Gerldine Anderson celebrates 100 years

“I’ve had cancer twice, and I’ve had two strokes. I had to learn to walk over again, and I raised my seven kids. And I’m still here. I don’t know why, but I am,” Custer resident Gerldine Anderson days before her 100th birthday. “There’s so many things in my life that I’m thankful for. I think I was just blessed.”
Born to Will and Mazie Pooley June 27, 1925, in Fedora, Gerldine was the seventh of 11 children. Her family moved to Dupree, when she was 2 years old. There, her family lived in a boxcar home on the farm. The boys stayed on one side, the girls stayed on the other side and her parents slept in the middle.
Among the many memorable events in the history of the United States, Gerldine went through the Dirty ’30s. She still remembers when all the cattle had to be killed because they were starving.
“My mother and dad were very poor. We didn’t have much, but we managed to all live,” Gerldine said. “It seems like my mother and dad really never had a life because they were always home taking care of kids. They didn’t have nothing…they wasn’t able to go have a lot of fun or nothing like that. They had to stay home and work.” 
Gerldine walked four miles to attend the country school. Meanwhile, she remembers checking for rattlesnakes with a stick before going into the cellar and hauling a lot of water to the house. 
“I never had a bathroom or running water all the while I was a kid,” Gerldine said. 
At 15, Gerldine married 21-year-old Beverly Woodward in 1940. Three years later, Beverly joined the United States Navy to serve in World War II. Gerldine manned things on the home front with two children and another on the way.
Colleen Ball, Gerldine’s eldest child, said, “When Daddy was gone to war, I babysat my brother when I was 3 years old. Mom had to go a few blocks to the grocer, and she’d run all the way, get her groceries and run back home. You just did what you had to do.” 
In 1951, they moved to the Black Hills and bought a place in the Elk Mountain area. From there, they moved to Pringle, Custer and finally Four Mile, where Beverly built a four-room house for his family.
All told, Gerldine and Beverly were blessed with seven children, including Colleen, Carleen, Jerry, Patsy, Billy, Jesse and Buck Woodward. 
In 1958, when Gerldine was not quite 32, Beverly died of a heart attack, leaving her with seven children. They were married 17 years. 
Gerldine worked several jobs after Beverly died, including the bakery, Jack and Jill Grocery, Tennyson Drugstore and was a teacher’s aide at Four Mile School. She also worked at a motel for a time. 
“I had to go to work. Lots of times, I had to leave my kids pretty little, but I lived four miles from town,” said Gerldine. 
Five years later, Gerldine married Bill Anderson. 
While working in Alaska, Bill came to Custer on vacation with a friend of the Woodward family. The camp burned while they were in town, so they ended up staying a month instead of two weeks. During his time in town, the Woodwards invited the two gentlemen over for dinner, which is how Bill met Gerldine. 
“He fell in love in a short time,” said Ball.
They would talk over a two-way radio, and he traveled back and forth for a time. Then one day, Bill came to Custer and said he was there for good. 
“He asked me to marry him, and I said, ‘Well, I’ve got seven kids.’ He said, ‘I know you’ve got seven kids.’ He said, ‘I’ll help you raise them,’” said Gerldine. 
“He put mom on a pedestal when he met her, and she never came down. They were awesome, and Dad was a good dad,” said Ball. 
Originally from Washington, Bill had never been married and had a rough childhood. 
“He did not have a good role model for being a husband, a father or even a good citizen, and he was a marvelous man,” said Ball.
“That’s why he said, ‘Oh, I’ve got to help raise those kids because we didn’t have nobody to help raise us kids,’” said Gerldine. 
They were married Nov. 23, 1963. Bill was 29 and Gerldine was 37. At the time, her oldest was 22 and her youngest was 9. 
Gerldine said, “I waited five years to make sure I was getting a second one the way I wanted it.”
They continued to live in Four Mile until 1979 when Bill got a job working for the coal mine in Newcastle, Wyo.. 
There, the Andersons were referred to as the “walkers” because they walked all over town a million times hand-in-hand like teenagers, according to Ball. They were even named Sweethearts of the Year twice. 
“He always called me an angel. One day, he went downtown, and he came home with five angels in a sack,” said Gerldine. “I said, ‘I’m not an angel. He said, ‘Yes, you are. You’ve taken care of me all these years.’”
From then on, they picked up one or two more angels from the same series every so often, and the store would call whenever a new one came in. Now, Gerldine has 53 on display in her home. 
Bill kept his promise to help Gerldine raise her kids. She said, “He made the kids grow up really, had a lot of fun things for them to do.” 
“If they needed to be punished for something they did wrong, he wasn’t afraid to tell them to sit for a half hour or something and think about it. He punished them too, but they needed to be punished at times because they didn’t have a dad, because their dad died. He treated them like he was their dad,” said Gerldine. 
Gerldine got cancer for the first time some time after marrying Bill. During that season, he took care of her, the kids and the house, making sure everyone got where they needed to go on time. 
“When I had cancer, I thought I was going to die ‘cause I was pretty sick and was in the hospital quite a while. But I really thought I was going to die, and I just prayed a lot. I had to say, ‘God has to save me to take care of my kids.’ One day, I went for a treatment, and they said, ‘You don’t have cancer.’ Oh, that was the biggest thrill of my life,” said Gerldine. 
After her stroke, Ball said, “They didn’t think she’d do well after her stroke at all, but Dad would not let her give up. He learned how to do her therapy and kept right on doing it. Within a year, she was back to walking over a mile a day.” 
At one point, Gerldine even lost part of her pinky finger, but said, “It didn’t slow me down any.” 
“She still had nine more,” said Ball with a laugh. 
There was so much joy amongst the trials, though. Bill and Gerldine loved to ride motorcycles and snowmobiles together, and they enjoyed traveling on many trips. Bill was also the one to introduce Gerldine to life with running water in the house. 
At one point, Gerldine took up ceramic making. 
“Oh, I loved to do ceramics,” she said with a smile. “I made each one of my kids something.” 
Often, these were given as Christmas presents to friends and family members. Some of her creations included Santas, Christmas trees, a potbellied stove with a light, Native American figurines, a bear, an elk, a bull rider and a bucking horse. 
“I don’t have much left of what I made because I gave it all away,” Gerldine said. 
When Bill was in his 80s, he started playing guitar and singing in a band, at church and at funerals. He often played with the pastor of the Little Brown Church in Four Corners, Wyo., who became like a brother to Bill. They played together four to five times a week, plus on Sundays. 
“The pastor was real close to my husband. He just thought my husband was something. Of course, my husband thought he was too,” said Gerldine. “He was so good. Today, whenever I go over to his church that he preaches in, he always comes and gives me a hug.” 
Bill passed away in 2021. Gerldine said she was thankful his passing was very natural. 
“He didn’t linger long or nothing like that. I didn’t have to watch him die day by day,” said Gerldine. She gave his guitar to their pastor, knowing he would cherish it. 
Bill and Gerldine were married 58 years. Ball said, “They had a love story that you would hope everyone would experience.”
Today, Gerldine leads a quieter life, still living at home with around the clock assistance. 
“When I’m almost 100, I’m not very good at anything anymore, just being an old woman,” she said. 
One of the highlights of her days is playing dominoes with anyone who will sit down with her. Only, she calls it chicky-foot.
Gerldine’s son Jesse passed away in 2009 of a heart attack, but her other six are still around. From her seven children, Gerldine was blessed with 22 grandchildren, 41 great-grandchildren, 25 great-great- grandchildren and two great-great-great-grandchildren. 
After watching her family grow to the sixth generation, Gerldine said, “I’ve got a lot of memories.” 
Gerldine considers her children her greatest accomplishments, saying, “Each one of them had something special.” 
As for her longevity, Gerldine said she tries to eat right, although she admittedly loves hot chocolate to the point of having six cups a day sometimes. 
“I think one of the reasons she’s lived so long is because she doesn’t take a lot of medicine. She takes one blood pressure pill, and she takes vitamins,” said Ball. 
Whatever the secret is, Gerldine has outlived all of her siblings. 
“I was number seven, and I’m still here,” said Gerldine. “I feel like I’ve been blessed to live this long.”
As Gerldine’s birthday drew closer, cards started arriving from friends and relatives. These are proudly displayed in Gerldine’s home. 
“I was very well liked, I thought,” she said. 
They celebrated Gerldine’s birthday at Rocky Knolls Golf Course June 28 with a party attended by just about all of her children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, great- great-grandchildren and great-great-great-grandchildren. 
When asked what advice she would give to young people, Gerldine said, “Just hope and pray that you live long and do the right thing.”
She later added, “Treat your kids the best way you can and just always believe in the Lord.”