107: BIRTHDAY ADVICE BESTOWED

JACKSON -- Almost two decades before the turn of the century, Lydia Rapp Washer was born. Monday she celebrated her 107th birthday.

Time has claimed most of her hearing and she tires easily. But she has retained a sharp mind and a quick sense of humor.

Washer was born Feb. 4, 1884: four years after Thomas Edison invented the electric light; 17 years before Marconi transmitted a telegraphic radio message; 24 years before the Ford Motor Co. produced it's first Model T.

"I've lived a long time," she said. "When you turn 107, you feel 107."

She's decided to calculate her age by starting over again at 100. "That means I'm just 7 years old," she said.

"When my papa died he was 72, and I thought he was an old man," Washer said from her room at the Jackson Manor Nursing Home. "Here I am 35 years older than that. I remind myself of Methuselah."

Longevity, she said, is the reward of "moderation in everything."

That lesson was learned from her father, a school teacher and farmer in the small community of Pevely, just south of St. Louis, where Washer grew up.

For example, she said, "We always ate enough, but we never stuffed ourselves."

"At Christmas we got one gift and some candy and nuts. Now children get an abundance of gifts, and they are not as happy. They have too much to enjoy any of it."

She said life during her childhood was markedly different than today.

"There is no comparison. We had it better than some because my father was a school teacher. We had an organ and piano and guitar.

"We studied organ and piano and played guitar and mandolin by ear. I loved music. I still do.

"We had no cars," she recalled. Asked how they got around without automobiles, she jokingly responded: "We just stayed home."

"We had horses and buggies. I can remember my father would take a load of wheat or whatever to St. Louis, and you couldn't get to St. Louis in just a few minutes like you can today. It took all day and part of the night."

Washer said she believes the radio was the most important invention of her lifetime.

"It's marvelous," she said. "It brings music to people, and it was the forerunner to a lot of other inventions."

She spoke of when she and her husband, Jules Washer, learned of the invention. "He said the day was coming when we would have it right here in our home. I said `Oh never.' But he was right."

Washer shares her birthday with a younger sister, the only one of her 11 brothers and sisters still living. Her sister, who lives in St. Louis, was 103 Monday.

Washer has two children: John, 82, who lives in Wilmington, Del., and Louise Edmonds, 74, of Jackson.

She also has nine grandchildren, 21 great-grandchildren and two great-great-grandchildren.

Her daughter, Edmonds, who helped celebrate her mother's birthday Monday, said: "We get old alright, but we forget to grow up. We just stay young at heart. Age is something we just never worry about."