‘Feisty’ woman enjoyed bash with Elvis music act.
Mary Higgins’ 106th birthday bash didn’t disappoint.
The Savannah, Ga., native celebrated her milestone Monday among friends and family at the Bedrock Rehabilitation and Nursing Center in Lake City. Higgins was treated to birthday cake and a performance from Jim Fields and Rowdy Johnston, a grandfather-grandson Elvis Presley impersonation duo.
Higgins was born on June 9, 1919 as a premature infant. According to a short autobiography Higgins wrote ahead of her 100th birthday, her mother, Harriet, took her to a local church after fearing young Mary wouldn’t survive. Harriet laid her down on the altar and named her after the Virgin Mary and prayed to let her daughter live.
Fast forward a century and change later, Higgins listened from a front-row seat as Jim and Rowdy sang gospel songs and other Presley staples like ‘Jailhouse Rock’ and ‘Can’t Help Falling in Love.’ Higgins said she’d been a fan of Elvis since his early days in the 50s. She was 36 years old when Elvis released his debut album on March 23, 1956.
Higgins moved to Palm Beach County around 1924 when she was 5 before the stock market crash of 1929, forcing her family again to move further south to Miami and eventually to Lake Worth after her father’s death. That’s where, at the age of 15, Mary met her childhood sweetheart, Charlie. The couple wed two years later.
Charlie and Mary then bought a pair of 25-foot lots across from where she’d lived in Lake Worth, clearing the land with the help of Ford Model Ts before building a new home room by room. According to her autobiography, Mary said she and Charlie started with “orange crates for kitchen cabinets, a hole in the kitchen floor to drain the water from an old ice box and open stud walls.” She noted the couple took pride in the home, saying “it was all ours.”
Members of Higgins’ family now, including her son Ed, her daughter-in-law Andra and Andra’s sister, Sharron O’Quinn, were on hand to celebrate the occasion.
All three shared their perspectives on Mary’s “feisty” nature, even now at 106 years old, with both Andra and Sharron sharing stories of Mary’s time rehabbing from hip surgery. The sisters said that Mary, who’d been used to having a glass of wine every day until her 100th birthday, used that daily drink as motivation to get up and walk around to get some necessary exercise during her recovery process.
Higgins now has a family spanning several generations, including five great-grandchildren. As she opened presents from friends and family, Higgins remarked at how much joy the event brought her.
“Everybody is happy and laughing,” Higgins said of the party.
Higgins summed up her thoughts on growing throughout the century in her autobiography.
“This is a snap shot of my wonderful life, and I always thank ‘the man above’ every night in my prayers for being so good to me,” she wrote. “One hundred years may sound like a long long time, but really, time goes by so quickly…so very quickly.”
As for her secret to a long life, Mary’s son Ed mentioned the glass — “maybe a glass and a half” — of wine a day. However, Mary denied that.
“Oh boy, go on, go on,” she joked with her son. “I just lived. I wouldn’t die.”