104 year old parties in Shelter Bay

“Happy Birthday” wasn’t the only song sung during Sybil East’s party in Shelter Bay on Saturday.

Those gathered in Dallas and Nancy Burlison’s living room heard the guest of honor sing several tunes, including “You Are My Sunshine,” “Amazing Grace,” and “A Long Way to Tipperary.” The latter melody dates to World War I, which had begun a mere six months before Sybil’s birth in rural Illinois.

Sybil, who was born Feb. 18, 1915 – the mid-point of Woodrow Wilson’s first term in the White House—apologized for completing just a single verse of one song.

“That’s all I know,” she chuckled.

“That’s more than I know, grandma,” chimed in Gail Previte-Venters, of Omaha, Nebraska, the wife of Sybil’s grandson Brian.

Gail, at the time, was cradling her newborn grandson, Liam, Sybil’s great-great-grandson.

Five generations of family and friends met at the Burlison home to celebrate a truly wonderful life – one that has its origins in the heartland of America.

For Sybil, the formula for longevity has been rooted in family, faith, and friendships.

A native of Nashville, Illinois, Sybil is of German-Irish descent, but her story is pure Americana.

Her dad, Zebedee Abner Rice, worked variously as a police officer, coal miner and farmer, whatever it took to support his growing family.

“Mom is the fifth of seven children,” Nancy says of Sybil. “Two of her three sisters died as babies of whooping cough. Mom had it, too, but fortunately survived.”

The Burlisons brought Sybil from the Midwest to live with them just prior to her 100th birthday. The memories of Sybil’s childhood still remain vivid after more than a century, stories that Nancy shares with well-wishers at her mom’s birthday celebrations.

“Farm life was work, work, work,” says Nancy. “They had their own milk cows, pigs, chickens, ducks and geese. Mom watched the process involved with killing the pigs, then her mom would make sausage. Everyone was healthy. There were fresh vegetables from their gardens, their own home-grown food and meat. They seldom had to purchase any food products at a store.”

There were drawbacks, of course. At least by today’s standards.

“Ice cream,” Nancy explains, “was a rare treat.”

Sybil loved attending the local one-room schoolhouse and excelled in her classes.

In those days, her brothers had to milk the cows while Sybil washed the family’s breakfast dishes before leaving for school.

“When mom was 10-years-old,” Nancy says, “a baby sister came along, which meant mom was needed to help with her clothes-washing. So it was lots of work on the farm and little time for childhood play.”

While growing up, Sybil also worked at a funeral home and as a waitress.

Her life changed when she met Preston East, who drove truck for East Transfer, the family business.

Preston’s father was a deacon in his church, which Sybil soon joined, and would be a member of that fellowship for over seven decades.

Sybil and Preston moved around the Midwest due to his freight jobs before settling in Herrin, Illinois, located in the southern part of the state, nestled between Kentucky and Missouri.

Money was tight, especially during the Depression years, and shortages of staples like sugar and flour were commonplace.

But the Easts persevered.

“Dad drove for Egyptian Freightways and later Il-Mo Freightways, hauling freight of all kinds between Herrin and St. Louis,” says Nancy. “Mom worked at the Norge Washing Machine Plant, on the line, and when sick – which was seldom – it took two people to do her job. I recall watching her tape her fingers so they wouldn’t get cut up, and also there was no air conditioning. It was hot!”

When Nancy was a toddler, Sybil and Preston paid $1,000 for what Nancy calls “a shell of a house.”

“It needed cabinets, a bathroom, and the like,” says Nancy, “But it was their home, the first – and only – one they would own on this earth.”

Sybil would fill that home with mementos and photographs capturing cherished family milestones.

Nancy and Dallas have since embraced that tradition at their place on Skokomish Drive.

An entire wall in their kitchen is filled with framed family photographs. Above those treasured images is a wall hanging whose message says it all: “Families are Forever.”

That was never more true than last weekend when the Burlisons were blessed with a houseful whose ages ranged from 12 days to 104 years.

Those who attended did so with snow still on the ground and patches of ice present on some stretches of roadway.

“I was worried about having to change the date due to the snow,” Nancy said of Saturday’s open house. “Maybe she needs to change her birthday to the summer.”

For Sybil, that would work just fine this year. As the day’s song leader, she was all in for an encore.