Centenarian’s recipe for a happy life: Travel, read, eat

TAOS, N.M.

Navajo Times | Cindy Yurth
Lillian Lincheze Luján smiles as she gets a hug at her 100th birthday party Saturday.

How do you summarize a century of life? Here’s how Lillian Lincheze Luján did it at her 100th birthday party Saturday: “I traveled. I read. I ate. It’s been a wonderful life.”

That, of course, is leaving a whole lot of stuff out. Fortunately her family was there to fill in the gaps. The Armistice had just been signed and the country was celebrating the end of what it thought was “The War to end all Wars” when a baby girl was born at Big White Mesa in Western Agency to Charles Young and his wife.

For Young, who would later become a prominent community leader and Council delegate, she was the first daughter of many children he would have with several different women.

For Lillian’s mother, a member of the Hatathlie family who unfortunately is only remembered as “Charlie Young’s Wife,” the baby would be her last. It was a difficult birth, and shortly after mother and daughter were brought to her family in Coal Mine Canyon, Charlie Young’s Wife passed away.


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About The Author

Cindy Yurth

Cindy Yurth was the Tséyi' Bureau reporter, covering the Central Agency of the Navajo Nation, until her retirement on May 31, 2021. Her other beats included agriculture and Arizona state politics. She holds a bachelor’s degree in technical journalism from Colorado State University with a cognate in geology. She has been in the news business since 1980 and with the Navajo Times since 2005, and is the author of “Exploring the Navajo Nation Chapter by Chapter.”

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