Updated May 31, 2026 to add a photo from the birthday celebation.
Whenever Lenore Berkman is asked about the secret to her longevity, her answer is simple: “I take it one day at a time.”
And for the record, as of today, May 30, 2026, that’s 36,500 days (and counting)—or 100 years.
“I have no secret formula, other than that—except to have a positive attitude,” said the Centenarian, who sat down with the Village Green this week.
And that attitude has not gone unnoticed.
“She has the most unfailingly positive mental attitude of anyone I know,” said Lenore’s daughter, Laurie Berkman of Maplewood.
That sentiment is echoed by her friends and others—and the consensus among those who know her, and even those who’ve just met her, is the same: “She’s amazing.”
Lenore Berkman turns 100 years on May 30, 2026. (Photo by Laura Griffin)
At 100, Lenore still walks at least 30 minutes a day, stays up on current events with the discussion club at the Village Apartments, still takes the stairs to her 3rd floor apartment, is an active member of the South Orange Public Library’s book club and her apartment building’s knitting and crocheting club, and she still volunteers with the Friends of the Library.
“She’s the definition of a super ager,” said Kristen Cook Tyler, the director of Two Towns for All Ages. “She just gave up driving this year.”
South Orange Public Library librarian Nancy Chiller Janow has known Lenore since the day she moved to South Orange 13 years ago and walked across the street to the Library. Lenore, who has always loved to read, remains a member of the Library’s book club and still volunteers with the Friends of the Library.
“She is so active, so confident, and it’s always a great conversation with her, discussing the books,” Janow said.
Lenore Berkman looking over a New York Times book of 100 years of front page news that her book club gave her when they celebrated her birthday. (Photo by Laura Griffin)
As a volunteer with Friends of the Library, Lenore worked every fundraising book sale and continues to work the Friends’ jewelry sale, said Tonia Moore, president Friends of the Library.
“She’s been a hardworking, dedicated member of Friends of the Library for 13 years and a dear friend,” said Moore. “She has given so much to so many people–and to the library.”
Lenore has also kept traveling, having visited more than a dozen countries, and has made yearly trips, even as recently as last year, to California to visit her son, Mark and daughter-in-law Jackie, and her grandchildren and great grandchildren.
100-year-old Lenore Berkman with her 100-day-old great-granddaughter. (Photo by Lenore’s son-in-law David Trager)
Her family is among the many who are inspired by Lenore.
“For a lot of women in my position, helping our elderly moms, the mother-daughter, daughter-mother dynamic gets blurred. It happens from time to time where you reverse roles for a little bit,” said Laurie, who is 66. “What a blessing it is to still have my mother this late in my life. Sometimes she’s my mother, sometimes my daughter, sometimes she’s my sister, and always she’s my closest friend. That has been true for my whole life.”
Through the years
In Lenore’s 10 decades, she has lived through the Great Depression, World War II, the tumultuous 1960s, the Vietnam War, the Cold War, man’s walk on the moon and expanded space travel, and the dawn of television, computers and the internet, among other things.
When Lenore was young, phones were on a stick or the wall and calls were made with the help of an operator. Now, Lenore texts and makes calls with a phone that fits in a pocket.
When she was a child, she rode in the “rumble seat” seat of her family’s car—a rear-facing seat that folded into the trunk.
“Often on Sundays, we would take a ride in the car to the airport and watch the planes—and they were biplanes back then—take off and land, ” she said.
Of all the eras she’s lived through, she said, World War II—a time when she worked as a nurse in the Cadet Nursing Corps—made the biggest impression.
“World War II was probably one of the most defining periods of my life,” she said. “It was really an unbelievable time. Probably one of the best times in this country, even though we were at war and were worried about all of our young men and women who went off to this war. But those of us who were still in the States, everybody was working hard in whatever capacity they could to get this war over with. With everyone pulling together and doing the best they could.”
Lenore was born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio, graduated high school in 1944, married Owen Berkman in 1949 and they were happily married for nearly 51 years when he died in 2000. Lenore retired 30 years ago (at age 70) from a career as an OB/GYN community health nurse. She is the mother of three, grandmother of four and also has three great grandchildren.
Like everyone who lives to an old age, Lenore has experienced a lot of loss and grief: Her grandparents, her parents, her husband, some friends, and her middle son, Robert, who died at 68, just three years ago.
“That was the worst day of my life,” she said. “Losing a child is a crushing blow. There is nothing like it. We all lose our grandparents—if we’re lucky enough to have grandparents—and we lose our parents, and those are all very sad, but accepted in the scheme of things. But to lose a child is to be just devastated.”
Despite that devasting pain, Laurie said, Lenore continues to follow her own advice, taking each day as it comes and staying positive.
“Her prevailing attitude is, ‘Weren’t we fortunate to have Bob with us for 68 years?’” Laurie said.
Even a proclamation issued by South Orange Mayor Sheena Collum on behalf of the Village Council, applauds Lenore’s “positive mental attitude” and “taking one day at a time.”
Beyond that, it states, Lenore is “admired for her kindness, compassion, resilience, positive spirit and willingness to always offer encouragement, wisdom and friendship to those around her.”
Lenore (center, in pink) with South Orange Mayor Sheena Collum, holding the proclamation honoring Lenore’s 100 years, along with some of the friends and family who attended the celebration. (Photo by Laura Griffin)
