Posted Thursday, October 31, 2019 8:20 am

On a chilly October day in 1919, a tiny baby girl named Ethel was born on a Garland homestead, weighing only 3 1/2 pounds. In hopes of keeping their little daughter warm, Henry and Laura Meyers placed her in a shoebox on the oven door of the woodstove.

A neighbor told them: “You’ll never raise that one.”

But not only did the baby survive, on Oct. 14, 2019, Ethel (Meyers) Heimer turned 100 years old.

Heimer continues to thrive: She walks every morning, goes for Sunday drives to see wildlife and danced at her 100th birthday party at the Park County Fairgrounds. “It sure was a nice party,” Heimer said. “We had a lot of fun.”

Heimer credits her longevity and good health to a few key things.

“No drinking and no smoking — that’s the main thing,” she said. “... And a lot of vegetables and fruit — that’s good for people.”

Heimer grew up on her family’s homestead in Garland, eating farm-fresh food. Since childhood, she has enjoyed being in the fresh air.

“I wanted to be outdoors,” Heimer said. “I rode my dad’s workhorses and climbed trees. I didn’t want to be in the house. I was an outdoors girl.”

Her love for the outdoors has held steady.

“I always enjoyed the mountains,” Heimer said. “I’d go to the mountains and just walk, walk, walk. I love walking in the mountains. They’re so pretty.”

She and her late husband, Lloyd Heimer, spent a lot of time in the mountains of Wyoming — hiking, riding horseback, hunting and fishing.

“She would crawl through the grass to get next to the creek so the fish wouldn’t see her,” said Kay Clark, Heimer’s daughter. She also hunted elk, deer and pronghorn, and the family ate a lot of wild game meat.

While she no longer hikes in the mountains like she used to, she still stays active.

Every morning at 5 a.m., she walks the halls at the Rocky Mountain Manor — all three floors. Rather than using the elevator, Heimer prefers taking the stairs.

“I feel like I can still do things,” she said. “I don’t feel old, old, old ... I know I am.”

Heimer has lived in the Powell area for most of her life.

While she was growing up in Garland, “it was a pretty good sized town,” she said. “I went to school there through the fifth grade.”

Heimer then started riding the bus to Powell schools, graduating from PHS in 1938.

Boys from Powell used to go to dances in Garland, and one of those boys was Lloyd Heimer — who would become her husband.

“He actually was going to go with her sister, and she wasn’t ready, so he asked [Ethel] if she wanted to go,” said Kay Clark.

The couple was married on Dec. 2, 1938, in Billings, and they enjoyed 74 wonderful years together.

They raised three daughters — Barbara, Kay and Judy. Barbara passed away in 2017.

“I miss her a lot,” Heimer said. “It’s really hard to lose a child.”

The family has grown to also include four grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren.

Lloyd worked as a building contractor and did a lot of cement work, while Ethel worked in the bean mill and then started working for Powell schools, first in the cafeteria and then in the library at Westside. But most of her time was spent at home, raising her family.

The couple purchased the family homestead in Garland from Ethel’s father, eventually building their own house there.

“I always raised a big garden, so we had a lot of vegetables,” she said.

On the farm, they raised beans and alfalfa, and Ethel did a lot of the irrigating on the 40 acres. Over the years, she has seen farm equipment advance from the days when her father used workhorses to today’s modern technology.

“It’s a different world,” Heimer said.

While the family spent several winters in Arizona, Wyoming was always home. She stayed on the homestead until Lloyd’s passing in 2013 at age 96.

“I sure miss him,” Heimer said of her husband. “We went to the mountains a lot. We had a lot of fun.”

Heimer now enjoys living at the Rocky Mountain Manor.Each year, she looks forward to Jake Clark’s Mule Days in Ralston, founded by her son-in-law, Jake, and her daughter Kay.

“I wouldn’t miss it for anything,” said Heimer, who rode in the Mule Days parade at age 97.

Heimer enjoys Sunday drives with her boyfriend, Jim Pearce.

“We like to go up the South Fork — we see a lot of deer,” she said.

They met years ago when their spouses were still living; Lloyd and Jim played the guitar together, while the gals sang and Jim’s wife also played the piano. They still share a love for music.

“We drive and sing,” Heimer said. “We have a lot of fun.”

She never expected to reach her 100th birthday.

“100 years — I’m pretty old,” Heimer said with a laugh.

But looking back on those years, she’s thankful.

“I’ve had a good life,” Heimer said.