Helen Mattson marks living more than a century. Submitted photo
She was born on Dec. 4, 1919, in Anoka, Minn. She had a hole in her neck when she was 9 months old. The doctor said there was nothing they could do, but Helenâs brother, Grant, found a college student who knew something about radiation and they were able to close the wound. You can still see the wound on her neck.
Helen attended Tuttle Elementary School. She attended Marshall High School in Minneapolis. She would wear high heels to school as a teenager.
When she graduated high school, Helen clerked at a Hoves grocery store in Minneapolis.