Martha Frances Jennings, who will be 98 in less than a month, learned how to work at an early age and kept at it until she retired in 1970.

Each family member had specific chores to do, as well as helping tend a large garden. Her specific task as a child was to mow the lawn and collect the rent on the family’s 15 or so rental houses.

She remembers being 13 years old and riding her bicycle, her bank sack dangling from her arm, as she embarked on her collections.

One tenant questioned her authority to collect the money. She said she assured him if he gave her the money, she had a receipt in her bag signed by her mother that she would give him in return.

“We never had any trouble after that,” she said, chuckling.

She recalled three little rent houses in a row on Kankakee Street that rented for $10 to $12 a month.

“I never thought anything about riding my bike there — now I’d be afraid to drive there,” she said.

When she was 17, her father bought the family’s first car. Her parents never learned to drive. She got two driving lessons from the seller of the car and became the family chauffeur. No driving test was required at that time, she said.

She continued driving until June, when lymphadema in her arm made it too hard to drive.

“Her body’s slowing down, but her mind’s not — she’s sharp as a tack,” said her caregiver and friend, Peggy Moore. “She’s fun to be around.”

Father taught her value of money

Jennings parents not only taught her how to work to make life better, but she said during World War I “Daddy taught us the value of money.”