Evening star., 1942-11-15
Tokomo Park Woman, 707 Years Old Tuesday,
Declares Time Will Never Catch Up With Her
Mrs. Elizabeth Sufford
Is Eager to Dance
At Birthday Party
BY PAT JONES.

~ DTtHuOy TuTty
BY PAT JONES.
An ardent battler against the
ravages of time will celebrate Tues
day an anniversary only one person
out of every $500 ever lives to OBJ
serve.
1t will be friends rather than Mrs.
Elizabeth Stafford, 507 Carroll ave-
nue., Takoma Park, Md, who that
day will gaze with awe at the 1O1
candles on her birthday cake.
For this white-haired little lady
who remembers when the corner
stone of the Smithsonian Institu-
ton was laid and who was married
two years after Lincoln was as
sassinated speaks with stout heart
when she says time will never catch
up with her. Last year, in dauntless
spirit, she leaned over and blew
out every candle on her centennial
cake with single puff.
why be old she asked impati-
emily. you don't have to be. I
tell young people all the time not to
let themselves get old"
Never Keeps Up With Ages.
Mrs. Stafford never keeps up with
ages. Perhaps that is the reason
she frets so over her only child,
71-year-old Miss Clara Stafford. It
is the mother rather than the
daughter who does the escorting
when they are together and whose
parting words at pm. are, Hurry
home now before it gets dark" This
advice is impaired at the street
corner, and then the dutiful parent
turns and walks as briskly back to
her own rocking chair as 101 years
will permit, which in her case is re-
markably fast.
It was the mother who fell down
the steps three years ago and, in
answer to her daughters screams,
reprimanded: I'm ashamed of you.
What will the neighbors Think"
1t is the mother, too, who waits
on other people in her home whether
they like it or not.
"Nice Young Man."
And it also is the mother who
speaks of the next door neighbor,
Jonathan Leavitt, as "a nice young
man." Mr.. Leavitt, a Civil War
veteran, observed on October u his
9th birthday.
I'm old and I do as I please" ;"
saucily says Mrs. Stafford when only
outsiders are listening But she
knows that is not exactly true.
If she had her way Tuesday, she
would eat all the chocolate candy
she could hold. Then she would
dance-the old-fashioned polka.
I'D love to dance on my birth
day." she said. I'D dance all night
if they'd let me-"
She clapped her hands with ami
nation.
wouldn't it be grand? 1t drives
me crazy to think of it.
Always Has Nice Time.
BY actual plans, Mrs. Stafford will
have chocolate candy in modera-
ton, possibly will get bit of sight
seeing around the city, and then will
go to the Kennedy Warren for a
party to be given by her daughter
for IL of her oldest friends.
Mrs. Stafford has a faint suspicion
that this will be the extent of her
celebration, but she is not at all
perturbed
It'll tell you one thing" she said
confidently. I'm going to have
nice time. I always have nice
time"
This lady who in two more days
will pass the first milestone in her
second century was born at the
foot of Maryland avenue, right out
side the gates of the Capitol. Her
next home was the Smithsonian
Institution. Into this building she
moved when her father. William
McPeak, became its first appointee
She stood on Sixteenth street and
watched the soldiers parade at the
close of the Civil War. She stood
there and she watched the lines &C
by, and she felt sorry for the Rebel
prisoners.
Always Loved the South.
my father was a Southerner and
I always have loved the South" she
explained.
But two years later the 26-year-
old Elizabeth McPeak, graduate OF
Lutherville Female Seminary, Balti-
more County, Md, married North
erner, Hiram Stafford Soon they
were living in San Francisco, then
home until 1928. That year she
persuaded her family to return tc
the city of her birth. Her husband
died here 10 years ago.
Still retaining all of her facilities
Mrs. Stafford looks forward to Tues
day with girlish impatience. Tc
her it will be another enjoyable
occasion in the long life of which
she has never tired. Perhaps again
as many times past, she and her
daughter will be mistaken for Sis
ters.