Busy, busy, busy: Pomeroy woman turns 100

In 1990, after her neighbors had passed away and left two children without a guardian, Louise Munday stepped in without hesitancy and became a parent to them.

This is the kind of person Munday is.

Munday, born March 14, 1923, to parents Albert and Gertrude Purcell Schuelke in Garfield County, will be celebrating her 100th birthday this Saturday from 1-4 p.m.

“Everybody is invited and there will be lots of food,” said Munday, who will be having her birthday celebration at the Catholic school in Pomeroy.

Munday grew up in Pomeroy alongside her late brother, who died in World War II, and she attended Pataha and Pomeroy grade schools. She graduated in 1941 from Pomeroy High School.

In 1946, she graduated from the Sacred Heart School of Nursing in Spokane.

“My grandmother was a midwife and had these babies birthed in her home,” Munday said. “I feel like my grandmother influenced me.”

After graduating, Munday was a nurse for 10 years at St. Ignatius Hospital in Colfax, where she met her husband, Howard Munday — a patient at the hospital at the time.

They wed not too long after on Nov. 8, 1947, in Pomeroy.

“We moved back to Pomeroy in 1956, and I was a nurse for more than 30 years in the physician's office of Richard Weiland,” Munday said.

She retired in 1989, a year after her husband passed.

Just a year after, tragedy struck her neighbors in Pomeroy when both parents of that home died, leaving two children without a guardian. She decided that she needed to adopt Judy Ann and Garth Bull Jr. and Munday moved into their home to care for them.

Garth died in 2006, and Judy Ann followered in 2011.

Although she lives in a nursing home now, Munday says she likes to socialize and believes that could be the reason she has lived so long.

“I like to play pinochle, play bingo in the mornings and I go to church,” Munday said. “I’m busy, busy, busy.”

She also said she likes to get her hair and nails done, adding that she currently has glittery gold nails.

Munday has been active at the Pomeroy Senior Center, is an active volunteer in many community projects, and she once was named Washington State Volunteer of the Year.

"I’ve truly had a wonderful life,” said Munday, smiling. “It’s been a wonderful world.”

Carrillo-Casas can be contacted at mcarrillo@dnews.com