In Annie Lippe's 103 years, she witnessed the greatest changes ever known in human history in such a short time, from the first automobiles and airplanes to watching the moon landing on television. Life on the farm was a daily struggle, trying to survive and feed eleven children by raising cotton on rented farms in Texas in the early 1900s. Annie and her husband, Fritz, grew almost everything they ate-vegetables from the garden; hogs for meat, lard, and soap; and chickens for meat and eggs. Money from the sale of the annual cotton crop was used to buy coffee, sugar, and farm tools and other necessary items. Even though the future must have seemed very bleak at times, Annie's faith in God, stemming from her German Lutheran roots, always sustained her.
