At age 105, Lowman will be ‘Queen for a Day’

Dorothy “Dot” Lowman said she doesn’t have any secrets for her long life, other than good genetics.

As her 105th birthday nears, though, she amazes observers by walking to the dining room at Homewood at Williamsport for three meals a day, reads the newspaper daily and looks forward to regular visits from her family.

She and her husband, Lester Lowman, moved to a cottage at Homewood in 1998. He died in 2002. Dot now lives in a Hilltop assisted living apartment.

Dorothy Buckingham was born on June 9, 1913. in Winfield in Carroll County, Md. Her parents already had four sons and were hoping for a girl.

Her father worked as a “huckster.” Dot said he went to market in Baltimore to sell produce from his farm.

Life changed for the family when their mother died in about 1921 during a flu epidemic. Dot was 8.

Dot and her two youngest brothers moved to Mount Airy, Md., where they were raised by their mother’s sister.

After graduating from high school and what is now Tow-son University, Dot began a 40-year teaching career, first in Winfield, then at Mount Airy Elementary. She was an elementary school teacher and taught primarily fourth and fifth grade.   

In 1941, Dot married Lester Lowman, whom she knew from growing up and attending church in a small town.

“I was quite old when I married,” Dot said.

They had one daughter, Mary Lou, who was born in 1948 and now lives in Bruceton Mills, W.Va. Dot has three granddaughters and one grandson, two great-granddaughters and one great-grandson, as well as two great-great-grandsons. She looks forward to their regular visits.

A Methodist her entire life, Dot joined Calvary United Methodist Church in Mount Airy, where she remains a member.  

“I guess I’m the oldest member,” Dot said.

She said there was always someone older than her at Hilltop, but she now has the distinction of being the oldest resident there, too.

Besides exercise classes Dot used to take at Homewood, she’s always loved reading. Her reading pile has some heavy subject matter, including Smithsonian and National Geographic magazines.

As a career woman, Dot didn’t have a lot of time for or interest in cooking. For her birthday, she is looking forward to the family’s traditional birthday cake with a homemade caramel icing, which her daughter bakes for her every year.

Dot said her sister-in-law heard the recipe on the Arthur Godfrey radio show and it’s been a family staple ever since.

To commemorate Dot’s milestone birthday, she will get to be “Queen for the Day” on June 7, said Michele Weaver, who is in charge of community recreation at Homewood.  

Dot will be driven around the Homewood campus on a jitney, a large golf cart that will be decorated for the occasion, so she can wave to everyone and they can give her well wishes two days prior to her birthday.