Lawrence Arnhold knows keys to longevity as he celebrates 101 years



By JUDY SHERARD

jsherard@dailynews.net

Lately, a lot of people have been asking Lawrence Arnhold the secret to longevity.

It's not surprising since Arnhold turned 101 on Sept. 7.

"I tell everybody I've never touched a cigarette," he said. "I've never touched a glass of whiskey."

He and his wife, Martin,a lived a healthy life, and he was athletic, he said.

In fact, Arnhold was a professional boxer when the couple married, but he gave up boxing when he was approximately 30.

Being a boxer meant traveling from town to town to fight. Martina gave him a choice of being a boxer or staying home with her.

"I said, 'Sweetheart, I'm going to live with you,' " Arnhold said.

The couple met when they were children. He grew up in Hays, and she was from Catherine, so he drove a Model T Ford to court her.

Martina died in 2001, when she was 88. She had worked at Fort Hays State University for a number of years, he said.

"I miss her very much," Arnhold said. "She was just beautiful."

He hasn't remarried because it wouldn't be fair to put someone else between him and someone he's loved for so long, he said.

The couple lived on a farm and had four children, Allen, Valda, Rose and Helen.

Arnhold's military service was a little different than most.

"The Army drafted me to produce milk for the Walker Air Base," he said.

He continued to farm after the war and was in the dairy business for 35 years, selling his milk to L-K Dairy, he said.

The family also raised horses, chickens, cows, guineas, turkeys, ducks, any kind of little animal there was, along with pigs -- and even a goat, he said.

"Everything we did, like milk those cows, feed chickens, everything we did, we did together, me and my wife," Arnhold said.

His son Allen agreed.

"They were always together," he said.

"Then when my wife died, things got rusty," Arnhold said. "I had a beautiful life. I had a beautiful home."