TORRINGTON – When Marcella Dittenber moved to Wyoming in 1954, it looked different. 

The timeless wide-open plains were still here, and you could see them a little better without so many buildings. The cars have definitely changed – unfortunately, she says. 

The biggest difference, though, is that “our churches were full in those days.”

Dittenber turned 100 years old on Nov. 13. She had a long career as a teacher, prospered as a musician and raised a family. But looking back and pondering how things have changed is the work of historians – Dittenber is still living in the moment.

“The change came slowly, so I’ve forgotten a lot of it,” she said. “I haven’t thought about it, it just came.” 

Dittenber was born on a farm near Lynch, Neb., in 1918. She came of age during the worst part of the Great Depression, and her family survived the Dust Bowl storms that ravaged the area. The storms and economy got bad enough that her father lost five farms during the depression.

“The dust storms were terrible,” she said. “My parents, if they were away in the car, they had to use lights because they couldn’t see out of the car.”

Dittenber said it was during those tough times she found her passion in the old country school house she attended with her siblings and the other children in the community. 

“Going to school, we had to walk about two and a half miles,” she said. “I had a favorite teacher. My teacher in the country school was a wonderful teacher. She was kind to the children. She was a good Christian person and a good leader. She thought of each one of us children so much. I saw her kindness and what she did. A lot of my training related to her.”

It was that teacher, Dittenber said, that helped her start playing music – which grew into a lifelong passion. To this day, Dittenber still plays piano and organ in church. She’s also skilled on the accordion and harmonica. 

“She brought an old pump organ to school, to our little old country school in eastern Nebraska,” she said. “She took lessons by mail and she gave me those lessons and that’s what I learned from.”

Dittenber began training to be a teacher while she was still in high school. There was a two-year training program students could take, which would help them earn a teaching license. Dittenber started her career with that certificate when she graduated in 1937, before attending Chadron State College, Eastern Wyoming College, the University of Wyoming and eventually graduation from college in Greeley, Colo., with a teaching degree. 

She married her husband, Herman, in 1943. Herman was a farmer, but eventually traded in his plow to work in iron mines. While he was doing that, Marcella prospered as a teacher and soon developed a reputation as one of the best elementary teachers around. The Dittenbers moved to Goshen County in 1957, and Marcella taught in Yoder, Veteran and in Fort Laramie before she retired from Lingle Elementary School in 1985. 

Dittenber took a cue from the teacher in her old country school and strived to give her students a fun, loving atmosphere to learn in. She would haul refrigerator boxes to her classroom and use them to make a village, complete with a functioning store to help students understand how to count money. Her classes would also bake a cake as a math lesson, then sell it to others teachers. 

“I wanted my own room so I knew what each child is doing in math and English and reading and writing and any other subjects,” she said. “Where they were poor in one subject, I could help them out in another.”

Sometime around her birthday, she got a letter from a former student she taught in Vacation Bible School sometime in the 1940s. That particular VBS hosted 43 students, and after all of that time, this particular student found it necessary to write Dittenber and thank her for being a good influence. She gets that a lot, she says, and it makes her feel good to know she had an impact – even if she needs a little help remembering all of the names. 

“I wanted fun in my room, so I was happy with the children. I have many things from the children. They’re all grown up now. They came up to me and talk to me and I say ‘who are you?’

In 100 years I am forgetting so much. I can’t keep it all straight.”

Having fun in the classroom – and enjoying her work – is one of Dittenber’s keys for a long, happy life. In addition, she advocates for a clean lifestyle and has never drank or smoked. Dittenber is also a long-time vegetarian, which she says is just “cleaner.”

“The secret is living a healthy life,” she said. “I never drink, I never smoked and clean living. I’m a vegetarian. It’s cleaner. You can get a vegetarian substitute for lots of it. It’s made from soy products and they are healthy.”

Most importantly, Dittenber said the key to happiness is to live a good Christian life. 

“Being a Christian is the most important,” she said. “Being kind to Children, loving to them and helping those out that
are weak.”