The month of May brings a lot of excitement with the Indianapolis 500 Race, the mini-marathon, and even the Kentucky Derby. But this particular May will also prove to be an upbeat time for many who are celebrating the life of Lora Koepper, who is turning 100 years old. “I’ve seen lots of changes,” says Lora, who was born on May 2, 1910. Some of the many changes she has experienced include going from using outhouses to the luxury of indoor plumbing, resulting in numerous bathrooms and a lavish master suite within one home; from boiling water for washing dishes and clothes to the convenience of dishwashers, clothes washers and dryers; from writing and posting letters and waiting for answers to the efficiency of emails and instant messaging; from bosses preferring secretaries who took dictation to superiors who compose their own correspondence on the computer. In her lifetime, people have evolved from the “use it up, wear it out” mindset to “throw it away when one is tired of it.” Lora has witnessed the wonder of having one telephone in the home to having a cordless phone in every room and cell phones. She recalls working as a part-time switchboard operator, earning just 25 cents an hour.
Lora currently lives in Admirals Bay with her son, Stephen Koepper, and his wife, Beverly, who are now both retired. During my interview with Lora, I had the added pleasure of talking with Stephen and Beverly, who willingly helped complete the many mini-stories that were told. Stephen proudly sums up his mother’s accomplishments when he says, “She hit tennis balls with my sons and rode a bike until she was eighty, drove a car until she was ninety-six, and lived on her own until she was just about ninety-eight.”
“I’ve never had a dull moment,” recalls Lora, who has lived in Indianapolis all of her life, growing up in the Garfield Park area. She lived with her parents and two brothers, one older and the other younger. She admits, “I’ve always been a tomboy growing up with my brothers.” Surprisingly, the house in which she grew up near East Street is still standing today. Lora learned to drive as she helped her brothers with their paper route long before the era of driver’s licenses. She laughs as she explains how she drove the car while her legs were barely long enough to reach the pedals.
She attended St. Paul’s Lutheran for grade school. And yes, she did walk to school every day as you would have guessed. But can you believe that she also roller skated to school on occasion? Later, she went to Old Manual High School where she rode her bike daily, parking it in the furnace room because she didn’t have a lock.
Eventually, Lora rode the Interurban (a trolley whose rails went all over the state) to Muncie, Indiana in 1928 when she attended Ball State University for one year. She left with a $200 scholarship, no money in her pocket, a suitcase in one hand, and a typewriter in the other. Unfortunately, Lora did not have the chance to complete college. First, due to the economic hardship during the Great Depression, Lora returned home to help support her older brother who was trying to finish his aeronautical engineering degree at Purdue. Secondly, Lora’s boyfriend, Norman Koepper, warned her that if she didn’t come home from school, that he was going to start dating around.
Not long after, Norman proposed to Lora on the tennis court near her home where they often played tennis. They courted each other for five years as they couldn’t afford the wedding with the economy. Eventually, Lora and Norman got married in 1935 and were married for 51 years. They lived at 10th and Hawthorne, and Lora still owns their home where she lived for sixty-eight years.
Together, Lora and Norman had three children, Paul, Susan, and Stephen, all of whom still live here in the Indianapolis area. Lora enjoys her eight grandchildren and sixteen great grandchildren. She reflects on her main career with Indianapolis Public Schools where she was the secretary and was especially skilled at shorthand. Over the course of her life, Lora worked nine years part time and over twenty years full time.
Go with the Flow
“Mom has always found a way to make the best of whatever situation,” says Stephen. “She is very trusting in God. She doesn’t worry about anything. She always seems to go with the flow.” One time when the car was not operational, Lora went to her doctor’s appointment while holding onto Stephen as he drove her on the motor scooter. He recalls how she willingly drove with him without ever complaining. Her carefree attitude has helped her cope with life’s misfortunes. Lora reflected on three heartrending events that she has endured.
First, when she was just a baby, she fell headfirst into a wooden bucket of water under the water pump at her aunt’s house. Thankfully, her mother saw her and pulled her out. Then when Lora was a preschooler, she fell through the bleachers at the Motor Speedway Track where her father manually flipped the numbers for updated laps. A doctor who happened to be present at the track said that even though she was knocked unconscious, Lora would be okay (if only he knew his prophecy and could see her here today!). Yet the biggest tragedy of all occurred when Lora was 37 years old. Her parents were traveling home from a funeral during a blizzard, when suddenly their car got struck by a large truck carrying steel. Sadly, her mother died, while her father suffered a leg injury.
Favorite Memories
Lora smiles as she recalls one of her favorite childhood memories — going to Niagara Falls with her family. She shows me the photo of the car in which her family traveled in upmost style. Her father had built a fold-out table that attached to the kitchen cupboard (which was on the running board of the car) that held cooking utensils such as the black wrought iron pan. Her dad and brothers slept on cots under a tent which unfolded from the other side of the car, while Lora and her mom slept inside the car. Other happy memories include setting up the family’s portable cottage on Eagle Creek (not reservoir) near Cossell Farms. As an adult, Lora made special memories with Norman and their three kids as they traveled to the Smoky Mountains every year for their family vacation. This had become a special tradition that Stephen still treasures and continues today. In fact, Stephen hopes to make another trip with his mom again this June.
Lora’s Secrets to Longevity
Lora’s main secrets to longevity can be broken down into three categories. First, she is deeply connected to family and faith. She attends church regularly and belongs to the Ladies Circle at Trinity Lutheran Church where she values her Bible study and dedicates herself to five days of homework. Up until the age of ninety-six, while she was still driving, Lora visited her friends at nursing homes at mealtimes so she could help them eat, took their laundry home to wash, and helped them manage their finances if they had no family to care for them. Further, she dropped off church bulletins and pushed people in their wheelchairs to the Saturday services.
Secondly, Lora believes in exercise and yoga. She has always been very active, especially in swimming. When she isn’t swimming at the Fishers YMCA, she is doing yoga. Besides performing one hundred bicycle movements per day as she lies on her back, she can also roll over backwards and touch her feet over her head onto the floor. If you ever meet her, she will willingly offer to demonstrate this maneuver just as she did for me!
Lastly, Lora believes in drinking a glass of milk with each of her three meals a day. Recently, however, Stephen has been preparing her a fruit smoothie for lunch. Lora always consumes two vegetables with her dinner. One veggie is green while the other is either beets or carrots. Stephen and Beverly admit that they have eaten much healthier since Lora has moved in with them.
Overall, Lora is a healthy, high-spirited, active lady who has had two bouts of pneumonia and currently has a second pacemaker. She does not use a cane or walker, preferring instead to hold onto the elbow of anyone who happens to be near her. She insists on keeping her bedroom on the second floor where she benefits from the exercise of going up and down the steps. (By the way, I witnessed her exceptional ability of going up and down the steps as she showed me her room with all her furniture, photos, and keepsakes kept from both sides of the family.)
Both Stephen and Lora repeatedly told me how each of them feel very blessed. As I ponder this perception, I am not sure who is more blessed: Lora, for leading a wonderful, fulfilling long life and sharing it with her remarkably caring son and daughter-in-law, or Stephen, for waking up every day to face another day with his mother who is healthy, easygoing, adorable, and extremely mentally sharp.
Lora’s children and their families are planning an open house on Saturday, May 8 from 2:00-4:00 p.m. at Trinity Lutheran Church for friends to celebrate Lora’s 100th birthday.
