NEW BERN — Turning 100 is something to brag about. But, after 99 years, Stella Foth wasn’t about to brag about becoming a centenarian on Saturday. It’s just not her style.
If it hadn’t been for an offhand comment she made during a birthday party for an 80-something woman, her line-dance friends at West New Bern Recreation Center would have never known.
Foth, a weekly participant in the line dance class for more than a decade, said last week that talking about age was not a topic among senior peers in her home state of New Jersey.
“I never gave it a thought,” she said. “When I was young, my mother said I was sickly, and here I am. It’s all His (God’s) will.”
Foth is very active, with her own apartment — and she still drives.
“My license is good until I’m 105,” she said proudly.
She is also fiercely independent.
If someone offers a hand to help her rise from a seat, she has a quick retort.
“I can do this myself. I don’t need any help,” she says with a tone implying a stern warning.
She, however, is not resistant to celebrating her 100 years.
A week ago, she was at home and looking at family pictures. In her hand was a photo of her great-grandson. She answered a knock on the door and there he stood.
“They sent him to knock on the door. The rest of them were hiding,” she recalled of her three grandchildren, who came from Oklahoma, Florida and New York to surprise her.
What followed was a grand party, with candy, flowers and balloons, followed by dinner at a local restaurant.
“That was the best surprise party I’ve ever had,” she said.
Another party came on Saturday, arranged at a James City restaurant by her daughter. Foth said old friends from as far away as New Jersey were expected to attend.
She grew up in the New Jersey town of Clifton, born in 1913, the third-oldest of four children, including two sisters. Her younger brother is the other lone sibling survivor and still lives in New Jersey.
As a teenager, she recalled going to dance school. But, when her brother was born, her father explained she had to give it up.
“In those days, that was a big family, and it was expensive,” she said.
She returned to the dance floor fulltime after moving to New Bern in 1998 to live close to her daughter Sharon. While Stella enjoys the mostly country and western tunes of line-dancing, her favorite dance remains the polka.
“There is lots of rhythm and lots of life to it,” she said.
Along the way, Stella also painted for awhile and has two pieces of her work hanging in her home — a fruit basket still life and the painting of a covered bridge in the woods.
She calls the 1960s moon landing the most important event of her life.
“You couldn’t want anything greater than that,” she said.
She quickly responds about her favorite personality — actor and later President Ronald Reagan.
She has an autographed photo, now a bit faded, that the late president penned “To Stella, with my deepest personal regards. — Ronald Reagan.”
Her favorite time-tracker is the calendar she gets in the mail each year from the Reagan Ranch.
She’s already eager to get the 2014 edition.
Charlie Hall can be reached at 252-635-5667 or charlie.hall@newbernsj.com.