Marble Hill woman celebrates 109th birthday amid social distancing

MARBLE HILL, Mo. — Connie Mayfield’s family had planned a big party to celebrate her 109th birthday.

The party was canceled, of course, because of concerns about the coronavirus, but Mayfield doesn’t seem to mind. Surrounded by flowers and balloons, and inundated with phone calls, Mayfield is OK with the downscaled festivities.

Born March 22, 1911, in Bollinger County, the oldest girl in a family of 12 children, Mayfield was about 7 years old when the 1918 flu pandemic (Spanish flu) broke out.

“I remember that. I cried,” Mayfield said. “I was so young. I cried because I wasn’t getting any attention.” She said her parents were preoccupied with the flu pandemic much like people are today with COVID-19.

While longevity does seem to run in the family, Mayfield said she has no idea why she has lived this long.

“You’re a Bollinger. That’s why. It’s all the water you drank down on Crooked Creek,” her nephew, Jim Bollinger, responded. Well known throughout the area, Bollinger is a Southeast Missourian Spirit of America recipient and retired insurance agent.

Only a few years behind her in age, Mayfield has three sisters and one brother who are still living: Belva Banta, 103; Hazel Hutson, 96; Mary Hansen, 93; and Dick Bollinger, 90, the youngest of the 12. All live in Marble Hill.

“We always laugh and say the baby is 90 years old,” said Hansen, who lives with Mayfield.

Hard work might have contributed to her long life, Mayfield said. She started teaching at the age of 17, initially in one-room schools, and continued until retirement.

She inherited a strong work ethic from her parents, John and Minnie Bollinger. For many years, her father worked as a school janitor while moonlighting as a driver. He used the family’s only car as a taxi service, driving people from Lutesville to Cape Girardeau and anywhere else they needed to go. Mayfield’s mother also helped support the family by taking in laundry.

Mayfield graduated from Lutesville High School, attended Will Mayfield College in Marble Hill for a short time and then graduated from what is now Southeast Missouri State University. She and her husband, Truman, later moved to Pekin, Illinois, where he worked as a school superintendent and she taught kindergarten. Her husband died in 1968 in Illinois after buying a house in Bollinger County. He was the nephew of Will Mayfield, founder of the local college, which closed in the 1930s.

These days, Mayfield stays in her home and lets friends and family come to her. Almost completely blind, she spends much of her time listening to the news on television.

“She loves company. If she’s asleep when they come by, she says, ‘Wake me up,’” Hansen said. “About every day at 2 p.m. we have family by for coffee. We have a lot of family.”

This year’s birthday is different. It’s a quiet one, Bollinger said.

“People are mostly calling in,” he said, “adhering to what the government is asking us to do.”