103-year-old lady does math in her head

Published 9:28 am Friday, April 17, 2015

CELEBRATING: Virginia Seawright, who was affectionately called “The Queen,” waves to a crowd of family and friends at her 103rd birthday party held Thursday at Heritage House Retirement Center.

CELEBRATING: Virginia Seawright, who was affectionately called “The Queen,” waves to a crowd of family and friends at her 103rd birthday party held Thursday at Heritage House Retirement Center.

Virginia Seawright was born the day after the Titanic sank, April 16, 1912.

Thursday, Seawright turned 103-years old surrounded by family and friends at her home for the past 11 years, Heritage House Retirement Center.

Through the years, Seawright said she has stayed busy working and travelling.

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Seawright dedicated 41 years of her life to education, including a period as principal of Hermanville Elementary School.

“I spent 17 in Claiborne County, Mississippi and 24 in Galveston County, Texas,” she said.

Seawright taught a lot of students in those 41 years.

“I don’t have any children,” she said. “My students were my children. I had a lot of them.”

Seawright said she still hears from a lot of her students from both Texas and Mississippi.

“I taught all the way from grade two to grade 12, mostly junior high math,” she said.

Seawright said she still enjoys math.

“I do it in my head,” she said. “These people who have to have these little calculators or whatever, I say throw that thing away and use your head.”

Following retirement, Seawright spent much of her time travelling the world.

“I’ve been all over the United States and every other continent besides Antarctica,” she said. “I would have done that if I had been 20 years younger.”

Seawright said she would have gone to the South Pole to see Antarctica, but by that time she was in her 80s and she thought she had better not.

“I was traveling a lot on my own, you know, I was by myself, and I liked that,” she said. “If I wanted to do something, I did it.”

After Seawright had to quit travelling, she stayed home and visited with her friends and neighbors.

Seawright said she rarely ever gets colds.

“I am in pretty good health,” she said. “My mother lived to age 99.”

Among the friends and family in attendance for the party were some of Seawright’s former pupils.

Sue Rigby, 91, of Utica said Seawright was her teacher and basketball coach.

“She learned in spite of the teacher,” Seawright joked.

Rigby said she’s enjoyed staying in touch with her former teacher and coach all of these years.