Mae West: 1893

MAE WEST, born in August 1893 in Brooklyn, New York, lived to be 87 years old.
• • Also born in 1893, a woman in Muncie, Indiana is celebrating her birthday this month. Bertha Fry, reportedly the eighth-oldest living person in the world, is 113 years old. Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels paid her a visit Friday and awarded her the "Sagamore of the Wabash" as the eighth oldest super-centenarian in the world.
• • "Thank you," she told the young governor. "I have not done anything special - - the only thing I've done is live."
• • She's certainly done that. As the mural in the hallway where she lives at Westminster Village in Muncie attests, she was around when the first World Series was played in 1903, when the first Indianapolis 500 was run in 1911 and when the Titanic sank one year later [1912]. She cast her first vote the first time women were allowed to do so in 1920. She can tell about when the President was shot, but not Kennedy - - McKinley.
• • "I heard them say President McKinley was killed so I came back and told them and no one would believe it," she said.
• • While her eyesight and her hearing are beginning to go, her intellect remains sharp even when assessing the current events in Iraq. "What's happened now is the most terrible thing that ever happened to this country because I can't see an end to it," she said.
• • "She's a miracle. Either genetically or of good fortune...," said Daniels.
• • But for now anyone who can remember an American flag when it had 44 stars is a big deal. Fry, who was born before Utah, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arizona, Alaska, and Hawaii joined the union, reflected on how she's been able to do it. What is the secret to living to 113? "I haven't the faintest idea," she said. . . .
• • A lot has happened since 1893 when Bertha Fry was born. Since 1893, researchers invented aspirin. New Zealand became the first country to allow women the right to vote. Geneva College and the New Brighton YMCA played in the first recorded college basketball game. Automobile pioneers Karl Benz in Germany and Henry Ford in the U.S. built their first cars.
• • Others born in 1893 - - in addition to MAE WEST - - include entertainer Jimmy Durante and Henry Ford's son, Edsel.
- - this text was modified from an article written by Kevin Rader - -
• • Source: World Now and WTHR - - www.wthr.com/
• • Byline: Kevin Rader - Eyewitness News
• • Published on: 5 January 2007
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: Mae West • • circa 1908 • •
NYC
Mae West.