From growing up during World War II to leaving her hometown at 19 and losing her home in the Painted Cave Fire, Dorothy Iverson — more affectionately known as “Dottie” — said the key to living to age 100 is focusing only on happiness and positivity, a philosophy that has guided her life in many ways.

As a resident of Santa Barbara for 70 years, Iverson has been a part of numerous service clubs, raised three daughters and helped launch her husband’s dental practice. She said there’s no better place than Santa Barbara to raise a family.

Iverson said she has always liked staying busy, whether it was the ski club, ice dancing, camp counseling, bridge club, founding the friendship club, or the flower arranging club. It was her love of activities and social groups that led her to meeting her husband, Sterling.

The pair met during a ski club trip to Mount Waterman and were engaged three months later. He started dental school, and Iverson worked as a dental assistant until they had their first daughter, Lori, in 1953, just a few months after they moved to Santa Barbara.

While Iverson no longer worked as a dental assistant, she helped her husband’s practice in other ways. 

“I could go spend every day working with him and doing what I love doing or I can build up his practice, and the way I built up his practice was by joining clubs,” Iverson told Noozhawk. 

By being involved in so many clubs, she quickly got immersed in the community. When people she knew needed a dentist, they went to her husband. Her daughter Lori Plakos said she was networking before anyone knew the meaning of networking. 

Iverson was a founding member of Friendship Force Santa Barbara in 1995. Members of the club opened their homes to visitors from around the world and spent a week showing them around Santa Barbara.

“You get to know the people, how they live,” Iverson said. “It’s getting people to know people. It was wonderful.”

The club has been on a hiatus since the COVID-19 pandemic, but Iverson said she hopes to see it back up and running soon.

Iverson’s daughter Lisa Gorrell said she remembers her mom coming to camp with her and serving as a camp counselor, even after Gorrell and her sisters had aged out of the camp.

“She was kind of the grandma/mom to all these kids and would French-braid everyone’s hair,” Gorrell said.

In 1990, Iverson and her husband lost their home to the Painted Cave Fire. Iverson told Noozhawk that she remembers seeing neighbors’ lawns on fire as they evacuated and, according to a neighbor, their own home caught on fire mere minutes after they left. 

“Well, Dottie, looks like you’re gonna get that sliding glass door you always wanted in the dining room,” Iverson recalled her husband telling her once they left their neighborhood.

Instead of worrying about the things they lost, Iverson said she felt like a new bride getting a second chance to build their dream home and buy all new things. 

“We agreed on everything,” Iverson said. “This house is exactly the way I wanted it.”

Iverson was 19 when she and her family moved from Canton, Ohio, to Santa Monica. It was the middle of World War II, and Iverson said her family had to get coupons in order to buy gas to travel. 

Iverson got a job in an airplane factory as an expeditor the day after she arrived in California. She lived a block from Muscle Beach and rented rooms in a six-bedroom house with her family. 

She also remembered taking a bus from Santa Monica to Hollywood to celebrate the end of the war. 

“We were just walking up and down the street, hugging everybody and yelling,” Iverson said. “I didn’t go into any bars. I was too young, but they did have a nice dance floor in Hollywood.”

Iverson said she loved dancing when she was younger. In fact, she was excited to move to California from Ohio because it meant meeting more men with whom to dance. 

“I said to my girlfriends, when the music starts playing, wiggle a little bit and somebody will come up and ask you to dance,” Iverson said. “And it worked.”

Iverson told Noozhawk that she can’t pick a favorite year out of the past 100 years and that each year has been better than the last. She said she doesn’t know the secret to living 100; if she did, she would pass it on to her daughters, but she thinks having a happy life helps.

“You have a happy life by only seeing the happiness in it,” Iverson’s daughter Gorrell said. “She’s always very positive. The glass is always half full; she doesn’t let things bother her.”

Iverson said the best thing about being 100 is watching her daughters be happy and healthy.

“I’ve had a marvelous 100 years,” Iverson said. “If I die tomorrow, don’t cry; just think of all the fun I had.”

She said she does find herself missing ice skating and skiing, and she wants to find more ways for a 100-year-old woman to have fun. 

“Keep happy,” Iverson told Noozhawk as her only advice. “Keep happy and look on the bright side of life.”