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Mattie Newton celebrated her 100th
birthday this week, surrounded by family and friends.
Several days prior to her celebration,
Mrs. Newton said she didn’t have a sure-fire answer for everyone to
live to be 100, but she did know that she personally “ate lots of
vegetables” and “never smoked.” She’s also a firm believer in the
benefits of hard work. Relatives say she mowed her yard with a push
mower until she was well into her 90s.
Although she actually turned 100 on June
20, her celebration was held Sunday, June 18, at DeLeon Nursing and
Rehab, where she currently lives. Her son, Dean, and his wife, Louise,
and 34 other family members, extended family members, and friends,
joined her for cake and memories.
Mattie Newton was born in 1906 in Victor
to Emma Mattie and Major Keith. Of her eight siblings, only Avie
Taylor, Vonnie Guthrey, and Bernard Keith survive. Guthrey and Keith
were born to Major Keith’s second wife.
Mattie married Fred Newton, a neighbor,
in 1924.
Fred’s first wife died in childbirth, (as
did the child) leaving him with two young daughters, Monnie Bell and
Melvina, to rear. Mattie, 13 years younger than Fred, stepped in to
help him care for the girls, and soon they were married. Fred and
Mattie would go on to have three sons together, Marvin Wynton, Robert
Irvin and Dean. Fred died in the 1970s, and all of the children but
Dean have passed away.
At Mattie’s birthday celebration, a
five-generation picture was taken with Mattie, her son, Dean;
grandson, Terry; great-granddaughter, Samantha; and
great-great-grandson, Dalton.
Although her eyesight has completely
faded and she occasionally has trouble remembering specific dates,
many memories from her childhood and her young married days remain
vivid, and her family enjoys hearing “Ma Ma” tell her stories.
Many of her memories are related to her
early days on the farm, including milking by hand, plowing, and
raising a garden. For a time, she and Fred worked at various
restaurants in DeLeon, with Fred cooking and Mattie waiting tables. “I
didn’t cook,” she says, “because I didn’t know how to put together
those hamburgers that everybody wanted.”
Judy Dixon, Mattie’s granddaughter, and
Louise Newton, her daughter-in-law, say they have fond memories of
Newton’s Fruit Stand, a DeLeon business enterprise that Fred and
Mattie operated for years.
They, and other family members, are
grateful for Mattie’s sense of family through the years. “I married
her son Dean when I was 16,” Louise said, “and she just took me in
like I was a daughter.”
Sunday, a relative asked Mattie “what do
you plan to do now that you’ve turned 100?” Her prompt reply was
completely in character. “I’m going to start working on 101,” she
said.
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