Her favorite foods now are cantaloupe, watermelon, and ice cream. Her 102 years of life is a reflection of a committed wife, mother and a very high achiever. She had five children, three girls and a set of twin boys. When the doctor was delivering her boys, Myrtle was unaware she was having twins. After the birth of the first boy, the doctor said “hold on Myrtle, I believe you’ve got another one in there.” All the children were with her at the birthday celebration except Elizabeth, who passed away from breast cancer in 1990. Her four surviving children display a deep admiration for the lady who gathered them together one evening and told them to “look up at the moon.” They were just kids when their mother said, “Perhaps not in my lifetime, but some day people will walk on the moon!” She lived to see it and her prediction came true. To teach her children how strong ants were, they would take a break when picking cotton in the fields and feed plums and bread to an ant hill. Then Myrtle would explain to them how strong the ants were and to observe how they could carry the bread and plums off.

  Myrtle is also a graduate of the two year Boiling Springs Junior College, now Gardner-Webb University. As we sat around at her table this past Sunday, the children, Jo Anne, twins Leon and Lemuel and Peggy shared fond memories and amazing stories of this beloved mother.

  Peggy recalled how their mother taught them to make pictures out of the clouds in the sky. Jo mentioned how Myrtle taught all of them how to recognize and identify plants. The boys loved to swing on a grape vines. For their mother, everything in life was a lesson for her kids. They grew and canned all their own vegetables and had peach, apple, pear, damson plum and cherry trees. They raised their own meat and milked their own cows. At the age of 82 ,Myrtle who loves to travel, won a cow milking contest in New Zealand! She’s also been to Alaska, Hawaii, Australia, and the Caribbean just to mention a few of her traveled destinations. She wrote a children’s story about a monkey and won the prize for the best story. Myrtle also made all her children and grandchildren quilts. She has 11 grandchildren, 22 great grandchildren and 1 great-great grandchild. The children will proudly proclaim that “she was always there for us”.

  The lady who learned to swim at 65 years of age was also the lady who “couldn’t wait for the school bus to bring her children home.” That’s when they would tell their mother everything they learned that day.

  She now spends time with her girls, Peggy and Jo. When asked about being 102, Myrtle simply says with her eyes still dancing, “I don’t understand why I’m still around.”

   Perhaps ,Myrtle Harrill Ledbetter, it’s because you have had so much to give, to teach and love! You are truly an amazing lady!