Elgin Native Turns 100 Years Young, Offers Life Advice

The sweet smell of flowers filled her room. Vibrant bouquets and bouncing helium balloons created a colorful backdrop.

​After turning 100 years old, Alfreda Pelster took some time to sit and reflect on her life.

“I never thought I’d ever, ever live to be 100,” Pelster said while surrounded by numerous family photos in her room at The Willows in Neligh.

Neligh’s newest centenarian was the youngest of 10 children born on Flag Day, June 14, 1918, to Joe and Anna (Preusser) Klein in Groom, Texas.

“When my first mother died, I was just a little girl and my father married her sister,” she said. “I was the youngest one, I wasn’t very big. It was hard to understand where your mom went.”

Pelster, who lived in Texas when she was very young, later moved to the Petersburg area. She attended school in Elgin and married Wilfrid Pelster on Nov. 27, 1945 at St. Bonaventure Church in Raeville.  

They raised six children on a ranch west of Elgin—David, Kenneth, Karen (Poellot), Jean (Melcher), Sandra (Moser) and Daniel. Her husband died on Aug. 16, 1969. She now has 23 grandchildren and 27 great grandchildren.

Pelster said her key to longevity clearly doesn’t have anything to do with a special diet.

“Whatever was there I ate,” she said with a smile.

​So, what kind of life advice does she have to offer?

“Just work hard. And pray,” Pelster said. “I pray a lot of times while I’m working.”

She also encouraged parents to spend quality time with their children.

“Work with your children and do things with your children,” Pelster recommended.

On Thursday, all of her children joined her for a 100th birthday party at The Willows.

“We talked and laughed,” she said. “We had a good lunch and some cake.”

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