THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, April 26, 1995 TAG: 9504250136
SECTION: ISLE OF WIGHT CITIZEN PAGE: 02 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: Around Town
SOURCE: Linda McNatt
LENGTH: Medium: 87 lines
Looking for the secret to a long life?
Here it is: Burger King's chicken tenders, sodas with no ice, french fries without salt, and a good doctor.
That's the recipe, all right, according to Hattie Davis, one of Main Street Smithfield's oldest residents.
She turned 91 on April 13. She invited me to her birthday party, but it was short notice, and I couldn't make it. So I told her I would drop by to see her some time.
I met a cheerful, pleasantly funny lady who had one thing to say about being the age she is: ``Ahhh, it's so good to be here.''
Davis laughs frequently and giggles like a little girl. It's obvious she's used to getting her way. Like the birthday party at Burger King.
The party request was a little different for the local fast-food restaurant, Davis' niece, Fannie Bowers, told me. But when they heard it was her aunt's favorite restaurant - in fact, the only restaurant she'll bother to leave the house for - the Burger King folks were glad to accommodate.
The menu was set. Davis always gets the same thing.
``Small chicken tenders, small fries with no salt and a medium soda with no ice - they cheat you when they put ice in it,'' she said.
The biggest problem was getting her out of the car.
``I wanted to go to the window, get what I wanted, and come back home to eat. Then, all these men came to the door to get me out of the car!''
Inside - when Davis finally got there - there were party hats, her favorite foods and two birthday cakes, along with about a dozen friends and neighbors wishing her well.
Well? She couldn't be any better, she said.
``Are you trying to say this old girl is old?'' she asked me, glaring.
``One thing, it's good to be here,'' she said again. And she giggled.
Davis was born in Cumberland County. When she was just a teenager, she left home with the only brother she has still living - Willie Carter, who's 95 - and the two of them worked for a pediatrician in New York. Her brother was the family chauffeur, and she cleaned house.
By the time they were ready to come home, the family had settled in Zuni, and Davis says she began being courted by a local farmer. She married Virginius Davis.
Davis took his wife to live on the family farm on U.S. Route 258, not far from the county courthouse. They had one daughter, who now lives in Pennsylvania. She couldn't make the party, but she called.
Eventually, Davis tired of living in the country and asked her husband to move her to the big city. James Brown Sr., her next-door neighbor, said she has been like family for nearly 40 years.
Carrie Bailey, retired from the telephone company, is Davis' best friend - someone who knows some of her friend's deepest, darkest secrets. Like, once, Davis liked fish sandwiches at McDonald's better than chicken tenders at Burger King. But that's all in the past now.
``She'll call me and say, `Carrie, I'm hungry. I'm so hungry. I haven't had a thing to eat all day,' '' Bailey said, laughing.
She added that she knows better than that, that Davis and her brother are well cared for by Bowers. It was she, Davis' niece, who chose to look after the elderly members of her family rather than have them spend their last years in a nursing home.
Davis isn't as mobile as her brother, Bowers said, but she's always in good humor. Give her a television - ``The Price is Right,'' ``Days of Our Lives,'' ``Wheel of Fortune'' - sprinkle in a few chicken tenders, and she's happy.
Did she ever smoke?
``No,'' she said. ``I can't stand the smell.''
Did she ever drink?
``Yeah, I used to get drunk,'' she said, with a mischievous grin. ``But it's been one long time.''
Oh, and don't forget the good doctor.
``There is nobody like my Dr. Jamison,'' she said of the Smithfield Medical Clinic practitioner. ``With him, I can say whatever I want. He just tells me to shut up.''
Jamison does tell his patient not to eat fried foods, Bowers said. She pays little attention to him.
``At my age,'' Davis said, ``I'll eat anything I want to eat!''
As I walked out the door, I got one more Hattie-ism, something to think about. She said: ``Be a nice Christian child.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo by LINDA McNATT
Hattie Davis, 91, says of her age: ``Ahhh, it's so good to be
here.''
by CNB