Encinitas resident marks 100 years with party

Family and friends from around the country celebrated Edna Horman’s 100th birthday March 31 at Atria Encinitas, a senior living community.

Horman was born in 1915 in South Dakota to a farming family. She had four brothers and two sisters.

As a testament to how much has changed, Horman recalled that when she was a young girl, her family was excited to get its first car.

“We were just thrilled and piled in,” Horman said in a video about her life posted on YouTube before her birthday. “We all wanted to go to church but we couldn’t all fit in the car, because we had seven children (in the family).”

She later got a degree from General Beadle State College in Madison, S.D.

“I got my degree so I could teach,” Horman told the Encinitas Advocate during the party. “I taught at rural schools. The students were all ages.”

She moved to San Diego in the mid-1940s and married Harold Hammond several years later. He has since passed away.

For years, she worked at a telephone company and then was a stay-at-home mom. The couple had one child, Steve Horman.

Roughly 37 years ago, the couple decided to retire in Encinitas.

Horman, who stopped driving only about five years ago, said she still enjoys good health. What’s the secret to her longevity?

She said it’s important to avoid junk food and to “stick to a good routine.”

“This is wonderful,” Horman said of the birthday celebration. “It’s nice to see a lot of people I haven’t seen in a long time.”

Judy Sundstrom, her niece by marriage, said it’s amazing that Horman is still active and with it at her age. Sundstrom recalled that Horman and her husband enjoyed traveling.

“They loved to travel in a motor home and go fishing in the mountains,” Sundstrom said.

Son Steve Horman called the birthday celebration “overpowering.”

“You don’t think someone is going to live that long and be in such good health,” he said. “I’m really lucky.”