Julia Welles was born in Wisconsin in 1916, but her family moved to Louisiana when she was just 4 months old. She studied education at Louisiana State University (LSU). She needed to work three jobs in order to fund her education. During her freshman year, she met her future husband, Murray Hawkins, at a church party.
After graduation, Julia taught four grades in a one-room school in Honduras. When she returned to the U.S., she and her fiancé had planned to be married, but Pearl Harbor intervened. He was working as a physicist at Pearl Harbor when the Japanese destroyed most of America’s fleet. He couldn’t return to Louisiana. As a result, their wedding was conducted by phone.
While her husband was deployed, Julia took a job teaching. Without a car, she traveled the seven miles each day by using a bicycle. Little did she know at the time how important that cycling experience would become.
Julia and her husband had four children and were married for 70 years. He was a Professor at LSU. Julia kept in shape throughout her life and competed in cycling events. She had to eventually give up cycling when there were no competitors left. Unwilling to give up her athletic interests, she started running at the age of 100. It didn’t take long for her to be competitive.
She set the 100-meter record in the 100-104 age group when she was 101. She also competed in the 50-meter race as well as shotput. She became known as the first athlete to compete in a 100-meter dash at her age. Her time was 2.95 seconds over one minute. Rather than being proud of her accomplishments, she was disappointed. She had hoped to complete the 100 meters in less than a minute. She wasn’t satisfied that the 1.02.95 time was less than her age of 105.
Julie died at age 108 after a short illness. What Julia’s life symbolizes is that hope is eternal. Age doesn’t impact hope. For Julia, her hope was physical. For others, it may be intellectual, religious, philanthropic, belonging, or any other way that keeps life meaningful after age has changed our life’s journey.
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“I just keep busy. I keep moving. I don’t do any exercise particularly. I used to, but then I don’t think I need to anymore.”-Julia Hawkins