[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 88 (Friday, May 23, 2025)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E478]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]





            CELEBRATING THE 100TH BIRTHDAY OF MS. ELSA LEWIS

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. KAT CAMMACK

                               of florida

                    in the house of representatives

                          Friday, May 23, 2025

  Mrs. CAMMACK. Mr. Speaker, on behalf of Florida's Third Congressional 
District, we wish Ms. Elsa Lewis a very happy 100th birthday.
  Elizabeth Marie Kretzschmar better known as ``Elsa,'' is the youngest 
of three children born to German immigrant, Fritz Kretzschmar and 
Austrian immigrant, Josie Wittescheck Kretzschmar on June 6, 1925 in 
San Gabriel, California.
  During World War II, she met and married a Navy sailor by the name of 
Wesley Inman Lewis and moved to Gainesville, Florida while he attended 
the University of Florida. Upon graduation, they moved to Thomasville, 
GA and resided on Miilpond Plantation where Inman was the forestry 
supervisor for the many acres of the plantation. During their residency 
in Thomasville, Elsa was a homemaker and gave birth to three children, 
a girl and two boys. In the 1960s the family moved back to Inman's 
hometown, Alachua, Florida, to open a fertilizer plant and farm one of 
the largest tobacco farms in the area. Elsa had been a bookkeeper 
before her children arrived and became the bookkeeper for the 
fertilizer plant they owned and operated in Alachua.
  She has spent her remaining years here in Alachua after retiring from 
bookkeeping when the fertilizer plant was sold. All three of her 
children and their families live close by as well as seven 
grandchildren and great grandchildren. She is fondly known to her great 
grandchildren and great, great grandchildren as ``GiGi.''
  Even though she is approaching 100 years loved, she is still 
dependent and lives on her own with children and grandchildren keeping 
her busy.
  Congratulations to Ms. Elsa on 100 amazing years.

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