BANGOR, Maine — Ruth Smith, who turned 103 a week ago, lives by herself in an apartment off Ohio Street and cooks her own meals, cleans her own home and does her own laundry, and she doesn’t have plans to change her routine anytime in the near future.
Smith attributes her long life to “living off the land.”
“We were all brought up on vegetables” pulled from the ground by her and her family, she said.
“They claim it’s in your genes,” she said, referring to longevity. “I don’t have any sickness. I don’t have any colds. I’m just healthy.”
The only medicine the centenarian takes is for high blood pressure, she said, adding that she eats her big meal of the day at noon.
Smith was born nine days after Oklahoma became a state and a year after Albert Einstein introduced his theory of relativity.
Theodore Roosevelt was serving his second term as president when she was born, and 18 others have served in the post in her lifetime.
According to United States Census Bureau data from September, Smith is one of 70,490 centenarians in the country. The exact number of people age 100 or older in Maine was not listed.
Smith, who wore a set of pearls and a pink sweater Saturday, was born on Nov. 15, 1907, at home in St. Albans, where she lived until 1963 when she and her husband, Newton Smith, moved the family to his hometown of Palmyra.
Smith grew up in her grandmother’s home in St. Albans and still remembers a time when “my sister and I had roller skates given to us for Christmas” and decided to roll around in the attic when one of her uncles was sleeping on the second floor.
She attended St. Albans Grade School and went to high school at Maine Central Institute in Pittsfield and Hartland Academy, where she graduated in 1926.
“We had a train from Hartland to Pittsfield” that was used to get back and forth to school and shopping, she said. “We used a horse and sleigh in the wintertime” to get around.
“Lots of times we walked from St. Albans to Hartland,” Smith said. “We thought nothing of that.”
Her husband sold televisions when they first were introduced and was a TV repairman, so her family was the first in St. Albans to have one, she said.
“We’ve had TVs since ’53,” Smith said. “TV then wasn’t quite as nice [as today]. It was black and white and you didn’t get such a nice picture, but it was quite a thrill to watch it.”
Watching television introduced her to the Boston Red Sox, and over the years she has grown to love the team.
“I’m kind of a Red Sox fan,” Smith said.
Smith can easily talk baseball with others and knows the players by name.
After high school, she married, had two children and was a homemaker except for the eight years that she worked at the St. Albans post office. She lost a son, James Mills, during the Korean War, and her husband about 15 years ago.
Smith moved to Bangor a decade ago.
“I thought I’d move to be closer to them,” she said, referring to her daughter, Marilyn McLeod of Bangor, and granddaughter, Julie Hayes of Eddington.
Smith and her daughter “go grocery shopping every week and go to the hair dresser,” said Hayes. “The laundry is downstairs and she carries everything down. She does it all.
“She’s so independent, she’s so capable,” she added. “Mamie is an inspiration to me and my brother. She’s a role model.”
When Smith moved to the Queen City, she decided it was time to give up driving.
“I didn’t see any need of the car at 94 years old,” she said. “I didn’t want to fight the traffic in the city. I always drove out in the country.”
Instead of a cake for her 103rd birthday, Smith wanted a “good apple pie,” said Jim Hayes, Julie’s husband. Jim Hayes is director of operations at Bangor Daily News.
The birthday girl got her apple pie and was joined at the party by her daughter and a couple of her friends.
Smith gets up each morning and spends a part of her day reading the daily newspaper, which is something the centenarian has enjoyed for most of her life.
“I read the newspaper every morning,” she said. “My goodness, I’ve had it [delivered] for over 50 years. When I lived in St. Albans, it came by mail.”
In addition to reading the newspaper, Smith loves to knit and bake and is constantly making items for her granddaughter to take home.
“No matter how old I am, she’s still taking care of me,” said Julie Hayes, who recently became a grandmother herself.
“It gives me something to do,” Smith said simply.