Rolling back and forth in a wheelchair in her cozy room at the Good Samaritan Home in Waconia, Gertrude Miller twitches her shimmery-pink polished nails as she contemplates this year’s presidential election.
It may not be the utmost concern on most 101-year-olds minds, but the long-time Cologne resident was hoping this year was the year a woman – Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton - would be elected to the highest office in the land.
“I think she would have made a good president,” said Miller. “She tells the truth.”
But Miller’s hopes were dashed when Clinton failed to get enough votes to secure her party’s nomination. Now, she is set to vote for presumptive Republican nominee John McCain, but she holds out the hope that it won’t be long before a woman serves as president of the United States.
When Miller was born in Young America in 1906, only men had the right to vote. She was 14 years old before women had a chance to cast their own ballots in the 1920 general election. At the time, Miller was too young to throw her weight toward either Warren Harding or James Cox, but once she came of age, she embraced her right to vote and has enjoyed every opportunity to make her voice heard.
“She and dad would always go to the polls,” said daughter Arlene Roise. “Dad voted Democrat, she voted Republican.”
Miller brushes off the notion that their differing political views caused any friction in the marriage. “I just went my way and he went his,” she explained.
She can still remember most of the 18 presidents that have served in her lifetime – at least well enough to remember if she liked them or not.
Jimmy Carter ranks among her favorites. “I liked him,” she said. “I still like him.”
But Richard Nixon gets the strongest reaction. “No, no, no,” she says, shaking her head in disgust. “That was awful.”
Lyndon Johnson and Ronald Reagan both generate a wrinkled nose rating from Miller while Franklin D. Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy and Dwight Eisenhower get a thumbs-up.
She is less sure about the last three presidents, however.
“He got himself into the war and doesn’t know how to get out of it,” she said of the current president. “People don’t like him.”
Bill Clinton loses points for dishonesty and George H.W. Bush gets a shrug and an “all right” from Miller.
She can’t say for sure whether she’ll be around to cast a ballot in the next election (Miller turns 102 in November) but if she is, you can bet she’ll make a concerted effort to vote.
-Mollee Francisco, staff writer