Celebrating A Century

 GARY S. HATRICK

On August 30, 2025, residents of Betmar in Zephyrhills will celebrate Labor Day.

That’s not exactly headline news since many people will be celebrating Labor Day.

The big news is that Betmar has another reason to celebrate because that is the day resident Martha Wilson was born - 100 years ago. She will join that select group of people whose ages have reached triple digits.

Martha was born in Paris, Illinois. She must have been a mischievous child. Even now, she chuckles when she tells people that fact because she knows for a split second, the listener is thinking she was born in France.

She was born in 1925 in the upstairs bedroom of the home of her parents, Ardra and Minnie Sadler, the baby of a family of nine children, seven of them boys.  “They’re all gone now,” she said with a hint of sadness. When she was young, the family moved to a farm in Indiana.

Martha is one of the few people who can give eyewitness testimony to a life foreign to people today. 

Life in the 20s and 30s was very different. Growing up, she lived a typical life of an Indiana farm girl. She milked cows, hoed the garden, and washed clothes on a washboard in water that they collected by catching rainwater off the roof in a bucket.

There was no indoor plumbing, and the outhouse was out back. There was no electricity in the house. She played cards with her parents for entertainment, and in the summertime, they played croquet. Her parents got around in a horse and buggy.

World War I was the “war to end all wars.” No one imagined World War II, Korea, Vietnam, or the Gulf Wars; nor had anyone heard of Adolph Hitler, Pearl Harbor, Hiroshima, Elvis Presley, The Beatles, John F. Kennedy, Neil Armstrong, Martin Luther King, 9-11, or Covid.

Calvin Coolidge was the 30th President of the United States. The Civil War ended, and Lincoln’s assassination occurred about 60 years ago. Automobiles were not in common use, telephones were attached to the wall, if you had one. The first television was invented the year Martha was born, and it would not be the centerpiece of the living room anytime soon. No one would hear of Superman for 13 years.

She would experience all these things as they happened.

Martha married twice. Her first husband was Larry Wilson, who worked at the West Baking Company in Indianapolis, Indiana. She was a stay-at-home mom except for five years when she worked at a school cafeteria.

She and Larry had four children, but one was stillborn. The oldest is Marilyn, 79; next Pam, 71, and the youngest is Greg, 63. They were married for 47 years and have a further legacy of six grandchildren, 16 great-grandchildren, and four great-great-grandchildren. She said her children are her proudest “accomplishment.”

Martha still carries Larry’s name, though she had married again after he was gone. Her second husband’s name was Bill Hart; they were married for 19 years.

Martha attributes her longevity to staying active. Up until this last November, she did water aerobics. She still does shuffleboard, and she can still ride a bike. While many were slowing down, she was going strong. She learned to swim in her 40s, waterskied for the first time at 90 and she zip-lined at 91.

Not surprisingly, Martha never thought she would be celebrating 100 years, but she said she wouldn’t change anything.

At the time of this writing, she is a little down on energy and breath because she is recovering from pneumonia, but she is recovering and no doubt will be ready to party at the Betmar Labor Day/Martha Willson 100-Year Birthday Event on August 30.

Perhaps we should be watching the skies for a parachute.  ©