Eastpointe resident shares memories on her 100th birthday

EASTPOINTE — When Reathel Marie Brown turned 100 years old last month — or as some would say, 100 years young — many family members and friends wanted to wish her a happy birthday.

Therefore, a celebration in her honor was held over two days to accommodate everyone: one on her actual birthday on Friday, Jan. 17, and a second party on the following day.

“It was great,” Brown said. “I said anyone could come over that wanted to.”

Guests showed their love with kind wishes and gifts, including shirts with fun messages. One shirt read, “It took 100 years to look this good.” Another message said, “At 100, I’m still playing with a full deck, but it takes longer to shuffle.”

“I got lottery tickets,” the birthday girl said. “I didn’t win big, but I won.”

Brown’s family spans five generations. She has two daughters, six grandchildren, 18 great-grandchildren and 12 great-great grandchildren. Some live close by while others are out of state, but Brown knows all of them.

“It feels great so far,” Brown said of her 100-year milestone.

The centenarian, with the sharp memory and good sense of humor, attributes her longevity to two things.

“A loving family is No. 1,” she said. “No. 2, my work record and my driving record. I’ve been with AAA 55 years. At 22, I got my license. I stopped driving at 98. I had to give up driving when I got glaucoma.”

 

‘Nobody knew they were working on the atomic bomb.’
Brown was born Reathel Marie Heard on Jan. 17, 1925, in a house in Cullman County, Alabama.

“It was pure country. There was only one main road. It was not paved. Church was the only social activity we had,” she said. “We had to push the school bus up the hill because of the mud. It wrecked my brown and white Sadie Oxford (shoes).”

Her dad, Oscar Adrian Heard, and mom, Lennie Armitta Heard, had seven children; Brown is the oldest. She and her siblings grew up playing homemade games and kick the can outdoors.

“Hopscotch was my favorite,” she said.

When not in school, her first job was picking cotton from ages 10-18. She wore socks with the fingers cut out to help protect her hands. By the time she entered West Point High School, the teenager was known for being a paddleboard tennis champ.

“I graduated in 1943. I think there was only 22 people in my class,” she said. “A lot of the boys went into the Army or Navy (during) World War II.”

After high school, Brown enrolled at the Alabama School of Trade. It’s where a handsome young man named Roy Brown caught her eye and her heart. They dated, fell in love, got married and started a life together. While residing in Browntown, Alabama, Roy built the couple’s home. And as they say, opposites attract.

“He was a John McCain, Reagan Republican and I was a yellow dog Democrat,” said Brown, adding, “I voted every year since I was 20 years old.”

Since Roy was a “very proficient layworker,” his skills were needed for the top-secret U.S. government Manhattan Project, so the newlyweds moved to Oak Ridge, Tennessee. They didn’t know it at the time, but Roy was among the engineers who made the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, in 1945.

“(Roy) was in a machine shop. Everything was secretive,” Brown said. “Nobody knew they were working on the atomic bomb.”

She said “everyone was shocked” when the explosives were released, which soon brought the war to an end.

“They didn’t know whether to be happy or unhappy,” Brown said. “It killed a lot of people but saved America.”

 

‘She’s remarkable and caring.’
Friends Roy knew from the Manhattan Project encouraged him to move to Michigan to find work at Chrysler. Roy had a hard time finding a place to live because nobody wanted to rent to people with children.

He finally found a flat. For a long time, the family — including daughters JoAnn, born in 1945, and Mary Jane, born in 1949 — lived on Drexel Street in Detroit. Brown found work at the Detroit Gas Regulation Co. making $35 a week. Another job she had was setting up labs for the students at Wayne State University.

“A really nice place to work at 1400 Chrysler Drive, until they built Scott Hall,” Brown said. “We had an underground tunnel. It looked like something from Mars. I still have friends from (WSU). We keep in contact.”

As a young child, JoAnn was stricken with polio. She had to learn to walk again and even appeared in a March of Dimes poster. If Brown had to pick the greatest invention in the last century, it was “polio shots. It took Dr. (Jonas) Salk several years to find an immunization for polio.”

Brown and her husband enjoyed many life experiences together, including camping. Roy had a camper, and the pair traveled to the 48 contiguous states. After 70 years of marriage, Roy died in 2014. This past December, Brown endured another heartache when daughter Mary Jane died. And just two of Brown’s siblings are still living: sister Alma Heard, 95, and brother Gerney Heard, 92.

Turning 100 gave Brown the chance to reminisce on her life with others, including granddaughters Lisa Major, 53, and Nicole Mann, 47.

“She’s an inspiration,” said Major, of Roseville. “She’s remarkable and caring. She keeps moving.”

Mann, who has a twin sister, Michelle, lives with her grandmother.

“It’s amazing to see her get up at 4 or 5 in the morning and see her constantly doing something,” Mann said. “She’s definitely an inspiration.”

“It might be the cups of Folgers at 5 o’clock in the morning,” Brown said with a laugh.

Brown remains as active as possible. She is a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution, a nonprofit service organization for women who are directly descended from a patriot of the American Revolutionary War. She also knows how to keep loved ones cozy by making beautiful hand-sewn quilts.

“Everything was by hand. She had a big quilting rack hanging from her ceiling in the basement,” Major said. “She taught me to quilt. I made a few. Her stitches were so perfect. I got mine close to hers, but she did it for so long.”

And Brown consistently keeps up with current events.

“I’m a TV news nut. I’m addicted. MSNBC is my channel and CNN,” she said. “I’m worried about the state of the world right now. All we can do is hope for the best.”