Jean DeWolfe has been an ardent Penn State football fan for most of her long life, and on Tuesday she got a fitting surprise for her 104th birthday .
Eight Nittany Lion football players joined DeWolfe’s family and friends to celebrate her birthday at Centre Care, the nonprofit nursing facility in College Township.
“Thank you all so much. This is so special,” she said after the players joined in singing “Happy Birthday.”
Centre Care staff knew that DeWolfe — the eldest of the facility’s approximately 230 residents — loved Penn State football and reached out to the program to arrange the visit.
Johnny Dixon, Keaton Ellis, Tyler Elsdon, Kobe King, Tyrece Mills, JB Nelson, Zakee Wheatley and J’ven Williams spent time enjoying cake and talking with DeWolfe and her family.
They also brought gifts: flowers and a signed football.
“We’re just really appreciative of the folks at Penn State and the athletic program and the football team to take the time and come, not just for a photo opportunity but as you can see they’re engaging her and talking to her,” DeWolfe’s son Jim said. “It’s just wonderful.”
Jean DeWolfe, the third youngest of her family’s 11 children, was born in Tunkhannock at a time when Woodrow Wilson was president and women were a year away from gaining the right to vote. After graduating from high school, where she played basketball, in 1936 she worked as a telephone operator and then in a factory supporting the World War II effort.
She went on to work in the Wyoming County sheriff’s office and later became the county’s first domestic relations officer, Jim DeWolfe said. She and her husband married in 1947 and had four children.
Her Penn State football fandom arose with the advent of televised games. Jim DeWolfe estimates his mother has been a Nittany Lion fan for upwards of 70 years.
“To have someone support us for that long and to have a life that long is just incredible,” Wheatley said. “It’s something that I wanted to be a part of, just having a longtime supporter like that… still here celebrating life.”
Jim DeWolfe is a Penn State graduate who returned to make his home in the State College area in 1998. His stepsons Adam and Collin De Boef both played on the Penn State football team and his wife, Suzie, is a Penn State professor. In recent years they brought Jean from an assisted living facility in northeastern Pennsylvania to Centre Care so they could be closer to her.
“She’s getting the level of care that she needs here at Centre Care,” Jim DeWolfe said.
He appreciated the efforts of Centre Care staff to arrange the visit, which he said was special for his mother and the players.
“It is absolutely tremendous to have these guys here,” he said. “She was expecting maybe a few cards and maybe a few phone calls. But she’s been surprised by family that came in from out of town about four hours away. To have the team here and to have them not just for her but for them to see a person that’s really followed the game for awhile and connect with the community, I think is a testimony not just to what happens on the field but what happens off the field at Penn State.
Jean DeWolfe’s longtime love for Penn State is a shining example of the kind of support fans give the team, Wheatley said.
“It’s a blessing,” said Wheatley, adding that he believed more players would have attended if not for class schedules. “I’m grateful. It shows us we got the support. …That’s part of the reason I came here is the support and the love.”
