Leonora Kontrimienė, the oldest living person in Lithuania, is celebrating her 110th birthday today in the village of Beržėnai in Šiauliai County.
Leonora Kontrimienė was born on 7 February 1916. She was the fourth of seven children—two sisters and five brothers—and grew up in a small farming household in the village of Buožėnai, Telšiai District. Like most of the children in the family, Leonora completed only three grades of primary school; only the three youngest children went on to finish four. At the age of 13, she had to leave school and begin working for local farmers, herding cows.
At the age of 25, she married Dominykas Kontrimo, an older farmer from the same village of Buožėnai, who owned fifteen hectares of land. She and her husband raised livestock, keeping four cows and many sheep. After the Soviet government nationalized their property, the family—who were raising their daughter, Milda—was left with only one cow and fifty ares of land. They worked long hours on the collective farm, but the pay was minimal. As life in the countryside became increasingly difficult and it grew harder to support their daughter, Leonora took a job at the Mastis knitwear factory in Telšiai. She retired at the age of 55, although she wished to continue working, as her health was still good.
On 7 January 2024, following the passing of 109-year-old Juozas Mereckas, she became the oldest known living person in Lithuania.
LongeviQuest extends warm congratulations to Leonora Kontrimienė on her 110th birthday.
