Alice Hart, left, and Beatrice Green will celebrate their 100th birthdays together next month at Legend Health Care and Rehabilitation in Euless. Hart's birthday is November 25 and Green's is November 4. Photo: Jeena JacobFORT WORTH, Texas (Star-Telegram), October 21, 2007: It's spell-binding for anyone who loves history to sit and chat with Beatrice Green and Alice Hart, who will celebrate their 100th birthdays together. Green's birthday is actually November 4, and Hart's November 25, so they'll celebrate in between. Both have been blessed with good health and are not in any pain, they said.
"I'm just as well as I can be, and even my conscience is clear," Green said, laughing.
Hart is looking forward to being 100 "if the good Lord's willing, and I'm still here," she added.
Hart, who was 4 when her father died, was born in London, England, said son Raymond Green, a retired chemical engineer who is 77. He and his wife, Ann, live in North Richland Hills. His mom, one sibling and her mother later moved to Detroit, Michigan, where other family members had moved earlier, Raymond said. She and her first husband, Charles Green, had two sons and were together 25 years before his death. Their younger son, Donald, was killed in a motorcycle accident in the 1970s.
She later married Walter Hart, a delightful man of 93, who lives with her at the rehab center. The couple, now married 52 years, "love to sit in the front lobby and watch the people go by," said Cheri Harmon, activity director. "She told of her life, her career as a telephone operator and her success of over 70 years of marriage, and she said, 'if you want to have a good marriage, you have to work at it,'" Harmon said.
Green, one of 12 children, and her late husband, Clifford Green, had two children, a son who died the day of his birth and daughter, Walter Mae Green Pearson, who passed away in 1995. Green loves to tell of growing up in the Mosier Valley area of Euless where she was born.
Her grandmother, Betty Farrow Parker, and her brother were born into slavery but were brought to the Mosier Valley area when Betty was about 10 and were reared by another family, Frank and Lish Young. Green's grandfather, John Parker, owned more than 100 acres in Mosier Valley "from the Trinity River to [Texas] 183," which he divided with his family to farm, she said.
Hart, who has four grandchildren and six great-grandchildren, "is a very strong woman," her daughter-in-law, Ann Green, said. "She's fun to be around and laughs a lot."
"Mother always loved to dance, and she'll say, 'I'm 99,' and then she'll do kind of a jig sitting down," added her son.
Harmon said she feels very lucky to have discovered two angels in one nursing home.
"Both have almost the same advice for living a long life:
'Smile, keep happy, keep busy and love everyone.' They have many years of experience, wisdom and beauty to share with you."
Hart's English background also comes into play when people tell her "goodbye," Harmon said. "She always says 'toodle-oo.'"
By Pat Nimmo Riddle
Copyright Star-Telegram
