LAKEPORT — On Thanksgiving Vivian Redebaugh-Stone celebrated her 102nd birthday.
She”s thankful for her immense talent as a former Vaudeville pianist. She”s thankful for being born in a more innocent time and for a solid moral family.
“My mother and my father knew there were things to be done and that”s all there was to it,” she said.
Redebaugh-Stone”s been tapping the ivories since she was 5 years old. Her music accompanied silent movies featuring the Keystone Kops and she”s worked with Cab Calloway. Her name was in the circuit. Every time anyone needed a piano player, they would call her.
Today, her fingers still dance effortlessly across the black and white keys. She walked past her neatly stacked baskets of yarns and sat at her piano. She played some spirited ragtime and Amazing Grace with … amazing grace.
She says she”s never been bored.
“I”ve had a life that”s one of the best. I just wish I had more time to do things,” she said.
A knock on the door briefly interrupted her reminiscing, “Are you playing cards today?” her neighbor asked. She said “yeah.” She explains she usually plays pinochle or Mexican dice for fun.
When the neighbor leaves, she recalls the first time she saw an airplane, 97 years ago. She heard the loud noise as she played in the field and followed it with other townspeople. She said the man in the seat of the plane asked her if she wanted a ride and she told him she did.
When she returned home her mother questioned her, “Did you go up in that contraption?”
Redebaugh-Stone never thought she would live to see an airplane.
“Who in the world would have ever thought, when I was born that there would be something in the sky,” she said.
Redebaugh-Stone was born in Buda, Illinois. Her mother was a teacher and her father worked for the railroad. She had three brothers. She was married to her husband Edmond Stone for 43 years; he also worked for the railroad. She has a son and daughter-in-law in Northern California and a slew of friends. She”s been a member of the LDS church for more than 50 years. At 100 years old, she played piano for a Valentine”s Day dance. She attended Ronald Reagan”s Presidential Inauguration and has more amazing memories and stories than imaginable. A child of Thanksgiving, she has much to be thankful for.
“I feel I”ve been kept here for a special reason,” Redebaugh-Stone said.
Mandy Feder can be reached at mandyfeder@yahoo.com or call directly 263-5636 ext. 32.
