(Roxbury, MA 02/16/17) Muriel Walker gets a kiss from Mildred Mercado as she takes a picture with friends during her 100th birthday party. Pictured behind them from left to right are Karen Sanders, Bobby Corry, and Jackie Geer. Thursday, February 16, 2017. Staff photo by John Wilcox.
Most people don’t live to 100, but Muriel Walker marked that milestone yesterday, with no regrets.
“I felt great today,” Walker said after a celebration attended by family, friends and officials at MLK Towers in Roxbury. “I’ve had a good life. I can’t complain.”
Born in Cambridge in 1917 — when Woodrow Wilson was president — Walker was one of five daughters, the baby of the family and now the only surviving sister.
After graduating from Roxbury Memorial High School for Girls, she went on to become an assistant dance coach to Mildred Davenport, the African-American dancer, dance instructor and civic official. She married, had four children, 12 grandchildren and several great-grandchildren.
For more than 90 years, Walker has been a member of St. Mark Congregational Church in Dorchester, where she has been an adviser to teenage girls, leader of both Girl Scouts and Campfire Girls, a team leader in vacation Bible school, and a member of both the church choir and bell choir.
Today, she enjoys vacationing with her family and cruising with her friends.
“She’s a remarkable woman,” said Darryl Smith, a spokesman for TotalCare, the home healthcare provider that has helped her maintain her independence. “She’s living the life most of us wish we could at that age.”
This article originally appeared in the Boston Herald on February 17, 2017.