Chippewa Falls (WQOW)- When she was born, Teddy Roosevelt was in the White House. She lived to see both World Wars and the Titanic sink. She was believed to be the oldest person in Chippewa County. And on Tuesday, at 107-years-old, she passed away.
"Nobody was going to tell grandma what to do," laughs granddaughter Heidi Ottevaere.
Before television, radio, crossword puzzles, and the Green Bay Packers, there was Catherine Bergeron.
"All of a sudden her teacher said come, run to the window, there's something going by. And she said we were all in awe. There goes this thing, which of course was the car, and she said it didn't have tires like today, it had like wooden tires," remembers Catherine's daughter, Carol Holtz.
Later on, it was her turn behind the wheel.
"She had a lead foot," cracks up Ottevaere. "Grandma was clocked at one point going 75 miles an hour up Highway 178 towards her house. My sister found the speeding ticket in the garbage because she wasn't going to tell anybody she got pulled over for speeding."
The Stanley native passed away Tuesday, surrounded by family and friends. And now, her daughter says the title of oldest living resident in Chippewa County will be bestowed on someone else.
"She was 104 and we had to go to the social security office to prove that she was alive," Holtz remembers. "So she said am I the oldest one in northern Wisconsin and he said no, I think there's a man that's older, he's 108. She said, well, is he alert? And oh no, no, the man said. And she said well I do all my own cooking and she said I read and she said I take care of my own business. I can do all that."
Catherine's obituary says she took great pride in canning her prized pickled beets and fruit preserves. A celebration of her life will be held at 12 p.m. on Saturday at Notre Dame Church in Chippewa Falls.
