Palmer Pioneer home welcomes centenarian with ice cream social

PALMER — Palmer Pioneer Home resident Stella Maestas will celebrate her 100th birthday on Friday.

Maestas was born and grew up in Colorado before moving to Utah, California and eventually Alaska with her late husband Fred Maestas. Students from American Charter Academy decorated a poster board with folded paper to wish Maestas a happy 100th birthday.

Maestas was born in Aguilar, Colorado and moved with her family to Montrose County where they had over 100 acres of farmland. Stella was the youngest of five siblings.

“My mother had a lot of chickens so she saved the eggs but there was a certain part of the eggs that she saved for hatching and we’d go to the little town called Olathe, Colorado. We used to go there for groceries. She’d take the eggs for sale,” said Maestas. “Our gardens were always big and we worked at the garden and we worked hard on the farm. Our farms went for 160 acres.”

At the age of 14, Stella began looking after her niece Margaret before graduating from Olathe High School. Stella was a cheerleader and competed in jumping rope. On Easter Sundays in Olathe, the Maestas family would throw massive easter egg hunts and provide decorated eggs and baskets. In the 1950’s, Stella survived a battle with breast cancer. Stella said that the secret to long life is healthy living.

“No smoking, only drinking for a cocktail or something for a birthday,” said Maestas. “Go to the doctor. Stay ahead of the game. Exercise. Family is important and gives you purpose. Love the best you can. It helps a lot.”

At 18 years old, Stella met her eventual husband Fred, who died last January. Stella was on her way to a dance hall when Fred was headed to a movie and decided to forego the movie to meet his future wife. Fred enlisted in the Navy and would communicate in code the location where his ship would port so that Stella could travel across the country to see him.

“He lived here in this other wing and we would bring her here every day when they didn’t have space for her yet and just myself watching them as a grandchild, I really have never seen two people more in love and that’s what I think got to live them as long as they have is being so devoted to each other,” said Janice Maestas.

Fred and Stella enjoyed going dancing and going out to watch movies. The pair loved the outdoors and would collect wood for their fireplace. In the 1970’s, Fred and Stella began traveling to Alaska in the summers to hunt and fish. The Maestas’ had three children that they raised in Salt Lake City, Utah, and later moved to Huntington Beach, California. They helped their son build a home in Wasilla. Up until recent years, Stella loved to work in her garden.

“I liked carnations because they lasted longer than the others. Well my mother used to take real good care of them and everything but they didn’t last as long,” said Maestas. “We raised onions, lots of onions. They don’t ripen, you pick them when they’re the right size but there would be five acres of onions.”

An ice cream social party is planned at the Palmer Pioneer Home to welcome Maestas into the elite centenarian club.

Fred and Stella Maestas owned a shoe store from 1958 until 1980 in California where they would make and sell custom cowboy boots and hiking shoes. The Maestas family would take boating trips and go to Knotts Berry Farm together. Stella taught english to Spanish speaking students in California and did not learn the english language until she was six years old. Stella enjoys looking at the plants around the Palmer Pioneer Home campus and is excited for the arrival of summer.

“There’s more to do in the summer!” said Maestas.