Happy 94th Birthday Helen Mae Norman Edwards

My grandmother, Helen Mae Norman Edwards, is celebrating her 94th birthday today! She says that as far as she knows she's made it to be older than any other member of her family. Her grandfather Thomas Burr Williams died at 93 and at the time of his death was the oldest living resident of Chapman, Kansas.

She was born January 9, 1914 in a stone house at the southern end of her families farm in Dickinson County, Kansas. She attended Wesley School for grades 1-8. She graduated from Dickinson County High School in 1931. When she was younger she played the violin and the piano. She loves to sew; has an amazing “green thumb” (you should she her African Violets); and has made several quilts. She is very active, walks every day, is very involved in her town's Senior Center, drives and still lives in her own home. She is an inspiration indeed!

Other family birthdays today: Carl Theodore Williams, son of my grandmother's uncle George Williams, Carl sadly died January 19, 1919 at age 5. Samuel Tuttle, my first cousin 8 times removed, born in 1659. Catherine Ballinger, one of my 7x great aunts, born in 1765. Catherine's sister Hannah is my 6x great grandmother. Her great grandaughter was Nancy Ellen Turner Williams (my great great grandmother and our birthday girl Helen's grandmother).