Chatsworth Woman Marks 103rd Birthday

If you wanted to get Beatrice Rosenblum a “Year You Were Born” birthday card, you probably couldn’t find one.  

It was the year that the Chicago Cubs won their only World Series, the Grand Canyon became a National Monument, and the first Roosevelt was in the White House. That year was 1908.

On Sept. 9, Beatrice walked energetically into her 103rd birthday party at her Chatsworth assisted living residence, ready for a good time. “She’s walked everywhere, never learned to drive,” said her grandson Bruce Rosenblum, 56, of Calabasas. “Maybe that’s her secret to long life.”

Beatrice doesn’t really know why she’s been blessed with so many healthy years. “All I can offer is, no one else in my family got to do it,” she said. Among her parents and siblings, the oldest lived into their 80s. She is widowed and has also lost her only son, her daughter-in-law and a granddaughter. 

“My grandmother has an incredible ability to move on when she needs to,” said Bruce Rosenblum, who became Beatrice’s caregiver after both his parents died. She is close to her two grandchildren and four great-grandchildren, and also considers Bruce’s wife Jackie’s extended family her own.

“We all love her stories,” Jackie said, showing a scrapbook of pictures and history the family made for her 100th birthday.

Born at home in Brooklyn, NY, Beatrice was the eldest of four children. Her most exciting story that she never tires of telling happened when she was just 3 years old.

A woman abducted her while she was playing in her gated front yard. Upon discovering her missing, her mother frantically cried out and the local townsmen and city workers formed an emergency search party. “The men found me in the arms of a woman about to board a train. I remember being pulled away!” she recalled. The woman was arrested, confessing she kidnapped Beatrice because she wanted to have a child.

Beatrice also likes sharing how, at 20, having just completed secretarial school, she met Morris (Murray) Rosenblum. He was 21 and worked in the stock reporting department for the New York Telegram and Sun. “He lived on the same street as me and would eye me from the candy store,” she fondly recalls of the love of her life. “Coney Island was our first date.” They married within a year on Oct. 27, 1928, and set up their first and only Brooklyn apartment. “It was beautiful,” she said, adding that they always took pride in their appearance and their home.

On their first anniversary, the stock market collapsed. The Depression hit and the couple became a two-income family. Beatrice worked full time as a highly skilled legal secretary at the prestigious law firm of White and Case in New York City and weekends at Macy's. Their son, Stuart, was born in 1931.

The Depression forced a lifelong habit of saving, yet they never scrimped, allowing themselves the simple pleasures of a night out dancing or entertaining at home. At Thanksgiving, Beatrice would have the extended family over for her homemade dinners, pies and puddings, which she made despite her busy work schedule.

One of their few extravagances came in 1956 when Murray brought home a brand-new pink-and-white Plymouth two-door sedan, which he polished and waxed every week. “We would take it out for a Sunday drive around Manhattan or pick up Stuart and his family in New Jersey,” she recalled.

Bruce Rosenblum remembers the ride. “It was their pride and joy. When they sold it in 1969, it must have had only a few thousand miles on it.”   

Beatrice and Murray continued to visit Stuart and his family each summer when they moved to California in 1961. In 1970, the lifelong New Yorkers decided to relocate to Northridge and help Stuart run his Baskin Robbins ice cream store. Both Murray and Beatrice were active at the North Valley Jewish Community Center, where Murray became the president of the Seniors Club.  

When the 1994 Northridge earthquake hit, they were in their mid-80s. Neighbors helped them out from the rubble with a few clothes and their photo albums. Their apartment, located across Reseda Boulevard from the Northridge Meadows Apartments, where 16 tenants were killed, was condemned. They moved into an apartment just a few blocks away.  

In 1995, Murray died suddenly of heart failure at the age of 88. Beatrice moved in with Stuart, a widower, who later suffered a heart attack at age 66.

When his grandmother turned 96, Bruce encouraged her to move into assisted living. “We both liked Emeritus at Chatsworth, which was Summerville at the time, because it was a familiar neighborhood and near the where she had spent a lot of time. The staff has been wonderful to her.”

“She amazes us with her high level of energy and feisty personality,” said Brenda Hans, executive director of the assisted living facility, while Beatrice sang and swayed along with her great-granddaughter Gillian to some of her favorite tunes.  

Presenting Beatrice with certificates of recognition at her birthday celebration were Field Representative Christine Ward for state Assemblyman Cameron M. Smyth of District 38, Field Deputy Erik Richardson for Councilman Mitchell Englander of the District 12, and Chatsworth/Porter Ranch Chamber representative Dan Monteleone. 

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