At age 105, Martha Zanotti still has plenty to get "wild and woolly" about
CHICAGO (CBS) -- The year was 1917: President John F. Kennedy was born then, so were entertainers Dean Martin and Lena Horne. Also born that year: Martha Zanotti, of Chicago's Northwest Side.
She's still going strong, and she as celebrates her 105th birthday on Tuesday, there are examples for all of us in her life's story.
"I'm kind of flabbergasted," Martha said. "I don't know how to feel."
We suppose it is hard to wrap your mind around turning 105 years old.
"Should I feel happy? Should I feel wild and woolly?" she said.
Martha Zanatti's family and friends are happy, and think her birthday is worthy of a big celebration.
Daughter Kathy Kenney calls her mom remarkable; a woman ahead of her time.
"I really admire my mom. She was born a long time ago, when women maybe had limited roles, but that's not the role my mom took," Kathy said.
Martha worked throughout her kids' childhood, and encouraged her daughter – now 79 years old – to aim high when she was a teenager.
"When it was time for me to graduate high school, my mom took me to different colleges to look at them. Again, that was not something that my girlfriends or my girlfriends' mothers were doing at that time," Kathy said.
Martha has done everything doctors suggest for a long, fruitful, and healthy life. In her later years, she's travelled extensively. She learned to play the guitar, and the organ, and as an older student studied philosophy in college.
"Mom said it herself. Curious. She's very curious," Kathy said.
Physically and mentally active, Martha remains devoted to what they call the Friendship Club at her Northwest Side church.
"One day back in the winter, it was very, very cold outside, and we didn't think everybody was going to come to our meeting, and we almost cancelled it, but in walked Martha. I think she was 103 at that time," friend Debbie Timmreck said.
Still, Martha has mixed feelings about these recent milestone birthdays.
"I didn't want to be 100," she said. "I don't know why. It just sounded old."
But she's still young at heart and young in spirit.
"Yes, I think I have that," she said.
And so we join her loved ones in saluting Martha, an example for us all at the age of 105.
"I can't believe that they were so generous, and it makes me very happy and thankful," Martha said.
Martha's outlived two husbands. Two other things she learned to do later in life: play golf and paint.
