Pat O’Brien of the Sloatsburg Seniors lights the birthday cake for Mary Buckley’s 100th Birthday.

To read through the proclamation is to wander casually through a rich and expansive moment in time — the 20th century in all its panoramic color. Black and white momentos of Ebbets Field in Brooklyn. New Jazz Age sounds and the incorporation of Sloatsburg itself in 1929. Soldiers and people parading through the streets of Suffern, leaving for foreign lands and returning flush with experiences.

Today, November 21, the Village of Sloatsburg celebrates its very own centenarian and longtime resident, Mary Buckley. A lifetime resident of the village, Buckley continues to live in the house her parents built back in 1901 and into which she was born on this day back in 1913.

Buckley was surrounded by friends and family recently as she was honored at the Sloatsburg Seniors Birthday Luncheon this past October, where Sloatsburg Mayor Carl Wright, along with Village Trustees, proclaimed Buckley a local, nay, national treasure and named today in her honor.

Tom Buckley helps his mother, Mary Buckley, blow out the candles on her 100th Birthday cake.

Think back over the enormous pageant of life Ms. Buckley has participated in, from riding in the first automobiles that drove American roads to indoor electricity and plumbing and the village’s early days — she’s witnessed the vast expansion and pace of life that saw people rocket off into air and space, and continues on into our new digital era of life, all jumpy in multicolor animation blinking from small handheld screens.

The October birthday celebration came complete with a Happy 100 birthday cake, where son and Village Trustee Thomas Buckley, Jr. helped blow out the candles while Trustee Peter Akey awarded her a framed proclamation from the village.

Blessed with a stout heart and mind, Ms. Buckley lives joyfully surrounded by lively family activity. Reading is her thing. Mary will thumb through two or three newspapers a day, dipping into her favorite magazines and books galore.

On the year of your birth, Woodrow Wilson is President, Thomas Marshall is Vice President, Richard Nixon is born, the federal income tax is introduced, the 17th amendment provides for direct election of the United States Senators, Grand Central and the Woolworth Building open, the federal reserve is created, the Ford assembly line begins operation, the first Charlie Chaplin movies begin to appear, Ebbets Field is opened in Brooklyn, the Philadelphia Athletics defeat the NY Giants in the world series, the NY Highlanders become the Yankees and Frank Chance is named manager and Al Jolson has a big hit with You Made Me Love You.

Read more of the Village of Sloatsburg Proclamation for Mary Buckley Day. 

Included in photos from top left to right and down: Pat O’Brien, Laura Buckley holding great grandson baby Nicolas, Mary Buckley’s son Tom Buckley, and centenarian Mary Buckley herself — Sloatsburg Mayor Carl Wright reads while Village Trustee Peter Akey awards Ms. Buckley her Sloatsburg Day proclamation.

Mary Buckley’s daughter Sue De Vincenzo was instrumental in contributing material for this special. All photos courtesy of the Buckley Family.