisco in 1906. She was 60 in Alaska when the Good Friday quake and subsequent tsunami left 115 people dead. And she was 86 and living in Redwood City when the seemingly endless Loma Prieta earthquake left large portions of the Bay Area in ruins.

Schmolck, who has outlived her siblings and cousins and never had children, turns 104 on Saturday at Summerville at Heritage Place. Staff and residents are throwing her a party today.

Her secret to a long life? A lot of walking, staying away from drinking (but it's OK to have a nip now and then) and eating what you want.

"I might have a 3-ounce glass of white wine once in a while, but I never smoked. Maybe a Chivas twice a year, but one is my limit," said Schmolck, who has enough restless energy to light up her modest apartment on her own.

Doreen Wall of Tracy, Schmolck's niece and only surviving relative, said her aunt lives an independent life.

"She's just amazing," Wall said. "She needs nothing."

Schmolck is a scant 87 pounds (she weighed 122 in her youth) but she has a firm handshake that exudes plenty of strength. And she's a terror in the hallways with her walker. "People see me coming and they get out of the way," she said.

Her walker is not much more than a prop. She uses it on doctor's orders for her own safety, to prevent people from bumping into her.

She has the distinction of being the oldest resident at Summerville, but was just a kid when she attended the centennial of the 1906 quake last year in San Francisco to honor the survivors. There was a woman there who was 112 and a man who claimed to be 115.

Schmolck was just a toddler and living with her parents in Oakland when the quake hit San Francisco at 5:12 a.m April 18, 1906. Her uncle rushed into the bedroom she shared with her sister, Margaret, and held her as she watched her favorite drinking cup smash to the floor. The quake took 3,000 lives.

In 1915, the family moved to Daly City, and as a young woman Schmolck took a job wrapping butter in paper. Her parents, George and Margaret, lived out their days there, and Schmolck eventually married William Smith, a bread deliveryman. She was a bookkeeper. After his death, she married Hugo Schmolck in 1947 and moved to Ketchikan, Alaska, where the couple operated a plumbing and heating business. The shop burned down in 1960, but Hugo and Gladys loved Alaska so much they returned every year.

It was on one such visit on March 27, 1964, that a 9.2-magnitude quake struck near Prince William Sound. Ketchikan is a good 1,650 miles from Anchorage, where most of the damage occurred. But the temblor still packed a wallop.

"I was walking on the street and I was wondering why everyone else was running out of their houses and onto the street," Schmolck said.

Still, some of Schmolck's fondest memories are of Alaska, where everyone knew each other. "Now, you don't know your neighbors," she said.

Eventually, Hugo and Gladys Schmolck retired to Woodburn, Ore. When Hugo Schmolck died in 1969, she moved to be close to her brother, George, in Redwood City.

Contact reporter reporter Rob L. Wagner at rwagner@tracypress.com.