Ruth Henderson will be 105 so it's time for another party

A blowout bash is planned Saturday to celebrate the 105th birthday of Ruth Henderson, who lived all of those 105 years, except for a few months, at Colfax.

"It's a great town. There's just nothing like farm people," Ruth said.

She can remember her childhood days on the farm, spending afternoons playing with her sister "in the timber" and pulling rainbow trout and crawdads out of the muddy Palouse River.

"It's been a fun life. I wouldn't trade it for anything," she said.

Born March 23, 1907, to Asahel and Myra Baldwin, she was the seventh of nine children on the family farm three miles east of Colfax. Her grandparents set up the Baldwin House, Colfax's first hotel.

Technology has taken immense steps forward in her life, from the proliferation of automobiles and airplanes and even indoor plumbing.

But Ruth finds her greatest joy in life's simplicities.

"I do so dearly love nature," she said. "I can just sit outside and stare at the grass and the trees and the animals for hours. Isn't life just wonderful?"

Though her bones may not cooperate at 105 years old, Ruth still loves the outdoors.

"I wish I could have gone out and made a snowman," she said near the window of her Island Street apartment after Tuesday's snowstorm.

It was the sounds of nature, or as Ruth calls it, God's Orchestra, that would lull her to sleep inside her childhood home. The croaking of frogs in the nearby creek and wind tickling the needles of a giant bull pine tree that still stands on the Hilty Road home would put her out at night.

"I always was impressed by that tree," she said. "Sang me to sleep every night."

She also rejoiced in the lush epicurean offerings of Whitman County's countryside.

Among favorites were her mother's mock oyster soup made with the almost-forgotten salsify root, neighbor Jake Arrasmith's famed Palouse variety apples (which are all but extinct) and fried egg sandwiches made with fresh-laid eggs.

"I love eggs. I have always loved eggs," she said, her eyes thinking back to egg sandwiches taken along on fishing trips.

Before marrying her husband, Roscoe, Ruth graduated from Colfax High School. She first attended the one-room Bethel Schoolhouse before moving into town to finish high school.

The couple raised four children, three sons, Don, Joe and Michael, and a daughter, Patricia, who now lives with Ruth in their Island Street apartment. Her two cats sleep beside Ruth at night and a grey poodle named Sadie checks that her sheets are tucked in place every night.

Don, Joe and Patricia join Ruth every morning for a round of coffee and a family chat.

"I couldn't ask for better kids," she said. "We've never been real rich when it comes to money. But we were very rich with everything else. Lots of love, and lots of fun."

Roscoe died in 1970.

Now her ears fail her at times and her sight isn't what it used to be, but Ruth is still strong, still sharp enough to correct your grammar and is enjoying the leeway that comes with a pair of hearing aids.

"If I don't hear, I can't be responsible," she said.

No secret to her longevity, she said, just a happy attitude and a deep appreciation for what she has.

"I praise God every morning when the sun comes up and every night when I go to bed," she said. "If you look for the very best in life, you will always come up with it."

Mrs. Henderson's birthday party will be from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday afternoon at Hill-Ray Plaza in Colfax. Her family is inviting all to come celebrate, but requests no gifts.