Centenarian expects bright future
by Andrea Sutherland

Dolores Plested

Delores Plested ('31) almost didn't get to vote this November. "I was supposed to vote absentee," Plested said. "My ballot never came. I called, and they told me they'd send me another ballot. But it never came either. I had to have some friends come and pick me up to take me to the voting place."

When President-elect Barack Obama is sworn in on Jan. 20, Plested, 100, will have been alive for 19 presidencies. "I'm so excited that Obama won," Plested said. "I think this is the first time there's been any hope for young people."

Plested said she couldn't wait to enter this world. The night her mother went into labor, her father barely had time to phone the doctor. When the doctor arrived in his horse-drawn buggy, Plested was already squirming in her father's arms.

One hundred years have passed since that July evening in Trinidad, Colo., and the story of Plested's birth rests safely within the pages of her memoirs, "Some Reminiscences Along the Way." The unpublished manuscript sits atop Plested's bookshelf in her historic downtown Denver home where she still lives.

Over the last century, Plested has lived through two world wars, the Great Depression, the bombing of Hiroshima, Pearl Harbor and 9/11. She witnessed the invention of the automobile, talkies, television and the personal computer, not to mention Velcro, the zipper, bubble gum and the ballpoint pen.

In her memoir, Plested writes about witnessing the Hindenburg flying over New York, hours before its fiery destruction. She wrote, "In breath-taking awe, we watched it approaching, nearly passing overhead, slowly, silently, majestically. … That evening just as we were finishing dinner (we heard) the shocking, tragic news of the flaming destruction of the beautiful ship."

Plested graduated with a degree in journalism. After working at the local Trinidad newspaper, she said she moved to New York with her younger sister and took a job freelancing for The New York Times.

"I wrote (under the name) Betty Clarke," Plested said. "I was paid $25 for (each) article."

Plested left the Times at the start of World War II, moving back to Colorado and eventually taking a job at Women's Wear Daily. For 25 years, Plested worked as the Denver bureau chief. She covered the visits of such celebrities as President Dwight D. Eisenhower and Jackie Kennedy. "It was (Kennedy's) first vacation after her husband was shot," Plested said. "(His death) was just tragic."

After retiring from Women's Wear Daily, Plested devoted much of her time to writing books, including the story of her father's mine, "Life and Death of a Coal Mine," published in 1987, just before her 80th birthday.

When asked what advice she could provide young journalists, Plested said, "Just follow your heart. When you write, you've got to write from your heart."

Although long retired from journalism, Plested continues to stay active. Today, she said she divides her time between meetings with the Denver Women's Press Club, of which she has been a member since 1945, and staying up to date with current events, including CU sports.

"Tell me," said the smiling Plested, who graduated a few years before future Supreme Court Justice Byron "Whizzer" White starred on the gridiron for the Buffaloes, "what is the matter with the CU football team?"