Candles will add sparkle to her Fourth

"I thought all those fireworks were just for me,'' Betty Marx says of her childhood birthdays.

By BETSY BOLGER-PAULET

© St. Petersburg Times, published July 4, 2000

BELLEAIR BLUFFS -- Betty Marx celebrates her 100th birthday today, but she doesn't consider it a big deal.

At least, not compared with last year.

"Last year was the grandest birthday party ever," said the Belleair Bluffs resident. "The parties are nice, but this year's is a bit anticlimactic, after the big to-do in Philadelphia."

In 1999, she was a celebrity, the oldest person in a group photo billed as the "Photo of the Century."

Philadelphia tourism officials had conducted a nationwide search for one person born on July the Fourth from each year of the century. One of Mrs. Marx's caregivers saw an article in the Times about the search and sent in an application. She and the others were selected from more than 25,000 applicants. There were 17 applicants born July 4, 1900, her birthday.

Mrs. Marx and her caretakers were flown to Philadelphia for the event, and the city paid the expenses.

When the flash of the camera bulbs captured a century's worth of American faces on film, Mrs. Marx, the oldest, sat in her wheelchair in the front row beside the youngest, Sarah Elizabeth Kitz, a 3-hour-old infant still in the incubator.

The photo was taken in front of Independence Hall at 7:04 a.m. July 4. Photographer Paul Hosefros, who represented the year 1947, used a remote control to snap the picture from the bleachers where he stood.

To mark her 100th birthday, from Sunday through today, Mrs. Marx has been the center of attention as her five caregivers staged three parties for her and her friends and family. One was a dinner at Clearwater Country Club, another an open house at the Belleair Bluffs condominium where she lives, and tonight there will be a traditional holiday picnic in the park. On hand to help celebrate are a host of nieces and nephews, some coming from as far as California.

Philadelphia aside, it is a big occasion.

As a young child, she recalled, she always loved her birthday.

"I thought all those fireworks were just for me."

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