Perrett celebrates 103rd birthday with 5 generations of family
A lot can happen in a century.
In 100 years, the United States went from the invention of the stapler to the advent of the atomic bomb.
On Sept. 14, 1921, Charlotte Perrett was born in Colbert County near Belle Mont Mansion.
Charlotte Perrett made a visit to Belle Mont Mansion on Sept. 14 as part of her 103rd birthday celebration. Pictured from left are site
advisor Ninon Parker, interim site director Laura Emily Everitt, Perrett, oldest grandchild James McCoo, daughter Barb Green, daughter
Mattie Johnson and Pastor Keeton Stewart.
This past weekend, she celebrated her 103rd birthday with many members of her friends and family.
What was life like in 1921?
Warren G. Harding was elected president, Franklin Roosevelt contracted polio, the mechanical dishwasher was introduced and the very first baseball game to be aired on the radio occurred between the Pirates and Phillies at Forbes Field.
The No. 1 song at the time was “I Ain’t got Nobody” by Marion Harris, and the No. 1 movie was “The Three Musketeers” starring Douglas Fairbanks.
Former U.S. Senator Howell Heflin, who practiced law for years in The Shoals, was born that year.
According to the University of California at Berkeley, the average life expectancy for a female in 1921 was 61.8 years.
Perrett beat that average and then some.
Even at 103 she still lives on her own, cooks and cleans for herself, according to her daughter Mattie Johnson.
Another daughter, Barb Green, said Perrett is “doing great” as far as her health goes.
“She still cooks for everybody,” Green said.
Everybody, in this case, includes 15 grandkids, 28 great grandkids, 25 great great grandkids and four great great great grandkids. That’s 72 total, with three more triple greats on the way.
“I feel good,” Perrett said. “It’s not so much making the age, it’s what you make out of the ages. I’m enjoying all of it. There are six generations of us, and all the mamas are living. It feels good, because they all call me ‘Madea.’ I just love it, because on special days, they all come to see me.”
Perrett was the eighth child out of 10. She had five children herself.
When she was young, she remembers chopping cotton and other chores.
She said members of her family “thought we were somebody” because their outdoor toilet and two holes instead of one.
And toilet paper? Look no further than the handy Sears-Roebuck catalogue.
“We never knew there would be a day like (this day and age),” she said. “Things have changed a lot. A lot of people love each other, but I think some people don’t know what love is. In my family, we just love everybody.”
Perrett was named after her grandmother Charlotte, who was a midwife. Perret said her grandmother helped deliver all the children in the area — Black, white, all the children.
She remembers her grandmother had a black bag she took with her to all those appointments.
Green said when midwives would deliver a baby back then, they would record the date, but they might not make it to the courthouse for months.
That is why some people, Perrett included, have different registered birth months than what is accurate.
Perrett said when she picks up medicine at the pharmacy, they often ask her whether September or October is her correct birth month.
“Sometimes they wrote things down wrong,” Green said. “Her birthday is listed as October, but it’s actually September.”
In Perrett’s case, it is clear that one of the reasons she has made it so long is staying active.
“Do something,” she said. “Talk to the young ones.”
Perrett and family members representing the six generations met at St. Paul Missionary Baptist Church in Tuscumbia Sept. 15.
