McMurray Hills Manor celebrates trio of centenarians
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
Veree Schultz, left, and Marion Mounts are birthday twins. Both will celebrate their 100th birthday at McMurray Hills Manor Oct. 4.
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
Linda Wilkerson and her mother, Catherine Walker, right, who turns 102 Nov. 7, enjoyed belonging to a card club together until the club disbanded during the pandemic. The two still like to spend time together at Walker’s home at McMurray Hills Manor and, occasionally, go out.
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
Linda Wilkerson shares a moment with her mother, Catherine Walker, at McMurray Hills Manor. Walker will celebrate her 102nd birthday Nov. 7.
There are more than 300 reasons to celebrate at McMurray Hills Manor.
On Oct. 4, Marion Mounts and Veree Schultz will turn 100, and Catherine Walker will celebrate her 102nd birthday a month later, on Nov. 7.
McMurray Hills Manor staff is planning a big birthday blowout to mark the milestones.
“The odds they’re both (turning 100) on the same day…” said Cheryl Boyd, director of administration at McMurray Hills Manor. “What’s the chances of that happening?”
And what are the chances of another resident turning 102 just a month later?
That’s why the staff is going all out, ordering cake, decorating to the nines and throwing what they hope will be the party of the century for three special ladies.
“We’re just happy that they’re here and we’re able to celebrate it with them,” said Janice Pettit, administrator.
Marion Mounts has celebrated a handful of birthdays at McMurray Hills Manor, where she’s lived since 2018, but triple digits is a celebration her son can’t quite wrap his head around.
“I never thought I’d live to see it,” laughed Tom Mounts, who, with his wife, Sandy, makes a point to spend time with his mom at least once a week.
Mounts grew up near Mt. Oliver in Pittsburgh, and spent much of her life in that area. She raised her two children in Brookline, and was religious with a wild streak.
“I went to the Rooster Church on Southside. I got confirmed at that (church),” Mounts said.
“She probably read the Bible inside out,” Sandy added. “She used to have the Bible sit right beside her.”
But for all her religious fervor, Mounts said with a grin, “I like to dance and I like to drink.”
In 100 years, Mounts never learned to drive a car, but that didn’t stop her from going out with her friends. She enjoyed drinks and dancing at local bars and liked traveling, too, to Florida, New York and even Las Vegas.
She also enjoyed sewing; later in life, she picked up needlepoint.
Mounts had a reputation for being a neat freak – “Don’t you dare come home dirty,” Tom laughed – and every Friday, she got down on her hands and knees and scrubbed her home’s floors squeaky clean.
“She’d pull her stove out once a month and clean behind it, and the refrigerator, too. Eighty, 90, she didn’t care. She was still pulling her stove out,” Sandy said.
Mounts spent much of her career at Colonial Biscuit Co., where she worked on the conveyor line and developed an aversion to Fig Newtons. She also aptly worked as a house cleaner.
Mounts has always been feisty. Tom remembered once, as a kid, his mother chased him with a wooden spoon. When he recounted the story, Mounts laughed and said, “I did!”
She was also an incredible cook who hosted Thanksgiving dinner every year. One Turkey Day, dinner was ready but her family was glued to the TV screen, rooting for their favorite team. When her calls for, “Dinnertime!” went ignored, “she cut the plug on the television because it was time to eat,” laughed Sandy, who heard the story from Tom.
Mounts still likes to get dolled up, and enjoys participating in events at McMurray Hills Manor and spending time with staff-turned-friends and family.
“I love her,” said Tom.
Marion Mounts isn’t the only centenarian feeling the love at McMurray Hills Manor. And Veree Shultz, a lifelong Washington County resident who spent most of her life in Nottingham Township, where the family had a farm, isn’t the first in her family to celebrate a century of living at McMurray Hills Manor.
“My great-grandmother, her grandmother, was in this very home. She was also 100,” said Nancy Flynn, Schultz’s older daughter. “When she was young, she went in a covered wagon to homestead out in Kansas with her brother. When you think about what that means, the differences that she saw from covered wagons to cars to rocket ships going to the moon, it is unbelievable. Mom says that, too.”
When she was younger, Flynn remembers her mother marveling that the things she saw on the TV show “Captain Video” had come to pass – rocket ships included.
But Schultz, for all her amazement at space travel, has always been grounded – and ready to lend a helping hand. During World War II, while her husband served with the U.S. Army in the Philippines, Schultz helped war efforts stateside, making hand grenades for the troops.
“I don’t know all the particulars of who did it and where they had the buildings. It was away from Washington, I remember that,” Flynn said. “I think she put the detonator pins in.”
Schultz loved traveling; she and her husband flew south to Florida every fall. She also loved cats, and keeps a plush kitten named Tommy, after her last fur baby, with her at McMurray Hills Manor.
One of the memories Flynn holds most dear is her mother’s presence when she herself became a mom.
“She was always nurturing. She didn’t work while we were young, and never did, and just was always there and helping at school, the PTA, that kind of think. She’d run us to band practice,” Flynn said. “When my son was born, she helped me. I have a sister. We never really had too many boys in the family. For me to have a little boy, it was like the two of us learning how to deal with that,” she laughed.
Though “100” is just around the corner, Schultz doesn’t have any secrets for reaching that milestone.
“I’m just lucky,” Schultz said.
Lucky, or, rather, blessed, too, is Catherine Walker, who celebrated her 100th birthday nearly two years ago and will turn 102 in November.
Walker’s proudest moment was “the day I got married,” she said.
Walker and Bob Walker, her husband of 83 years, did everything together – she even served as his insurance agency’s office manager. Some of her favorite memories included skiing and golfing with Bob, playing cards and traveling to New England.
“Maine and New Hampshire – I like the beauty of the place. I liked their seafood,” she smiled.
She also loved dancing with Bob and their best friends, Don and Mary.
“Over in Canton, Ohio, there was a big outdoor stage, and they would bring in the Glen Miller Orchestra, Benny Goodman. They would go dancing and Dad said you had to pay admission to get on where the stage was. So they would go and dance outside because they could hear the music, but they didn’t have to pay for it,” Schultz’s daughter, Linda Wilkerson, laughed. “I think they had more fun when they were young than I did.”
Walker was a “wonderful cook” and an active member of several organizations, including the Claysville Volunteer Fire Department auxiliary and the American Legion Auxiliary. She marveled at the invention of airplanes and watching her family grow: she has five grandchildren, 12 great-grandchildren and six great-great grandchildren.
“She was such a loving mother. I can’t ever remember her even ever getting mad at me and yelling at me or anything, you know? She just was very sweet all her life,” said Wilkerson. “Very sweet, very hardworking. Always helped out.”
Walker’s advice to the younger generation, then, is fitting: “Love one another,” she said.