Freehold Twp. woman celebrates 100 years Nancy Strothers gave a fresh start to many foster children BY CLARE MARIE CELANO Staff Writer ERIC SUCAR staff Nancy Strothers, flanked by nurse's aide Muriel Beams and son Willie Worrill, talks about her life in her Freehold Township home. Strothers, who was born in Georgia in 1907, recently celebrated her 100th birthday. Nancy Worilds Strothers has seen a great deal of life in her 100 years, but a visit to her home and a conversation with her revealed what is most important to her - her children. Nancy, who lives in Freehold Township, was born in Blakely, Ga., on June 4, 1907, and recently celebrated her 100th birthday. With a mind that rivals a person years younger, Nancy took a trip back in time with a reporter. She went back to her childhood in Georgia, back to a place she remembers as wonderful, a place that always spelled home to her. Nancy calls herself a "country girl" even though she spent a great deal of her life in more city-like environments such as Newark. She remembers picking strawberries at the age of 8. "We'd get 3 cents a basket," she recalled. Nancy, who was obviously a champion strawberry picker, managed to make $2 a week during the season. At that time 5 cents would buy a loaf of bread, although Nancy said her mom made their bread most of the time. When she was 8 years old in 1915, her father, Jack, and her mother, Susie, took the family of seven children to New Jersey. Jack went to work at the Picatinny Arsenal in northern New Jersey during World War I. "Then I got a promotion from picking strawberries," she said, smiling. "I started baby-sitting." Her position as a baby sitter, or nanny, would be the beginning of a career for Nancy that would bring to fruition her dream of being a mother to many children. She started her baby-sitting career at the age of 14 when a family in Maplewood asked her to accompany them to Belmar to care for their children during the summer season at the shore. She took care of the children, and when the season was over the family asked her to stay on. She spent several years working as a live-in nanny and going to school as well. Nancy said she earned $8 per week working "all day and all night." "It was hard being away from my home," she remembered, although her home in the Vaux Hall section of Union Township was not that far away. Nancy worked as a child caretaker in Maplewood and Short Hills. At the age of 16 she took on some domestic work. After World War I, Nancy said, her father could not find any more regular work so he worked at part-time jobs to support the family. Susie stayed home with the children because she could not find any work at all, and Nancy took on more domestic work to help support the family. During World War II, Nancy said, she worked in a munitions plant in Newark. She met her future husband William Strothers at a dance. "I wasn't a very good dancer, but my husband was," she remembered. When asked how William proposed to her, Nancy said, "He did ask me to marry him, but in my day you had to have your parents' permission. So he asked my father and then we had to wait for the verdict. He did say yes, though." The couple married in 1927 when Nancy was 20 and William was 27 and they started their lives together in an apartment in Newark. "We had 25 years together," she added. Nancy and William were divorced by the time William died in his early 70s. Nancy and William did not have any biological children, but Nancy found a way to bring many children into her life when she accepted her first foster child into her home in 1945. Nancy cared for foster children between 1945 and 1989. She moved from Newark to the Cream Ridge section of western Monmouth County with her last foster child and stayed there until 1995 when she moved to the Raintree development in Freehold Township. She said she loved western Monmouth County because it was the "country" for her all over again, reminding her of her childhood in Georgia. Known to all her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren as "Mother Dear," Nancy has woven a tapestry of love around the children she raised over the years and it surrounds and embraces her in her cozy condominium. Photos of her children and their children line the walls and sit on table tops. She was happy to point out a photo of Diane Lauther, a teacher who lives in Rhode Island, and Diane's sons, Kevin, a West Point graduate, and Mark, a Princeton graduate, who Nancy said is currently studying engineering at Georgia Tech. There is also a photo of Milton Brewster in his army uniform, and one of Timmy Stewart, a corrections officer. Nancy helped to shape the lives of these individuals and the birthday celebration that was held in her honor at the Freehold Gardens on June 2 is testimony to that fact. More than 130 guests shared in the enjoyment of Nancy's birthday party. Among the guests were many of Nancy's foster children and their children, who came to honor "Mother Dear" for all she had given them over the years, especially for the gift of herself and her love. There are photo albums, greeting cards and mementos sprinkled about her living room. Her children and grandchildren keep in touch through visits, phone calls and greeting cards. Nancy's son, Willie Worrill, lives with her now and helps in her care along with home health aide Muriel Beams, who works for Family and Children's Services, Long Branch. Beams has been with Nancy for three years. Worrill, who was present for the interview with Nancy, came to live with Nancy in 1953 and said he thinks his mom is a "beautiful person." "You couldn't have a better person for a mother, a friend and an adviser," he said. Nancy said she is blessed to be able to do most things for herself, but she does have her scooter to help her with her chores. Beams, of Freehold Township, said she helps Nancy with certain activities, but Nancy does many things on her own. "Working with Nancy is a pleasure. I think the world of this lady. She really is amazing, and a great lady," Beams said. When asked what she misses about the old days, Nancy said she misses her mother. "We were very close," she said. She also said there was more respect for people in her day. "Especially for teachers. People did not call teachers by their first names," she said, sounding horrified that this should take place today. She is not too keen on the way people treat one another in 2007. "People need to straighten out, from the president on down," she said emphatically. When asked what else she didn't like in today's world, Nancy said, "There's too many naked people. When I was young we had to cover ourselves up. Even when we went swimming I still had to cover my arms." She did however, give praise to the modern world of technology, the world that gave her the telephone and television - things she saw materialize in her lifetime - things she lived without as a child. And she does enjoy TV, especially the news and baseball games. An avid sports fan, Nancy said she and William attended many Brooklyn Dodgers baseball games. Her favorite team now is the New York Mets. "She doesn't get around too much these days," Worrill said, "so television bridges the gap and brings the outside world in here to her." Nancy's advice to all those who want to live a long life is to "eat plenty of vegetables and do as much as you can for yourself."