Skip to My Lou, My Darling

from Her Voice Magazine - Summer 2024

by Brainerd Dispatch and Echo Journal

MY VOICE Here comes the sun...

BY SUE SMITH-GRIER

Lou Anderson will join the elite club of centenarians this November.

Instead of telling people she is 99 years young, she prefers to let them know she will be 100. And for most of those years, Lou has been dancing.

FROM GIRLHOOD ON

Lou’s mother passed away when she was a small girl. Her sister, Anna, raised her in Madison, South Dakota.

“She was a wonderful mother to me,” said Lou. Anna provided Lou with all she needed to have a happy childhood. Always active, Lou participated in sports in school. She and her brother were cheerleaders in high school and Anna was sure to be at all their games. Lou also started dancing.

“My best friend and I started dancing in high school and we went to all the dances.”

After graduation, Lou moved to St. Paul, Minnesota, to live first with her sister Gladys then with her best friend. During WW II Lou danced at the USO. Her older brother would pick her up and she would dance with the soldiers who were out on leave. Lou enjoyed dancing the Lindy Hop, Jitterbug, Charleston and other popular dances of the day. The Jitterbug and Lindy were her favorites. She enjoyed waltzing also.

“The waltz is hard on your legs,” Lou confided, “There’s a lot of going backwards and that’s hard. The polka is another good dance.”

Lou landed a job at a munitions factory and worked there through the war. “It was a good job. I worked in the office and was one of the last people to be terminated when the war was over. I was the one who did all the terminations and mine was the last.”

When Lou first met Gus Anderson, the man she was to marry, she had no idea that he would be her dance partner for 62 years.

“Gus loved to dance. We were married for 63 years. After Gus’ heart attack, we started going to Texas for the winters. Gus needed the warmer weather after his heart attack. We danced a lot when we were there.”

No matter where Lou was, she gravitated toward the nearest dance floor.

Keep On Dancing

Lou just loves dancing and there is little that can keep her off the dance floor.

“I know during Covid we were not able to go dancing. My legs got so weak and there is nothing better than dancing for strength. I don’t dance on the floor anymore, but I still dance by the table because my balance is not as good as it used to be.”

Lou lived by herself until August of 2023. She fell and broke her femur and needed to go to rehab and have physical therapy to help the healing process.

“There was no dancing that day!” she explained. As a result, she had to give up her home for good and give up her dancing for

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Lou Anderson exercises at the Hallett Center in Crosby. She’ll be 100 in November.

To help gain her strength back, Lou goes with Lynn and Dick to work out at the Hallett Community Center three days a week. And of course, she goes dancing whenever she can. She doesn’t drive any more. Friends pick her up for some of the dances, and she lives near the dance hall at the Legion in Deerwood, a handy jaunt for Dick or Lynn to take her there.

“There are lots of people in their upper 90s still dancing and they are doing well!” said Lou.

Health Benefits Of Dancing

Research revealed dancing is one of the few exercises that has a direct positive effect on the brain. Dancing has multiple benefits for brain health. Not only does it keep your body limber, it also improves cognition, helps individuals focus and delays dementia. As it is highly active, it also releases endorphins and all the feel good enzymes in the brain and thus reduces depression. This activity also reduces stress. It helps you break away from your usual way of thinking and it uses multiple layers of coordination which helps strengthen your ability to focus. There are other benefits to dancing, too.

One of the important benefits of dancing, especially for seniors, is that it widens your social circle which is important for health as you age.

Lou said, “You meet so many good friends. You go out on the floor and kick around. We have good bands that play for us and good music. I’m happy with everything I’ve got.”

Susan J. Smith-Grier, mother, grandmother, writer, storyteller, blogger, and Reading Corps tutor of early elementary kids, enjoys the changing seasons of Minnesota lake country. She lives for those moments when the possibilities light up the eyes of her awesome school kids and delights in the power of words and story.