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City Hall Honors Local Centenarian

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Joy Diaz, KUT News
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This is Martha Coleman Day in Austin. Mayor Lee Leffingwell made that proclamation in honor of one of Austin’s oldest living residents.

Coleman is a tiny woman. At a quilting party celebrating her 108th birthday she wore a pink dress that was a little too big for her. Coleman’s 93-year-old niece had been stitching while she waited for her aunt’s arrival. One of Coleman’s great-grandnieces put a Happy Birthday rhinestone tiara on her head. Coleman’s slim fingers grabbed a needle and start putting the shapes together.

“I never did play too much,” said Coleman, who works out once a week. “I was always sick when I was small. But I liked to skip, skip, skip. But I was crippled when I was little and I never did play too much.”

But she could quilt. So as a little girl, Coleman learned from her mother. The world has dramatically changed around her, but she has kept a tight-knit family that looks like her quilts -- all colors, shapes and sizes stitched by her common thread. And she works out once a week.

Leffingwell presented Coleman with a proclamation from the city and one from Gov. Rick Perry.

“I don’t even have words to thank you,” she said.

“Well, no thanks are necessary,” Leffingwell replied.

“But I do have to say thank you.”

“We’ll come back next year and wish you a happy 109, okay?”

“Okay.”

Texas Standard reporter Joy Diaz has amassed a lengthy and highly recognized body of work in public media reporting. Prior to joining Texas Standard, Joy was a reporter with Austin NPR station KUT on and off since 2005. There, she covered city news and politics, education, healthcare and immigration.
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