JEFFERSON TWP — Lucille “Lucy” Treccase easily learned to drive a two-door, two-seater open-air Ford roadster in 1923.

“I had to be 18,” Treccase said.

On Sunday, Treccase will be 110.

The Concordia resident remembers when Saxonburg Road was first paved with bricks and said, “We all went the day it opened.”

Her group visited a popular ice cream store in Saxonburg that afternoon. She borrowed her boyfriend's car to get there.

The former Lucille Kelly was born at home in Foxburg on Oct. 18, 1905, and moved to Franklin Street in Butler when she was very young.

She had an older brother, Richard; a younger brother, James; and a sister, Jane.

When she was little, she learned to say the alphabet backward, which she can still demonstrate. She knew so much in school, she skipped third grade and finished eighth grade at her Catholic school ahead of her peers.

In high school, her classes included shorthand, typing and bookkeeping, and she was in the first graduating class of the “new” Butler High School at 225 E. North St.

Barely 18, she went to work as a secretary at Standard Steel, which made parts for railroad cars. She said she was hired because she was the smartest in her class. It was a highlight of her life.

“I was proud of my job,” Treccase said. “Getting a job like that, I felt pretty good.”

Treccase worked eight-hour days at Standard Steel and the starting salary was OK with her.

“It was good whatever it was,” Treccase said. “We got raises every so many months.”

There was just one phone in the office and calls came directly to her. If the call was for her boss, she had to find him and bring him to her desk. To make copies of documents, she typed with carbon paper. It wasn't a problem that white correction fluid and tape was not available.

“I didn't make any errors,” she said.

Everything changed the night she met Lt. Col. Joseph P. Treccase.

“I met him at a party in Butler,” Treccase said.

He served in World War I, had finished college and was a doctor. They were married Oct. 15, 1928, when she was 23. That was the end of being a secretary.

“My husband said, 'No, you keep house.' He needed me,” Treccase said.

They bought a new house on Mount Royal Boulevard in Glenshaw before Dr. Treccase left for World War II. He served stateside, and when he came back after the war, he was busy with his practice in Butler. He also was associated with the Veterans Affairs. She didn't see much of him.

Early in their marriage — likely during Prohibition — Treccase and her husband took up brewing. She said all the grocery stores sold the ingredients, and five-gallon crocks for brewing were easy to buy.

“We had a lot of people stop by for a beer,” Treccase said. “Oh, it was good.

“Sunday was a big day at our house. You had these big quart bottles, none of these little ones,” Treccase said.

She didn't drink a lot but she said she cannot get along without beer.

“A glass will do me,” she said.

Her husband liked her cooking and he liked to entertain his friends. She was Irish but learned to make spaghetti from Italians.

“He was Italian,” she said. “He wanted his friends to know good spaghetti.”

When her husband died on Jan. 7, 1981, Treccase did not consider remarrying. She and her sister started traveling the United States.

“I don't sit and mope,” she said.

Treccase lived alone in her home until she was 93. When she had a stroke, she moved to assisted living in Saxonburg. Ten years later, she moved to Concordia for physical therapy after a fall. She's lived at Concordia for seven years.

Jaime White, personal care activities director at Concordia, said, “She seems to be very independent and self-sufficient.”

Treccase plays bingo, likes the “funny money auction,” completes a weekly word search perfectly and plays along for the monthly race of wooden horses across the dining room.

Treccase also is a very devoted radio listener. She keeps up with current events and tunes in talk shows.

“She's very congenial and easy to talk to. She gets along with everyone very well,” White said.

How has she lived so many years? Treccase said, “I have no idea.”

Treccase said her parents didn't live long and her brother James E. Kelly was 87 when he died in Butler.

However, her sister, Jane M. Vollbrecht of Oakmont, was 97 when she died in January.

Shirley Winkler of Saxonburg has known Treccase 17 years. Winkler hopes she can be like Treccase. “She's just a lovely person inside and out.”

“Her memory for 110 years old is just wonderful,” Winkler said.

“She's a strong person,” said Sherry Eismann of Butler. They met when the Eismann family participated in giving Christmas gifts to people in assisted living.

“I just took to her. She was very personable,” said Eismann.

Eismann received the famous spaghetti sauce recipe on one of her visits. She made it and served it with pork chops, as did Treccase. Eismann said, “It was delicious.”

Treccase always remembers Eismann's daughters and asks about them.

“She's a feisty person,” Eismann said. “Maybe that's part of her secret of long life. She just doesn't let anything get past her.”

Treccase said she would recommend living 110 years to others.

“If they're healthy, why not? Get all you can out of life,” Treccase said.