Illinois' Oldest Resident Marks 112th Birthday
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Edna Lawler won't have a big party as she turns 112 years old Wednesday.
Illinois' oldest resident will have a quiet celebration at the Hazel Crest retirement home where she lives. Her daughter, Irma Pestlin, believes her mother's key to a long and happy life has been moderation in all things, and that goes for her birthday as well.
"She's never deprived herself of a piece of cake, ever, but she never overdid it either," she said.
Pestlin said her mother was doing well until a stroke last year.
"She kept her own checkbook till she was 103," Pestlin said.
Lawler was born in 1904, one month after the Wright brothers' first flight at Kitty Hawk.
"She saw the beginning of flight to landing on the moon, and beyond," Pestlin said.
Podcast
Lawler was the eldest of six children, and has outlived all her siblings.
"She inherited good genes, and had a good beginning; lasted her a long time," Pestlin said. "She was a farm girl from a little bit south of Kankakee, in Beaverville, Illinois. That seems to stick in her mind, probably more than anything, were those years."
Lawler had four daughters, but outlived one of them. She also has 13 grandchildren and 25 great-grandchildren.
