[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 76 (Wednesday, May 21, 2003)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1005-E1006]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          CELEBRATING THE 100TH BIRTHDAY OF MARY LOUISE AKERS

                                 ______
                                 

                             HON. TOM UDALL

                             of new mexico

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, May 20, 2003

  Mr. UDALL of New Mexico. Mr. Speaker, it is with great pleasure that 
I honor a very great lady today upon reaching her 100th birthday. Mary 
Louis Akers, a resident of Santa Fe, New Mexico, is commemorating, with 
a host of family and friends, a century of life upon this earth. I 
salute and applaud her on this remarkable event.
  Mrs. Akers was born on May 20, 1903, in Sherman, Texas, to Margaret 
Crumley Melton and James Henderson Melton. Growing up during the first 
part of the 20th century was quite different than it is today. Mary 
Louise Melton's father delivered mail on horseback, and the family 
traveled by horse and buggy most everywhere they went, not owning a car 
until Mary Louise was a teenager. The train was used for long trips. 
The family always had an ``icebox,'' the forerunner of the 
refrigerator, and ice was delivered to their home every few days. 
Laundry was always done by hand.
  Entertainment was very different when Mary Louise was young. Her 
primary entertainment was reading. The family did not own a radio until 
Mary Louise was a teenager, and the first ``silent'' movie she saw was 
a series that only ran on Saturday afternoons. Many years later, in the 
1950's and after she was married, a television was purchased.
  Mary Louise suffered infantile paralysis, now known as polio, when 
she was nine months old. The disease paralyzed her left side. 
Remarkably, however, she recovered from the disease and, fortunately, 
was left with little residual, and unnoticed, effects.
  Mary Louise attended Kidd Key College in Sherman, where she studied 
voice. Her first

[[Page E1006]]

job was as a teacher in Rockfort, Texas, eighteen miles from Sherman, 
where she taught the first four grades. It was during those years that 
she met her future husband, Homer Akers, who was training to be a 
Presbyterian minister. They married on June 19, 1930, at the First 
Baptist Church in Sherman, and their first home was the Presbyterian 
manse in Natalia, Texas.
  Homer and Mary Louise Akers spent the next 47 joyous years together 
until his death in 1977. During their marriage, Rev. Akers served as a 
minister in seven Texas communities, each about four years each, and in 
Portales, New Mexico, from 1947 until 1968, a location that will always 
be considered home. A daughter, Margaret Louise, was born in 1931, but 
only lived a few days past her third birthday. A second daughter, 
Kathryn Ann, was born in 1936, and Mary Louise currently lives with her 
in Santa Fe.
  In her 100 years upon this earth, Mary Louise Akers is known and 
deeply loved and admired by hundreds, if not thousands, of those whose 
lives she has touched during her extraordinary 100-year journey. She 
loved serving as the primary greeter in all the churches her husband 
served and was the voice most heard when hymns were sung. She has 
always been a famous ``jokester,'' constantly teasing her family and 
friends with her delightful, bubbly personality and infectious 
laughter. Having a perfect memory, Mary Louise can readily recall 
wonderful, enduring and entertaining stories about all those whom she 
has known.
  Mary Louise Akers has abundantly enjoyed her 100 years. She has 
always been extremely active and enjoys attending community events and 
traveling with her daughter. A few of her passions are having tea 
parties with family and friends, attending an Aker family reunion every 
July, receiving cards and letters and writing many herself, going to 
the beauty shop every Friday, and eating lots of strawberry jam every 
morning and drinking a Coke every afternoon, which she considers her 
``tickets'' to a long life. Her very favorite ``supper'' food is a 
chocolate sundae with ``lots'' of syrup!
  Mary Louis Akers is a very grand lady, and the world has been, and 
continues to be, a better place because of her presence in it. Driving 
a car up until her 80's, Mary Louise's CB ``handle'' was ``Sunshine 
Mary'', I can think of no more accurate way to describe this delightful 
lady. I invite all my colleagues in the U.S. House of Representative to 
join me in wishing Mary Louise Akers a very happy and healthy 100th 
birthday, may she enjoy many more to come!

                          ____________________