Creve Coeur Woman Honored As Ageless and Remarkable

You've heard the phrase about age: "40 is the new 30."

That may be true, but Eleanor Gershien is doing plenty to show that society may also need to redefine what being 80 means.

Gershien is being honored as part of the 2011 Class of Ageless-Remarkable St. Louisans, named by St. Andrews Resources For Seniors, a local non-profit organization.

Growing older doesn’t have to be synonymous with slowing down,” said Mary Alice Ryan, President and CEO of the St. Andrew’s Resources for Seniors System in a statement. The traditional retirement years have provided an opportunity for Gershien and others being recognized "to continue to make amazing contributions on the job front and in their communities, and we applaud them for demonstrating how exciting and fulfilling life after age 75 can be,” Ryan said.

At age 75, Gershien, was the oldest graduate of Maryville University. That accomplishment was one of many in a life of obstacles and achievements. She shared her anecdotes with Creve Coeur Patch.

Youth movement

A metro St. Louis native, Gershien says her birth father was an alcoholic, and that her mother twice married and divorced him by the time Eleanor was eight years old.

She and her mother moved around as her mother looking for work in Illinois in the 1930s. It was a situation that screamed instability during the Depression years. Gershien said she stayed with her aunt and her aunt's abusive husband for a time, then went to boarding school. Her mother remarried, and there was still more relocation. All told she says she attended 13 schools before she graduated from high school.

A few months past her 17th birthday, Gershien found herself a freshman in college. She stayed for two years, before leaving to get married. It took another 58 years to complete the academic journey.

A lifetime of learning

Gershien waited decades to finish her college education. The years, however, were full of lessons in life.

As a young mother, she took up ballet with a group of 20-somethings. Later, in Omaha, she quickly learned how to be a bookkeeper. With three children, she dealt with her own divorce the only way she knew how: by working. She worked at McDonnell Douglass, and then part-time at a real estate company where. That part-time position convinced Gershien to earn her real estate license.

Gershien recalled that real estate offered some flexibility with her children. It also provided the opportunity to meet people and make friends. She estimates that in more than forty years in the industry, she's made thousands of sales and thousands of friends who started out as clients.

Along the way, Gershien said she survived cancer--twice.

Something missing

Even as she forged a career and raisher a family, Gershien recalls feeling inadaquate. Later, financially supported her ex-husband through early onset Alzheimer's--despite the fact she was left with nothing when they split. 

Five years ago the feeling that something was missing led her to Registrar's office at Maryville University.

Gershien told Creve Coeur Patch it unfolded a little like this:

Registrar official: "What do you want your degree in?" 

Gershien: "I don’t have the vaguest idea." 

Registrar official: "What was your degree going to be in?"

Gershien: "I was going to be a psychiatric social worker because my dad was a psychiatrist and we had a hospital, so I figured I’d work for him. But it’s a little late for that."  

Registrar official: "What do you like to do?

Gershien: "Work." Ultimately, she added she liked to paint. “It sounds like playtime,” she said, as she decided to pursue her fine arts degree.

Five semesters later, at age 75, Gershien shed her feelings of inadequacy as she graduated summa cum laude. Today, her Creve Coeur apartment is full of her artwork, everything from her Georgia O'Keefe and Thomas Kincaid periods to something she learned to do with Photoshop.

"I like it all," she said with a giggle.

Still going

Gershien is a St. Louis Senior Olympics champion in golf as well as the baseball and football toss. She still spends eight-hour days working in real estate for the Ladue office of Coldwell Banker.

She'll admit to being exhausted after the day is done but too wired to sleep at night. Business is up this year over last, she expects next year to be even better. and a conversation with her son last year shows she has no intention to stop.

"My son said 'Mom don’t you think its time you retired?' And I said I can’t. And he said, 'Why can’t you?' And I said they need me. He says, 'Who needs you?' I said, 'The people. I love people and I love houses."