Recently, members of the Women’s Rio Grande Club held a celebration.
Miriam Clark turned 90 on May 8, but her neighbors and friends helped her celebrate a couple of weeks earlier with a birthday party hosted by the Women’s Rio Grande Club at La Hacienda Regional Recreation Complex.
Clark received a special “Back in 1931” poster from the club, which showed that she was born the same year as William Shatner, James Earl Jones and Leonard Nimoy, along with a cake and other surprises. The Empire State Building was completed, gambling became legal in Las Vegas and the average annual income was $1,850, with gas costing one penny per gallon and a loaf of bread costing nine cents.
According to the poster, the average life expectancy at the time was 61.25 years, a figure Clark has far exceeded.
“I believe longevity is linked to the genes and a general sense of moderation,” Clark said. “Today, I feel like I’m 75!” she exclaimed when asked how old she feels.
Clark, who wore a glittery crown and a “90 and Fabulous” beauty queen sash, said she grew up in the Bronx, New York, in a rural area near the beach “where children could ride bikes and roller skate.”
Clark took a clerical job at a bank on Wall Street, where she met her late husband, who also worked for the bank. The couple married in 1954 and had three children, all of whom still live on Long Island.
She explained, “I’m going to visit them to celebrate my birthday along with Mother’s Day.”
Clark is amongst seven siblings. She said two of her sisters and two brothers are dead, and the remaining two sisters and two brothers are between the ages of 78 and 87. One sister has relocated to The Villages, and one brother is a resident of a nearby assisted living facility.
“Having family around is great, and we do things together,” she said, adding that she enjoys spending time with her friends and neighbors in the Village Rio Grande, where she has lived in the same house since 1995. Hula Hands in Aloha dancers performed for the party, and when leader Gayle Erskine called for audience participation in the song “Let’s Hula,” Clark was one of more than a dozen who leaped to their feet.
Since the Women’s Rio Grande Club won’t meet again until September, the club also honored all members with birthdays from April to August at the event Monday.
– Attributed Source, The Villages Daily Sun