Rita Townsend to turn 100 on March 3rd
Rita Townsend will be 100 years young on March 3, 2019.
The key to longevity, says Rita Townsend, is to “treat your friends like you want to be treated and find the good in every person.”
No wonder she’s lived to be 100 years old.
Despite many hardships in her life, this petite lady, a 67-year resident of Manchester, has been living by this Golden Rule for so long that it’s simply instinctive. “I love everyone,” she says.
And it’s obvious that everyone loves Rita back. Although she still has a week to go until her 100th birthday, a card shower organized by her daughter, Eileen Ball, on Facebook has resulted in her receiving messages from around the world. She regularly hosts “pajama parties” in her tiny apartment at Cambrian Assisted Living, where she has lived since October 2017. Some of the staff members will sometimes join her after bedtime and enjoy microwave popcorn or ice cream cups, which Eileen and her sister, Ruth Burch, have stockpiled in Rita’s kitchenette.
The staff definitely loves her. Even during our interview, staff members would stop in at her open door just to say hello. “The girls come and tuck me in like I was a little girl,” Rita says with her ready smile. “And then they all line up to kiss me good night. And Amy, the director here, greets me at breakfast each morning with a hug and a kiss.”
Rita “dresses spiffy” each day, with carefully chosen clothing and coordinating handkerchiefs, and full makeup. “Just like I’m going somewhere,” she says. “I’ve done that all my life.” Although her husband, Harold Townsend, was a farmer and she would go out and milk cows (by hand!) and drive the Ford tractor through the fields every day, she always dressed beautifully, her daughters emphasize. She learned how to sew at an early age and sewed all of her own clothes and those of her children for many years. It’s a skill she passed on to her daughter Ruth, and she recalls with joy the days in the late 1990s when she could “work” at Stitches, Ruth’s sewing and alterations business on Main Street.
Before moving to Manchester, the Townsends lived on a farm that they farmed “on shares” on Ellsworth Road, east of Ann Arbor-Saline Road. Rita was the homemaker chairman of the Pittsfield Grange, and found that she loved farming and the country. “It was the best time of my life,” she recalls. But, she wanted to have a home and farm of her own, so she told Harold that he needed to find a place by the time she was 40. In the early 1950s, they purchased a farm on Sheridan Road, where she lived until moving to Cambrian 16 months ago. In her 80s, she sold off all but two acres of the farm, and built a manufactured home on the remaining property, so she could live a little easier rather than upgrading the old brick farmhouse.
Born in Detroit the oldest of three children, Rita’s mother passed away suddenly when Rita was just seven years old. Left with her sister, 1-1/2, and brother, 9 months old, she cooked, cleaned, and did laundry for the family. They lived first with her grandma in Ypsilanti and then moved to Chicago to live with her other grandmother. A 3-1/2 pound premie at birth, she has always been very short and was able to ride the streetcar to dances for half fare when she was a teenager. She worked for her room and board at age 14, and by 17, having attended beauty school for six months, decided to return to Michigan. Back in Ypsilanti with her grandmother, she became reacquainted with Harold Townsend–first dating his brother.
“He stole me away from his brother,” she says with a sly chuckle. The couple had three children–Ruth, Harold Leroy (who died in 2001), and Eileen–and Ruth and Eileen and most of their extended families (13 grandchildren, 36 great-grandchildren, and 28 great-great grandchildren) still live in the Manchester area, which has been home for the family for such a long time.
Despite living for a century, Rita is surprisingly up-to-date. She loves her Estee Lauder “Beautiful” perfume, and applies it liberally. She dresses up each day because “every day is special.” She is fascinated by technology, often calling Eileen to instruct her to “ask Mr. Google” a question to something she’s wondering about. She is a member of the River Raisin Red Hatters club, and has always been involved in the St. Mary Altar Society. Her sense of humor is also quite modern, and she enjoys sharing a joke or two (although not always for publication!)
“A favorite habit of mom’s has always been whistling,” Eileen adds. “She could whistle like a song bird and we wish we would have recorded it as she just can’t do it anymore.”
Other than Macular Degeneration and the occasional need for a bit of oxygen, Rita remains in good health and is currently determined to live to be at least 101–like her husband’s grandmother, for whom she cared in their Manchester home. She also chews 1/2 stick of Doublemint gum each day. “The girls told me that chewing gum helps you retain your memory,” she said. It must be working, because Rita is always reminding them of things they’ve said or done–of which they have no recollection!
For her birthday, it is pretty likely that there will be some of her favorite yellow roses. Some Doublemint gum. And a special outfit with a matching handkerchief. Because, you know, every day is special.
A gala birthday celebration for Rita Townsend will be held at the St. Mary Parish Hall in honor of Rita’s 100th birthday next weekend. There’s also still time to send a card to her at Cambrian Senior Living, 333 N. Occidental Hwy, Tecumseh MI 49286 (Room 152).
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