100-year-old has happy life all sewn up
AKRON, Ohio — Affable, refined and ever the fashion maven, Peggy Harry has long been admired by her many diverse attachments: family and friends, as well as her fellow residents and staff at The Merriman, an assisted living facility in Akron, Ohio.
And the fresh inductee into the centenarian club — she turned 100 on July 22 — is quite the doyenne of still other attachments: namely buttons.
Peg, as she prefers to be called, is a longtime member of the Akron Button Club and the National Button Society.
At a recent monthly meeting of the local club, which convenes at Akron's St. Paul Episcopal Church, not surprisingly, she was being toasted by fellow members.
Peg, a 48-year collector, is very button-specific. Hers are the highly treasured, pierced/carved iridescent white buttons known as “Bethlehem” and “Jordan” pearls. “They look just like lace,” she explained, joie de vivre percolating in her voice.
Member Liz Vernon of Akron even baked button-shaped shortbread cookies to celebrate the pretty-in-pink Peg, for the way she has threaded her way into their lives and helped to get them even more hooked in their hobby of collecting these miniature works of art.
“Miss Peg is a true inspiration,” said 15-year member Vernon. “She had pneumonia and the flu in December, then a bad sinus infection. But she bounced back ... She's the most caring and sharing person you would ever want to meet.”
Asked about her secret to a long and healthy life, Peg, who relies on a walker for safety, didn't hold back:
“I exercise every day in my room. I wouldn't miss it! It really does help me keep going ... But I think it's also in my genes.”
Widowed in 1988 (her late husband was Winchester Harry), the stay-at-home mother and former Akron schoolteacher said she got hooked on collecting after discovering her grandmother's button box.
She formerly maintained collections of thimbles, stamps and handkerchiefs, and head-turning gardens of peonies that were prized, cut and dried for bouquets at Stan Hywet, a historic site built by industrialist and Goodyear co-founder F.A. Seiberling, which is one of the finest examples of Tudor Revival architecture in America.
Volunteer extraordinaire, Peg was active at Stan Hywet and formerly served as president of Fairlawn Garden & Civic Center where the Akron Button Club used to meet.Arriving later in the month to celebrate her milestone birthday will be her daughter, Dr. Betty Tarnowski of Charleston, S.C., a cancer specialist with the National Institutes of Health; two grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.Make no mistake about it, Peg Harry plans to commemorate her birthday all month long.“It's never too early to celebrate your 100th birthday!” she opined.Her fellow button club members, who brought lots of party fixings for the occasion, couldn't have agreed more.
