When Mrs. Ester Lucille Larkin, known as Mrs. Mack, voted on Wednesday during early voting, it was the 41st time she had voted in a General Election. Every 2 years for the last 82 years, Mrs. Mack has cast her ballot in a General Election.
On Friday October 24th she turned 100 years old. Saturday the 25th nearly 400 of her friends, family, neighbors, church people, and her old pastors from as far as California, Kansas, Alabama, Wyoming, Mississippi and Oklahoma came to the Event Center at the Fair Grounds to throw her a 100th Birthday Party!
The first ballot she cast just 15 days after her 18th birthday was for Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1932 and she had to pay a Poll Tax to do it. She has voted in 20 Presidential Elections, 41 General Elections, and every school board or county election as far as she can remember. At the young age of 80, she started volunteering during elections at polling stations in Brookston and Petty until she turned 96. Her daughter Phyllis said that she impressed upon her and her brother that when there was an election, they were to vote.
Mrs. Mack was born in 1914 in Cooper, Texas. When I asked her if she had lived in this area her whole life she said “No, I am from Delta County, I have only lived in Lamar County since 1950.” She started off working by helping to care for sick people and neighbors. She cared for two girls for several months while their mother was sick.
She lived in Commerce and worked at cafés near the college and has spent time working in grocery stores. When she moved to Dallas to go to work at Proctor & Gamble in their Crisco division making Fluffo, she told me a story of being worried about being late on her first day of work. She said so she woke up at 3 or 4 AM in the morning and had gone out of her apartment and bumped into her next door neighbor. She said she asked him what time it was and he said 2 or 3 AM. The neighbor gave her his watch and said when you get ready leave, just slide it back under my door. “I bought an alarm clock with my 1st paycheck” said Mrs. Mack. When she lived in Paris, she worked at the old Five & Dime Kress Store before it burnt then she went to work at Newton Wall. She also worked at Leisure Lodge Nursing Home before retiring.
Mrs. Mack married in 1943 to a local Cotton Farmer and was married for 48 years before losing her husband in 1991. She has a son and daughter (Phyllis Brumley), 5 grand kids and 9 great grand kids with a 10th on the way. She has lived in the same house since she moved to Lamar County in 1950 and is surrounded by the 2nd generation of the same neighbors she has had for 64 years. I asked Mrs. Mack if she had ever remarried or had any serious boyfriends since losing her husband, Phyllis said she asked her mom once if she had every thought of remarrying and Mrs. Mack said “What would I want with an old man.” A neighbor with them during the interview said they were at one of the nursing homes visiting friends and Mrs. Mack had been making the rounds seeing everyone when she came back and said she had been proposed to. When asked what her response was, she said “I’m going to find out if he has any money first!”
I asked Mrs. Mack if she voted with the Democrat or Republican Party, she stated she is not either one and always voted for the individual not the party. She asked who I thought was going to run after President Obama and when I said about 10 or 12 right now for the Republicans, Vice-President Biden and Hillary Clinton for the Democrats, she quickly stated “I’m not voting for her, Nooo way!”
Some things that really stood out during the interview were that she is still active by working a Telephone Ministry where she calls people and invites them to church. That church is the Brookston Baptist Church that she has been a member of since 1952. She spends time visiting with friends, a lot of visiting according to Phyllis and her neighbor, and that she has never had a driver’s license in her life. She has never smoked, never drinks and she has a bowl of oatmeal and prunes every morning. Most impressive is how quick her sense of humor and whit come out.
We agreed that in 2 years I would meet her for an interview when she casts her ballot in her 22nd Presidential Election.
Happy Belated Birthday Mrs. Mack and wishing you many more!
Written by JD Marrs