Centenarian: Miriam Barinholtz

At Miriam Barinholtz’s sweet-16 birthday party, she met her husband. He was 17 at the time. Miriam attended Marshall High School in Chicago, and the two married five years later when Miriam turned 21.

That same year, Miriam joined the Navy. She and her husband relocated to Oklahoma, where she worked at the Naval Air Technical Training Center. Yet, Miriam never saw combat. Instead, she stayed on base, issuing passes to the sailors going off base. When the couple returned to Chicago, Miriam continued to work for the Navy, and her husband joined the Army.

Miriam and her husband had two sons, and the family grew with four grandsons. You may recognize two of her grandsons, Ike and Jonathan Barinholtz, who act on various television shows.

After her husband died when Miriam was 63, she says she never entertained the idea of getting remarried. “I did have two proposals of marriage, and I said no to both of them,” she says. “I’m not interested in marriage starting up again.”

Today, Miriam lives on her own in Skokie. Caregivers arrive at 8 a.m. to get her out of bed and return at 5:30 p.m. to put her to bed. She never expected to live this long, but considers herself blessed to have had the life she’s had. “My cup runneth over,” she says.

And she’s grateful. One of seven children, Miriam has only a sister and a brother who are stilll alive. She says her parents were good and kind, and she thinks taking on those values helped her reach 101—as well as having a strong community in her neighborhood and at her synagogue.

“I have neighbors that I consider my family,” she says. “My greatest success is being humble and kind.”

Top photo by Jim Vondruska

Originally published in the Summer/Fall 2025 print issue.