Sidney Resident Reaches 107 Years Young

The year was 1911. Transportation was a mixture of horses, buggies and stage coaches and the occasional car. The Civil War and Indian conflicts were recent memory.

It was also the year the Johnson family added one more to the family role and the population of Cheyenne County.

Ada Johnson recently celebrated her 107th birthday. It started with a round of "Happy Birthday" sung to her as a wake-up call. She had visits from family and friends and several arrangements of flower to recognize her long life and more are due in the next few days.

"He bought his first car the day I was born," she said of her father.

She has been a resident of Cheyenne County and specifically the Sidney area all of her life. She said she was born about 20 miles west of Sidney.

"My father was a farmer, rancher," she said. "I grew up on the back of a horse."

She grew up with three older sisters.

"We were very close," she said.

She grew up with she and her sisters playing school before she was old enough to attend public school. Playing school and learning lessons helped propel her into the public school.

She is especially blessed for living 107 years after being sick when she was young.

"I had polio when I was one and a half years old," she said.

She said her sister would carry her when she was young.

"She had this song she sang so I wouldn't cry," she said.

Her mother was born in Denmark and her father was born in Illinois. They moved to Nebraska from Illinois when her grandpa heard about a Danish facility near Potter.

Her father was elected county treasurer and then county sheriff. He is memorialized at the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial in Washington, D.C. He was killed in the line of duty as Cheyenne County Sheriff nearly 88 years ago.

They moved to Sidney when she was in seventh grade so she and her sisters could attend high school.

She and her husband Ward were married for 41 years.

Prior to their marriage, she taught school for about two years. When her husband became disabled, she returned to work, working at Sidney Flooring.

"I worked there 20 years," she said.

Staff at Sidney Extended Care describe her as a "real sweet lady." She is also known as very private and independent.

She says the key to a long life is good parents, a good doctor and working hard.