Many happy returns: Cape Girardeau woman celebrates big birthday

Thursday was a red-letter day for Florence Poe. It was her 109th birthday, Poe, who resides at Fountainbleau Lodge in Cape Girardeau, wanted to look her best for the celebration. Activities director Marcie Penrod provided a facial, manicure and hand massage. Poe's daughter, Tod Johnson of Cape Girardeau, brought the amethyst-colored birthday dress and the lodge's piano was moved into the dining room for the party. Twelve relatives, friends from church, the lodge and staff also enjoyed Poe's favorite meal -- chicken and dumplings.

Poe told the activities director she'd be starting over again on her birthday. Wishful thinking had her hoping she'd turned nine instead of 109.

In the genes

The times Poe lived through required more work to get things done but her positive, fond memories keep her forging ahead as she presses forward into the first decade of her second century.

If you ask what the secret to her longevity is, Poe doesn't have any answer except, "I just keep on breathing." But maybe it's in her genes. Her mother lived to be 103.

Poe's parents, William Robinson and Melinda Carolyn Jones, and their five children traveled across the frozen Mississippi River in a covered wagon from Franklin County, Ill., to live in Farmington, Mo. Poe didn't come till later on. She was the youngest of nine children. Her father farmed for a living.

Her mother delivered just about all the babies born in Canalou, Mo., where she grew up, and Poe would be angry when they'd come and get her mom at all hours of the night.

Born in 1897

Born in Farmington in 1897, Poe raised her children during the Depression. She doesn't remember dates too well but the increase in the price of food stands out in her mind. "In those days you could get butter for 25 cents a pound. Now it's at least $2 a pound." Then there's turnips that now cost $1 for three or four, when a bushel used to cost 75 cents. The kicker was her story of a butcher who dressed and delivered a whole hog for 20 cents a pound.

Good memories include one of a particular boy, Doyle Gaines, who sat beside her in a wagon pulled by a billy goat.

"I had me a sweetheart at 4 years old," she said.

Poe said she liked school and even remembered the first poem she learned from an early reader, "Little drops of water, little drops of sand. Makes a mighty ocean of a mighty land."

Threshing day, wash day

Poe remembers her past as the good old days. "On threshing day they'd take the sides down on the wagon and the women who'd cooked would serve meals from the wagon. We'd empty out our straw-ticked beds and get new straw on threshing day." Then there was washing day when the clothes were boiled and cleaned with Fels Naptha or Octivan soap. Hanging them out to dry was another time-consuming procedure. But what Poe remembers is how wonderful they smelled afterward.

She remembered Lindbergh's translatlantic flight and even named her canary "Lindy," she was so impressed. "I saw his plane in the Smithsonian," she said.

Cape Girardeau's councilwoman and mayor pro tem, Marcia Ritter, presented a letter from President George W. and Laura Bush and a city proclamation honored Poe's birthday. Her daughter from Chicago, Peggy Laird, made a special visit.

As far as presents go, Poe said, "I don't need a thing."

cpagano@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 133