Opal Lynch turns 105

Photo by Kathy Browning Opal Lynch (front right) celebrated her 105th birthday with family and friends at Paonia Care and Rehabilitation Center on Sunday, Jan. 5. She was born on Jan. 3, 1908.Opal Lynch, who had a 40-year career in education, reached another milestone on Jan. 3. It was her 105th birthday.

Lynch was born in 1908 in Clear Fork. Her parents were Carrie and Luther Collins.

Lynch was five when she started attending the school in Clear Fork. She attended high school in Crawford for three years and graduated from Gunnison High School in 1925.

She attended Western State College and then taught at Onion Valley, which is near Maher.

Lynch taught two years in DeBeque and then in New Castle and Uravan before returning to teach in Clear Fork for eight more years. She taught in Crawford from 1951 to 1969. She finished her teaching career in Cedaredge in 1971.

Lynch has outlived her immediate family although she has a number of nieces and nephews. Her sister Lilly died of diphtheria at eight. Sister Claudine died in 1959. Her brother John and sister Beth both died in 1995. Lynch's father died in 1964. Her mother died in 1976, just before her 98th birthday.

Lynch was married three times, first to Herbert Slay in 1929. He died of heart failure in 1937. Her second husband, Robert Seehorn, passed away in 1957. She married John Lynch in 1964. He passed away in 1971.

Lynch always kept active with community service by being a member of United Methodist Women in Crawford, National Retired Teachers and Delta County Retired Employees Association.

Lynch became a resident at Paonia Care when she was 100 years old.

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