Chattanooga’s Halie Forstner passes away at the age of 110

I first met Halie Forstner back when she drove to the beauty shop each week, grabbed a Wendy’s junior cheeseburger after church on Sunday, exercised each morning, lived alone, walked without any assistance, and cleaned her own house.

She was 105 at the time.

She had found out that we had something in common. We both grew up on Sand Mountain. She was very proud of that, as am I.

When I heard that she had died, I was surprised. Imagine being surprised to hear that a 110-year-old person had passed away. But Miss Halie was different.

At the age of 103, she experienced extreme intestinal pain. The doctor told her very matter-of-factly, “I just want you to know that surgery is your only hope. But we don’t usually operate on people your age. Once we put you to sleep, you may never wake up.”
She didn’t bat an eye. “Well, what are we waiting for?”

The next day, that same doctor looked her right in the eye as she awakened from surgery. “I didn’t think you would still be here,“ he said. “Well, where did you think I was going?” was her response.

That was only one episode. At 107, she broke her hip and spent months in a rehab facility. At 109, she had to have her remaining teeth pulled, severely curbing her appetite. I was told by her friends more than once, “I think this is it, David. I don’t think she will live much longer.” She would always bounce back. She loved life, and she was tough as nails.
That’s why I was surprised when she didn’t bounce back from a recent fall. She was largely unresponsive in her final days, and now she has left us for a brighter home.

I had called her every other Thursday afternoon since her 110th birthday in March. She was always happy to talk, in her impeccable, ladylike way. She never used slang, her grammar and diction were flawless, and her memory was sharp. I last spoke to her on July 2nd, and she sounded fine. She was on my calendar to call on Thursday July 16, but she had quietly passed away that morning.
She loved telling and writing stories dating back to her childhood, when the presidents were William Howard Taft and Woodrow Wilson. Her parents were well educated, and they made sure their only child was a voracious reader and a distinctive speaker.

Newspaper clippings from the late 1920s show that Halie Gass was a star at Chattanooga High School. She won the academic awards, she appeared in school plays, and she was the school reporter for the Chattanooga Times. She had hoped to attend college, but she could not afford to enroll at the University of Chattanooga.

Her engagement to Charles Forstner made it to the society pages, and she was involved in various charities.

She was a working girl long before it became fashionable and commonplace. In fact, it was downright rare in the 1930s and 1940s, but there she was, on the job at the Chattanooga Medicine Company, the newly established Tennessee Valley Authority, and Loveman’s department store.

(She told me we actually first met in 1990 when the Freight Depot Warehouse Row stores opened in downtown Chattanooga. I was doing a live broadcast for Channel 3 at noon that day, and I was interviewing random customers about their new shopping options. She agreed to be interviewed on live television, and she remembered it vividly. Of course, I did not remember, because that event was just another blur in my career. I wish that had been recorded!)
In addition to her husband (who died in 1990 after 52 years of marriage), the love of her life was Lookout Valley Presbyterian Church. She loved her pastor (Grady Davidson), and the families in the church. She was an elder, and not the silent type. She voiced her opinions frequently and firmly, and people knew where she stood.

Back in November 2020, we were talking about the recent presidential election. She had voted in each one dating back to the 1930s. (She often cited President Truman as her favorite.) I asked her if she had voted this time. “Absolutely not,” she said emphatically. When I expressed surprise, she said, “I couldn’t vote for either one of them!” She went on, “You told me to watch the news each day, so I did. And I didn’t like what I saw.” So perhaps I was at least partially responsible for a 109-year-old patriot sitting out a presidential election for the first time in 80-something years.

That reminds me of another Miss Halie memory. In 2018, I emceed a patriotic concert at Chattanooga’s Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Auditorium. It was the 4th of July, and her pastor brought her to the event. She was decked out in red, white and blue, starting with a bright red hat.
Part of the program included a video about the Auditorium’s history, and it’s founding to commemorate America’s soldiers of the World War (which we now call World War I). Miss Halie was one of the few who remembered the grand hall’s opening in 1924, when she was a teen. She had been interviewed as part of the video, and of course she lit up the big screen.

When the video concluded, I informed the audience that Miss Halie herself was seated down front. She stood and waved, to the thunderous applause of a thousand people. She reminded me of royalty, which she was.

When she turned 109, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga surprised her with a certificate, naming her a Lifelong Learner. She was honored to be recognized by the college she had hoped to attend ninety years earlier.

Most of us will not get 110 years on this earth, and as our physical bodies break down, we will not want 110 years. As soon as Miss Halie sampled her 110th birthday cake, she began planning number 111.
She was absolutely looking forward to that. But even more, she was looking forward to her new home in heaven. Like everything else, she has reached her goal.

Here are some previous stories I have written about Miss Halie:

UPDATE MARCH 28, 2021: Miss Halie has had  a challenging year health-wise, and her mobility is more limited, but her mind is still sharp. She is now at Morning Pointe Shallowford, and for the first time in her life, she is not “on her own.” It has been an adjustment, but she is handling it well.  Her memory continues to amaze me.  On her 110th birthday, she was recalling events from her childhood in pinpoint detail.  And she loves cake, as you can see here:

UPDATE MARCH 28, 2019: Miss Halie is as sharp as ever! She’s lived through 19 presidents, and remembers each and every one.  Her favorites are Woodrow Wilson, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Harry S Truman. She’s not driving these days, after a hip injury in 2017, but trust me, she’s as sharp as ever, and her memory is incredible.

 

UPDATE MARCH 28, 2018:  Happy 107th, Miss Halie!

 

UPDATE MARCH 28, 2017:  Happy 106th, Miss Halie!

 

“Would you like some birthday cake? I have four of them,” Halie Forstner asked me as I left her home.  Four birthday cakes? I guess that’s a fringe benefit of turning 105, as “Miss Halie” had done on March 28, 2016.

I’m tempted to say Miss Halie is no ordinary 105-year-old, but how would I know? She’s the first one I ever met.  She’s not what I expected.  For one thing, we actually met 25 years ago when I was doing a live broadcast in downtown Chattanooga.  Of course, I barely recall being there, but she remembers every detail, down to my bad jokes.

She told me then, and now, that we might be distant relatives since we are both from Sand Mountain.  She grew up on the Georgia side, near what later became the Big Sandy golf course. Her parents were Garrett and Minnie Gass, and it is evident they insisted she get a good education.  She is well-read and chooses her words carefully.  There is a lively spark in her eyes, especially when she entertains visitors with her quick wit.

Some examples: “I’m old fashioned.  I find that very convenient at times.”  Also, “I don’t have any children. They say that’s why I’ve lived so long!” And, “I’m not afraid of dying. It’s the getting there that’s kind of scary.”

Married for 52 years to Charles Forstner, Miss Halie has been on her own since his death in 1990, and she remains fiercely independent.  To the amazement of everyone, she still drives (“Yes, I have a license,” she informs me). Each Friday she gets her hair done (“I like the big hair dryers. I told you I was old-fashioned,” she laughs). A woman of strong faith, she his thankful her church, Lookout Valley Presbyterian, is just a short hop away.  Oh, and there’s Wendy’s: “People know I love Wendy’s, so they give me gift cards, and I get the 99-cent bacon cheeseburger.”  There may be hope for all of us burger lovers.

Her memory is razor-sharp.  Born in 1911, she was around to see remnants of the Civil War.  “The emotions were still raw when I was growing up,” she said. She remembers the horse-drawn trips up Sand Mountain on heavily rutted dirt roads. “Our old horse would make it halfway up, to what we called Red Hill, which was just red clay.  After a rain, it was so slippery, and that horse would spin around sideways!”

Her family moved to Chattanooga in 1920, where she attended Lookout Jr. High, and then Chattanooga High School on 3rd Street.  She is surely the oldest living graduate, from the Class of 1930. “My biggest regret is not being able to go to college,” she says, “but I was a victim of the Great Depression.  We just couldn’t afford it.”

One of her first jobs was at TVA, shortly after it was created. “I will always be thankful for TVA,” she said. “It saved the south, creating so many jobs, and providing power.  Before TVA, we used a lot of coal oil just to have light and stay warm.”

Later she worked at Loveman’s department store (“Luther Masingill would come in a lot, because he had a girlfriend who worked there.  It was before he got married,” she laughed.)

Another longtime employer was Chattanooga Medicine Company (now Chattem), where she saw the second computer in the city (Combustion Engineering had the first, she says). “It was as big as two rooms in my house, and now they have computers you can put in your pocket!” However, she doesn’t own a computer, nor does she Facebook or Tweet. “I don’t have time for that,” she says. “I see people doing 5 or 6 things at a time, and that’s too much. The human brain wasn’t made for that!”

She regularly hears this: “You’re how old? 105? That’s impossible, you don’t look a day over 79! It blows their mind.” She takes it in stride. “I’ve been blessed.  I broke my hip when I was 95, but that wasn’t the worst thing.  When I was 102, I had a twisted intestine, and the doctor came in and told me that surgery was the only hope.  He seemed surprised when I said, Well, what are we waiting on? I survived the anesthesia and surgery, and he told me I was a miracle.” (She talks about her surgery in the video below)

Three years later, she’s glad she took that chance.  She has no close relatives, but counts her church as family. Pastor Grady Davidson “might as well be my grandson,” she says.  She exercises each morning, cleans house, and watches the news.

On her 105th birthday, friends drove her to the State Capitol in Nashville, where Sen. Todd Gardenhire and fellow legislators honored her, and Gov. Bill Haslam came by for a chat.  “How about that?” she said. “Me, talking to the Governor.  Not bad for a little girl from Sand Mountain.”