Meet S.D.’s oldest resident: Witty 107-year-old with proud Norwegian roots

Pigeon605 Staff

July 20, 2022

By Makenzie Huber, for Pigeon605

Being the oldest-living South Dakotan isn’t very special for Hazel Ness. For her, it’s just another day.

“That would be me. I’m getting pretty old,” she joked.

The 107-year-old Clark resident is the 2022 South Dakota Centenarian of the Year, according to the South Dakota Health Care Association’s Century Club.

Ness, who lives at Roetell Senior Housing, is a first-generation American, born May 17, 1915, to Norwegian immigrants Andrew and Marie Christopherson outside of Naples, near Watertown.

She takes great pride in her Norwegian heritage, her granddaughters Mara Hillard and Leslie Duffield said — whether it was being born on Norwegian Constitution Day, speaking Norwegian to anyone who can keep up, vacationing to Norway twice or tossing lefse, which she can do better than her granddaughters, they say. She recently helped serve oyster stew to residents at Roetell as well.

Being surrounded by several other Norwegian families as a child and adult near Clark, she felt just about as Norwegian as she was South Dakotan. In fact, Norwegian was her first language.

Hazel was one of seven children, who all grew up working on the family farm.

She was in her teens at the start of the Great Depression, and she married her husband, Clarence Ness, in 1934. The couple farmed through the Dust Bowl in Foxton and Merton townships until 1956, when they moved to Clark with their two children, Clayton and Dianne.

“She talked about the dust coming in under the windowsill during the Dust Bowl and how she had to turn over dishes on the table because the dust would come in and cover everything,” Duffield said. “She put rags along the windowsills to try and keep the dust out, and she couldn’t see from the house to the barn as the dust was flying.”

Ness also lived through two world wars, the Spanish flu and more. Through it all, she has shown strength and determination, and has never lost her quick wit, her family agreed.

Hazel Ness and her daughter, Dianne

“She had caustic wit sometimes,” Clayton Ness said, adding that it was sarcastic, though never mean-spirited. “She had a sharp Norwegian tongue, and it would surprise some people.”

Ness worked as a custodian at the St. Paul Lutheran Church in Clark, for a few restaurants and sold tickets at a local dance hall. Her husband worked as the bouncer at the dance hall, and Ness liked to say that she let people in and he kicked them out. She was also a member of the Sons of Norway and Extension Homemakers.

Ness rarely spent time lounging around, seizing any chance to get work done instead, Duffield recalled. The grandkids would visit Clark every summer, and both Duffield and Hillard learned how she “epitomized that South Dakota lifestyle.”

“I feel like I’ve had such an amazing, strong woman in my life for so long,” Duffield said. “Growing up, she ruled the roost at home. She’s a good strong woman to have as a role model.”

While Ness told Duffield a few years ago that the secret to her longevity is that she was “never babied” growing up, she told Pigeon605 the secret is to “take it easy.”

“Take each day as it comes,” Ness said. “Don’t get too excited or let things upset you.”

Ness is a grandmother of six and great-grandmother to six more. She was a “smart and savvy” card player and enjoyed quilting, making handmade quilts for all her grandchildren.

Hazel Ness and her son, Clayton

“She was a rock. An absolute rock,” Clayton Ness added. “It was great to have her as a mom growing up, and I wouldn’t have traded her for anyone.”

The Century Club was created by the South Dakota Health Care Association to recognize South Dakotans age 100 or older, both for their longevity and their contributions to the state. More than 1,300 South Dakotans have been inducted into the Century Club since its founding in 1997.

“Make sure that you’re listening to these older people,” Hillard said. “Every one of them has amazing stories, and she has seen a lot.”

The Century Club is, as its name states, a club. Therefore, there may be older people in the state who have not yet been inducted by a family member or loved one into the Century Club.

The Century Club is open to any resident of South Dakota upon the celebration of his or her 100th birthday. There are no dues, and each inductee receives a specially designed certificate and membership card.

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