106th Birthday For Elmhurst Woman

ELMHURST, IL — A parade made up of cars is being organized to celebrate an Elmhurst resident's birthday on Saturday. That's not news. But the person's age is.

On Friday, Helen Gorman turned 106 years old. If she is not the oldest of Elmhurst's 45,000 residents, she is way up there. Gorman is in an exclusive group, with only about 80,000 centenarians in the United States. A much smaller number has reached 106.

Gorman's granddaughter, Sandra Moreau, tried to arrange for a phone interview for Patch with her mother. But when Patch called, Gorman said she was not interested in publicity about her birthday.

Asked how her grandmother has lived so long, Moreau said, "I wish I had the answer. I'm grateful we have her. She has always taken care of herself. She is fit, and she doesn't eat processed food. She has good genes."

In 1914, Gorman was born in Chicago just weeks before Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria was assassinated, an event that triggered World War I. She arrived in the early years of President Woodrow Wilson's time in the White House.

These days, the big topic is the coronavirus. When Gorman was 4, the nation was enduring its last major pandemic — the Spanish flu.

Her husband, Roger Gorman, died in 2007 at age 94. He was an attorney and politician, according to his obituary. They had three children.

Moreau said her grandmother broke her hip in September 2018 and underwent surgery as a result, but she is walking again. She turned in her driver's license when she was 95, Moreau said.