At 105, Yuba City woman acts half her age

Until a small heart attack last month, Edith Burt had spent the last quarter-century living on her own in a mobile home park, thriving on a varied regime of weekly bingo outings, visits to friends and travel club excursions that included Caribbean cruises and treks across Europe.

"If anybody says, 'Do you wanna?' I get my hat on and I'm ready," Burt said. "I just take it day by day."

On Thursday, the 105-year-old was surrounded by three generations of her family and neighbors at The Courtyard Assisted Living to celebrate her 105th birthday. They dined on tea and cucumber sandwiches and a raspberry-filled cake that Burt cut herself.

When asked how old she felt, the centenarian shrugged and said, "in my 50s. I can do everything I did when I was in my 50s."

Burt has never been one to sit around, her family says.

"She always had something on her calendar for tomorrow, a reason to get up and get dressed and get going," said her daughter-in-law, Alice Burt, 78, of Sacramento. "When we wanted to visit her, we'd have to call ahead to make sure she'd be there."

Burt's daughter, Yuba City resident Suzanne Parker, 68, marvels at her mother's vivacious spirit and admits the longevity was not something the family expected when Burt's husband, Harold, died in 1985 and she moved into an adult mobile home park in Grass Valley.

"She said, 'This'll be good for a few years.' That was 26 years ago," Parker said. "She came to life when daddy passed away. I guess she'd been saving up all those years."

Burt was born in Philadelphia on Dec. 24, 1906, and lived there until she married in 1930. When she and Harold Burt first married, they lived near Wings Field airport, and her husband took care of the planes and she cooked for the pilots.

Then they moved to Texas, where she helped out in their "ice-house," similar to a modern 7-Eleven. They also lived in Los Angeles before moving to Eden Valley to get away from the air pollution, and by that time, Burt had become a housewife.

She took care of their three children, sewed clothes and grew vegetables and she loved to knit and crochet, read and play card games — pastimes she enjoys today.

"A lot of what we take for granted nowadays didn't exist when she was growing up," Parker said, as family members captured the birthday celebration Thursday with their iPhones and digital cameras.

Other than good genes, family members found it hard to pinpoint Burt's secrets to a long life. She never takes medicine, eats healthy and rarely drinks, except for the occasional highball, they said, but she does love her chocolate and pepperoni pizza.

The other day, her grandson Kenton Parker, 43, of Los Angeles spent 30 minutes talking with Burt about the days of his childhood, reminiscing about trips to the Bear River, crawdads and tadpoles in the creek that ran through their property and going to a soda shop.

"I was surprised by how much she remembered," he said. "She's really with it."

He also tried to pick his grandmother's brain about her own childhood and growing up.

"I asked her what her first car was and she said, "A horse," he said. "It was just kind of fun."

Parker gave her a kiss on the cheek and said "Hi, grandma," as he walked in Thursday, eliciting a smile from the petite woman. He still gets birthday cards from her every year, and Burt often writes him letters.

"She is crazy amazing," he said. "I'm just so lucky."

CONTACT reporter Ashley Gebb at 749-4783.