The Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services hosted the 48th Annual Governors Conference of Aging in Billings on Tuesday September 13. One event at the conference was a luncheon for Montana centenarians. According to the state census there are one hundred and seventy centenarians. DPHHS wasn’t able to locate all 170, but they were able to find and honor a lot of them.

"Our list is like 138 that we heard back from," Public Information Officer John Elbert said."That includes one individual that is 108, three that are 107, five that are 106 and down on so that kind of gives you a snapshot.”

Ebelt said that the centenarians had some interesting stories and words of advice to share with conference attendees.

"They talk about arriving in Montana on horse drawn carriage," Elbert said. "There’s one individual who arrived in Montana and didn’t have a home.They had property and until the house was built they had to pitch a tent. They have personal messages that are simple and resonate with people today. They have some good advice and some good nuggets of information."

According to the DPHHS Montana has one of the fastest growing populations of residents over the age of sixty-five and will continue to see that trend rise for the next sixteen years.

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