‘Just keep going and going until you can’t go anymore.’ Woman who worked to 101 dies at 103
Yes, that really was the clickety-clack of a typewriter at her son’s law firm. Up until two years ago, that’s how Claire Howard got her work done.
And she did a lot of work as the office bookkeeper.
She was so attached to that typewriter that she wasn’t happy when the office had to buy her a new one. That’s because no one could find a ribbon replacement for the one she used.
Howard loved her job so much that she went back to the working world even after she first retired at 65. She worked three decades more, until she was 101.
Last month, Howard died at 103.
For her 100th birthday, she celebrated with 100 of her friends and family members and then went straight back to work the next day.
“She was a positive force all the time,” said her daughter-in-law Elsie Howard. “She did her work happily.”
Howard died June 21 in a Deerfield Beach assisted living facility.
When she was 100, she was asked if there was a secret to her long life.
“Just don’t stop,” she said. “Get up in the morning, brush your teeth, comb your hair, put a little lipstick on, and get out of the house. Just keep moving. Just keep going and going and going until you can’t go anymore.”
Every day until she was 94 — after that she had a driver — she headed to the law firm in Miami Beach from her Sunny Isles Beach condo.
Howard, who was born to Isador and Esther Levy in New York in 1918, married Sidney Howard in 1940. After living in Tampa and briefly in Daytona Beach, the Howards settled in Miami Beach in 1967.
After several bookkeeping jobs, Claire Howard retired at 65.
Elsie Howard said her mother-in-law quickly got bored of not working. So Elsie’s late husband, Gene Howard, hired her to do the bookkeeping for his law practice.
With her signature “This is Claire” greeting when picking up a ringing phone, Claire Howard became an office staple for over 30 years. Elsie Howard said Claire closely monitored several bank accounts, typed out checks on her trusty typewriter and memorized every client’s name.
“She meticulously balanced every checkbook,” her daughter-in-law said. “She knew everything — sometimes even more than we wanted her to know.”
Elsie Howard says she remembers when Claire’s typewriter ribbon wore out and she couldn’t get a replacement.
“I had to get her a new typewriter and she was so unhappy about it,” she said.
Claire Howard lived by herself in her Sunny Isles apartment until recently.
“Even in retirement, her memory was sharp as a tack,” said granddaughter Heidi Tandy. “She told us stories of Brooklyn in the 1920s, of being flown in a biplane off of Coney Island — and of working as a bookkeeper in Manhattan in the 1930s, in South Florida through the middle of the 20th century, and of being told to retire at 65. Why retire when you enjoy what you do, and when you can spend part of every day with your son and granddaughters?”
Aside from working, Claire Howard loved to eat, especially spicy Chinese food. Her top choice: wonton soup with hot mustard. Her favorite restaurant: Mo’s deli in Aventura.
In addition to her daughter-in-law Elsie Howard and granddaughter Heidi Howard Tandy, Claire Howard is survived by her daughters Roberta Howard Goldstein and Patti Howard Freistat, her grandchildren Kyle Freistat, Nicole Trauth, Michelle Ryan and Mark Goldstein, her great-grandchildren Harrison, Jon and Catie Tandy, Sydney and Murray Brown V, Meredith Ryan Scholes and Matthew Ryan, and Dylan, Lily and Jack Trauth.
Instead of flowers, the family asks that donations in Claire Howard’s memory be made to the University of Miami Sylvester Cancer Center or Trustbridge Hospice Foundation.
The family also encourages everyone to eat a hot dog with spicy mustard — one of her favorite foods — in Claire Howard’s memory.
This story was originally published July 22, 2021 at 4:57 PM.
