Celebrating her 103rd birthday

On Jan. 12, Evelyn Walber celebrated her 103rd birthday at Harbor Campus in Port Washington with an aptly decorated cake. Walber is a Belgium-area native, born on Jan. 12, 1922, to Frank and Catherine Schmitz, one of 14 children. She attended grade school in Dacada, and during World War II worked in a factory in West Bend, supporting the war effort. She married Joe Walber on June 12, 1943, and the couple later bought a farm on Willow Valley Road outside of Belgium, where she lived until moving to Harbor Campus in 1999. Evelyn was a stay-at-home mother raising six children who worked the farm with her husband, who died on Nov. 18, 2001. Evelyn enjoys crocheting, doing puzzles, crafting, playing bingo and partaking in activities at Harbor Campus. In addition to her six children — one of whom lives in Alaska, one in Florida and the rest in Wisconsin — Evelyn has 16 grandchildren, 29 great-grandchildren and one great-great-grandchild with another  on the way. Many of her family members, including her only surviving brother Joe Schmitz and sister-in-law Monica Schmitz, attended the birthday celebration.           Photo by Sam Arendt