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HOLLY WISE/Ledger and Times
Martha Broach, left, is pictured with her daughter, Gale Cornelison who will celebrate her “13th” birthday on Friday, Feb. 29, 2008. Cornelison said she celebrates her birthday on Feb. 28 three out of four years and that her mother always made her birthday special. |
Calendar has many Leap Year babes just in their teens
By HOLLY WISE
Staff Writer
For the nearly 301 million Americans who celebrate their birthdays on any of the 365 days in a year, February 29 is a fascination, an opportunity to study solar calendars and, for this month, an added work day.
But for the 187,000 Americans who were born on Leap Year Day, it's time to party - their birthday has arrived and it only comes around every four years.
For Cliff Finney, who was born Feb. 29,1932, “this is his last year as a teenager,” says his wife, Norma.
Brenda Williams, however, will leave childhood behind this year as she celebrates her 13th birthday on Friday.
“After waiting 51 years, I will finally be a teenager,” she said.
Born in Anderson, Ind. on Feb. 29, 1956, Williams was one of six “Leap Day Babies”, a record for Anderson that has not been broken, she said. After moving away from Anderson for 18 years, Williams returned and the local newspaper printed a poem she had written about her Leap Year birthdays. She mentioned that she wanted to meet her “nursery mates.”
Forty-eight years after sharing the nursery together, four of the six “babies” were reunited at the hospital where they were born.
Williams recalls some of the most memorable birthdays she's had.
“For my ‘Sweet Sixteenth' birthday, I only had four candles on my birthday cake. My ‘ninth birthday,' my son was older then me (he was 10). My 10th birthday, my son and daughter were both older then me. My 12th birthday, my husband took me to a G-rated movie because I wasn't old enough to get into a PG-13 rated one.”
For complete story, see today's Ledger & Times
Story created Feb 28, 2008 - 10:47:13 EST.
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