CLUTIER – Tama County has another centenarian among its ranks following the birthday of rural Clutier native Ollie Lillian (née Blaha) Kremenak on June 2.

Last Sunday afternoon, friends and family gathered in the Z.C.B.J. Hall in Clutier to celebrate Ollie, a sweet lady and former country school teacher whom her daughter Kathleen Brundage of Ely calls “a full blooded Czech.”

The hall’s tables were beautifully decorated for the party with pink satin runners, strings of twinkle lights, and milk glass vases brimming with pink and white peonies – many cut from Ollie’s own farm located roughly a mile and a half south of Clutier where she once planted huge gardens, growing everything from flowers to okra.

“She loved to garden,” one of Ollie’s adult grandchildren recalled. “I remember snapping a lot of beans.”

And although Ollie no longer lives on the farm nestled in the Bohemie Alps that she once shared with her late husband Edward Kremenak, she still visits at least once a week.

Following Edward’s passing in 2016 at the age of 103 — just a few months shy of what would have been the Kremenaks’ 73rd wedding anniversary — Ollie moved to Ely to live with Kathleen where she has been ever since. She remains an avid polka fan, Kathleen said, and enjoys watching the show “Mollie B Polka Party” on RFD-TV as often as she can.

When asked on Sunday afternoon about her unique name, Ollie said her mother – who lived to be almost 100 herself – had a female “relative of a relative” with the same name and “she just liked the name.”

As Ollie greeted visitors to her party in the hall where she was once a longtime volunteer along with her husband, Ollie’s granddaughters served cake from a corner set of tables – a raspberry cake decorated with pink and white icing to match the theme and a cake adorned with blue frosting because, as a sign stationed behind it proclaimed, “All this pink and her favorite color is blue!!”

Happy birthday, Ollie! Here’s to many more! Na zdraví!