Sadie Young Moore's 100th Birthday Article

Note: Sadie Young Moore was the daughter of Louisa Robey Young and Robert Young. She was the last of Levi and Almira Waite Robey's grandchildren to die, and the first known of the Robeys to live to be 100. She was the great-granddaughter of William and Mary Collins Robey. I attended Aunt Sadie's 100th birthday celebration December 3, 1979 at the home of her son Ward Moore in Cedar Grove, New Jersey. R. Campbell, Ed.

CENTURY OF 'CLEAN LIVING'
ADDS UP TO HAPPY BIRTHDAY

BY MICHAEL COREY
One-hundred-year-old Sadie E. Moore doesn't drink, smoke, or swear. "I've lived a good clean life," she explained. "My mother was a good Christian woman and she brought me up that way."

Born in Freeport, Ill., Dec. 3, 1879, Mrs. Moore came to Cedar Grove 10 years ago to live with her son, Ward, and his wife, Viola.

Saturday neighbors visited for cookies and coffee to help celebrate her 100th birthday and Sunday family members gathered to officially mark her centennial year.

"I never thought I'd make it this long," admitted the township woman.

Despite the occasion, Mrs. Moore took the events in stride and requested no special birthday gifts or for that matter wishes no special Christmas presents. "I don't need anything," she stated.

Mrs. Moore however recalled another Christmas back in Illinois when she was 10-years-old. The congregation of her church joined to decorate a community Christmas tree, illuminated with candles and strung with popcorn.

Some of the holiday presents would be hung from the branches and others would be underneath the tree, recalled Sadie.

"I remember I saw a doll hanging on the tree and thought, 'I wonder who is going to get that,'" said Mrs. Moore. "When my name was called I jumped down underneath my seat and hid, i was so shy.

A former teacher in a one-room school house in Freeport, Mrs. Moore gave up teaching when she was married.

Her first teaching job, when she was 20, paid $18 a month and out of that she had to pay one of her students to put wood in the stove to heat the classroom in the winter.

I'd drive to school in a horse-drawn buggy," pointed out Mrs. Moore. "The children would put the horse and carriage in the barn and it would stay there the whole day while I taught. Later she and her husband, Arthur, purchased a more modern means of transportation--a Model T Ford.

The happiest moment of my life was when i saw my son (Ward) go off to College in 1931," exclaimed Mrs. Moore. Her son attended Wesley University in Illinois and followed in his grandmother's and mother's footsteps by becoming a teacher himself.

Sadie watches some television now, especially her favorites, "The Lawrence Welk Show," and "The Price Is Right," with Bob Barker. Her failing vision, however, has deprived her of her real joy which is reading.

Mrs. Moore admitted she has experienced no cultural shock over the 100 years of her life from witnessing the rapid developments of technology. "I like to see things change, she confessed.

People, though, have changed a little from the early part of the century, she stated. "When you go into a new place people won't welcome you like they used to," she offered. "They used to be friendlier."

Caption under photo: 100th birthday. Sadie E. Moore of Cedar Grove, reminisced by going through a scrap book put together by her grandnephew, Randy, as she marked her 100th birthday Sunday.

Article from the Verona-Cedar Grove Times, Verona, New Jersey, December 1979.