St. Anthony of Padua parishioner celebrates 100th year

Courtesy photo/Karen Uncles

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(Above) Regina Kloepfer celebrates her 100th birthday with her daughter Karen Kloepfer Uncles (left) and her son, Matt Kloepfer.

PRICE — Regina Pauline Borsik Kloepfer celebrated her 100th birthday Oct. 22 with her family at Saint Anthony of Padua Parish, where she has been a member for more than 60 years. She was born in Omaha, Neb., in 1911.

Kloepfer’s secret to a long life is not to worry about the small stuff.

Her parents, Julia and Peter Borsik, were both of Polish decent. She had a happy childhood growing up in Omaha in a neighborhood made up of her close Polish relatives. She attended a Catholic grade school and can remember every sister she had as a teacher, and they all had long Polish names.

Kloepfer’s father died from tuberculosis and her mother remarried.

She moved to Chicago, Ill., to live with friends and to follow her sister, Katherine, into nursing. But she met William (Bill) Kloepfer, who would become her husband. It was during the Roaring ’20s and she and Bill had fun dancing at the Aragon Ballroom to famous bands such as Jimmy and Tommy Dorsey, Glen Miller and Guy Lombardo. She remembers bathtub gin, flapper girls, speakeasies and the Great Depression.

The couple married July 26, 1930 in Chicago at Saint Alphonsus Catholic Church.

Bill drove a wagon pulled by two horses to deliver ice for ice boxes and speakeasies, some that were owned by Al Capone. They had two children: Matt, born in 1932 and Karen, born in 1941.

In 1945, the family packed up to follow her sister to Helper, Utah. Bill worked for the railroad and then at the Kenilworth and Castle Gate mines, where he was a self-taught hydraulic mechanic. They lived in Helper for many years, with a brief stay in Moab.

While in Helper, Regina Kloepfer sold Tupperware, worked at Nolan’s Corner Store and later at the Helper Museum. She also made all her daughter’s clothes, and later sewed for her granddaughters.

Becky Kloepfer Columbo, who married into the family in 1972, remembers when "Grandma Rae" lived across the street from St. Anthony of Padua Parish. "We used to spend Christmas at her house and then we would all go to midnight Mass together," Columbo said. "We spent just about every holiday at her house and we would play cards. She was famous for her cream puffs at all the Council of Catholic Women bake sales at St. Anthony of Padua Parish. She was a member of the first CCW and helped write the bylaws."

Kloepfer and her husband were always active members of the Catholic Church. In 1980 they received a Papal Blessing from Pope John Paul II on the occasion of their 50th wedding anniversary.

They belonged to several bridge clubs. Kloepfer continued playing bridge until she was 99 years old and played with some ladies, who would always say "they learned something new from her," said Karen Kloepfer Uncles, her daughter.

"Talking to her can be fun," said Uncles. "She remembers the ‘Good Old Days,’ past friends and family, the Great Depression, Pearl Harbor and where she was when it happened, their first car, all the presidents, and learning to drive at 50 years old."

Bill passed away from colon cancer at 74 in 1983, and for several years after that, Kloepfer traveled extensively with her lady friends and saw many of the western states. For the last eight years, she has lived at the Heirloom Inn in Price.

Kloepfer has seven grandchildren, 19 great-grandchildren and 26 great-great-grandchildren. One granddaughter passed away as a result of hanta virus, and she still misses her to today.