Super Senior: Kate Clifford
VERGENNES, Vt. (WCAX) - At her home in Vergennes, Kate Clifford speaks her mind. With over a century of living. she’s no doubt earned that right.
“I kind of make myself look good every day,” Clifford said.
She lives on her own, but on this day her youngest daughter, Connie Gilbert, and oldest granddaughter, Lisa DeMilt, are visiting for a kitchen conversation.
“No matter what I’ve done, she just always sticks by me,” DeMilt said.
Reporter Joe Carroll: Does it seem like a 101 years of life?
Kate Clifford: It’s seems like 200!
Clifford was raised in Ohio. Her father owned a garage, but when lightNing destroyed the business and home, the family went off to live with Clifford’s grandparents.
A tomboy at 14, she bloomed into a young woman a few years later. At 20, she married Gale and quickly had children. Gale was injured in combat during World War 2. “He was hit over the head and it caused him to have a tumor,” Clifford said. At the time, they had five children. “My youngest was four or five months old when he died.”
She became a widow in her mid-20s. Besides raising her kids, Clifford worked as a waitress. That’s when a man named Ernie from New England made the moves on the Midwest mom. “I was walking down the street. He stopped me and said, ‘I have a brand new car, would you like to come sit in it?’ ‘No, I wouldn’t,’” Clifford recalled. But he would visit her at the restaurant. “He was from Vermont. He just barely came to town. I don’t know, Vermonters are a bit conceited I thought.”
But his persistence paid off. She married Ernie and soon -- with a car full of kids -- they headed for the Green Mountains to live. “You wouldn’t think a guy would pursue a woman with five kids, especially little ones,” Clifford said.
They settled in North Ferrisburgh. Clifford worked as a lunch lady, a nursing home cook, and a waitress. “When I worked in a restaurant, I wouldn’t take tips off the table,” she said. “I didn’t like people giving me things... and I didn’t think I really earned it. I got a paycheck, should’ve been enough.”
Soon, there were three more mouths to feed. When you live to a certain age, there will be highs and lows. Clifford has outlived her second husband and three of her children. “It’s worse than losing a spouse, I guess it’s because they’re part of you,” she said.
She’s the matriarch of many. She’s even a great-great-grandmother.
And with a nip of Fireball Whisky, she shows she still has a spicy sprit. “We can’t forget the Fireball. Joe’s enjoying it as much as I am,” she said.
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