Cathlamet woman reaches 100 years

Cathlamet resident Margaret Burt reaches her 100th birthday today. Cathlamet resident Margaret Burt has reached a milestone.

Burt, who was born Margaret L. White, was born this day in 1908 in Twin Falls, Idaho, a small pioneer town with the only hospital in the area. Buhl, the town where her parents lived, was 30 miles away. Her parents left a week early by horse and wagon so her mother could be near the doctor for the birth, she said.

In her youth, she daily walked one mile to school. “Others walked four,” she said. The school had three rooms for eight grades. While the teacher was instructing one grade, the others would study.

“I plugged my ears with my fingers when I studied,” Burt said.

In high school, Burt took more course work than was required, including Latin and Spanish. “I later used that (the Spanish) when Mexican farm workers came to Buhl and helped my mother.”

She was an honors student in high school, and her good grades earned her a job in a law office in Twin Falls. A year later, she left Twin Falls for Chicago, where she worked for Marshall Field and Company as a secretary. There she met her husband, Philip C. Burt. They were married in 1929 and later moved to Boise and eventually Seattle.

Together, they had a son; however at age 16, the son contracted polio after swimming in the local pool. Burt said Seattle had had a polio outbreak and neglected to inform the public. The son passed away after a short illness, and her husband passed away in 1962.

In Seattle, Burt was one of the organizers of the Seattle Bicycle Club and is a lifetime member of the Seattle Power Squadrons.

In 1990, Burt moved to Cathlamet because she liked the area, “and grew to be 100 years old!” she said. She lives in her own house and stays as independent as possible.

Burt said that two different doctors told her she would live to be 100 because she takes good care of herself.

Her secret? “Vitamins and a swing rocker! Swing in a rocker for 10 minutes and you can feel it to your hips!” she said.