Dorothea Rampton to be celebrated all week

Dorothea Rampton always has been surrounded by her family, and they will be surrounding her with smiling faces and loving arms today, when she turns 100 years old.

Dorothea Henningsen was born Aug. 12, 1908, to a family of Danish immigrants who taught her, at an early age, the value of hard work. As the second youngest of six children, she thrived on her parents’ farm five miles outside of Payette, Idaho. Being in charge of the family’s chickens was chief among her farm chores.

Her mother taught her how to sew, and her skills won her a blue ribbon at the state fair when she was in seventh grade, (around 1920). Unfortunately, the day of the fair, the tiny rural schoolhouse she attended burned down, but she resumed her lessons enthusiastically in the tent school that went up in its place.

Dorothea attended a small high school in Payette. She always was athletic, and she joined the women’s basketball team, where she earned one of the starring positions on the team as the game was played back then — that of the jumping center.

“I was a little taller than most,” she said, although she declined to reveal her height. Basketball practice meant she missed the bus. She often the five miles home, which kept her in top shape.

“I loved it,” she said.

Her parents made education a priority, so all of her siblings went to college — young women included. While several of her sisters went on to pursue degrees in education, Dorothea went to Oregon Agricultural College, now Oregon State University, in 1926.

She at first pursued a degree in languages, because she had enjoyed taking Spanish in high school. But she soon learned the only language class available was German, which only was being offered to men at the time. So she changed her major to vocational education.

After she graduated in 1931, she began working in the front office of one of her professors. Not too long afterward, Henry Rampton came to town. He was pursuing a graduate degree in crop science, and happened to attend an end-of-summer dance at the Memorial Union Ballroom. He spotted Dorothea, who was there with a male friend of hers, who happened to be his roommate.

After establishing that his roommate did not have designs on Dorothea, Henry began his courtship.

“I thought he was a nice guy,” Dorothea said of her husband-to-be. He was a handsome, dark-haired fellow. They were married Dec. 18, 1933, as soon as Henry was offered a job with the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

After a few moves around the Northwest, they finally returned to Corvallis, where their eldest child, Jean, was born in 1936. They stayed in Corvallis for the rest of their lives and moved from house to house as the family grew to include six children.

Although she did go back to work when her children went on missions (the family are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-Day Saints), for the most part, Dorothea spent her life raising and caring for her children.

“Her example of living close to the Lord and loving her family is so strengthening,” said daughter Jean Nelson.

Eventually, Dorothea and Henry moved in with Jean and her family. Henry died in 2004. Now blind, Dorothea has more trouble getting around these days, but she comes from a line of long-lived family members, and she’s still going strong.

She celebrated her birthday early on Saturday with family members, and today’s celebration will not be the last. All week, she will host a stream of friends and family who are coming to celebrate this milestone event.

Dorothea Rampton

What: Centenarian

Family: Husband, Henry (deceased), six children; numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren

Interests: Sewing, canning, cooking, spending time with family