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But even with that one broken string, Woerth has managed to do something few people do — celebrate her 100th birthday.
And what is the secret of such longevity?
"God's help and a lot of prayer," Woerth said. "I had good care, too."
She also still likes to eat apples, she said, citing the old adage, "An apple a day keeps the doctor away."
Born on June 26, 1909, in Bart Township, Woerth was the oldest of the four children of Harry C. and Minnie Hon Rice. She had a sister and two brothers.
Raised on a farm, Woerth recalled having to gather the eggs and milk the cows.
"The cows would kick, especially if they were full," she said.
She said she and her sister always had to wear dresses or skirts — no slacks, even while working on the farm.
"Daddy said, 'You're a girl. Get a dress on,' " Woerth said.
She never went swimming; instead she just waded with her clothes on. When she went ice skating, she said she wore slacks, but only under her skirt to keep her father happy.
Woerth also remembered her mother sending lunches with two older boys to the grade school she attended, Cedar Hill School.
In 1925, Woerth graduated in a class of 10 students from the former Bart Township High School, where everyone studied in one room, she said.
"We had just one teacher in high school, Mr. Troop," she said.
Woerth is the oldest surviving graduate of the school and still wears her class ring as well as a locket she got on Christmas as a child.
After graduation, she lived with an aunt while attending the former Harrisburg College for bookkeeping.
When she returned to Bart Township, she was employed by Walter Hassel Lumber Co. She later worked for Nickel Mines Post Office.
Woerth attended the same school as her future husband, George Kern Woerth Jr., but they were not in the same class and didn't date until after she graduated.
Their romance began over the cash register while she worked as a clerk at the nearby Nickel Mines Store and he was farming the Woerth farm with his brother, Clayton.
They married on Feb. 28, 1929, "after we got enough money and God was willing," she said.
The couple had two sons, Kern, deceased, and Curtis. They had six grandchildren, 12 great-grandchildren and seven great-great-grandchildren.
They lived on the 40-acre Woerth family farm on White Oak Road in Bart Township, which was celebrated as a century farm in 1995. The farm stayed in the family for eight more years before it was sold.
The Woerths grew wheat, corn, hay, tobacco and vegetables, as well as raising turkeys, chickens, cattle and dairy cows. The milk went to the Christiana Creamery.
Work as a farmer's wife took up much of her time, but she was involved in Middle Octorara Presbyterian Church, Bart Township Fire Company Ladies Auxiliary and the quilting group Green Tree Thimble Club. Woerth also helped to "keep after" the cemetery in which her grandfather, a Civil War veteran, was buried.
For her work with the ladies auxiliary, Woerth received the President's Award in 1998.
"I baked a lot of pies," she said.
And they always helped with Bart Township's fire company festivals.
One year she and her husband decided they would support Ephrata Fair, get something to eat there and buy a $1 raffle ticket. What she didn't count on was winning the raffle prize — a 1953 Chevy Bel Air.
Her husband taught her how to drive the car.
"I decided to learn out of curiosity," she said, but she only drove if her husband sent her to get something.
Woerth never has flown in an airplane.
"I decided I wanted to stay on the ground when the Wright brothers flew their airplane," she joked.
Her husband died in 1977. She stayed on the farm until moving to Country View Manor in Buck seven years ago.
"It's a nice place," she said.
E-mail: lvaningen@lnpnews.com
