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Rita Boivin's family took her bowling the day after she celebrated her 100th birthday. Her nephew, Mike, only squeaked by her on the scorecard by a couple of points.

Ms. Boivin's niece, Lisa Higdon, attributes her aunt's long life to being active - playing tennis and basketball, hiking and bowling since her youth.

But the centenarian herself said there is no secret to her longevity: "I did what I had to do - always."

Ms. Boivin was born in Victory Mills, where her father worked at a paper mill. She attended the State University of New York at Oneonta and taught school in Schuylerville for 45 years, retiring at the age of 63.

Friends and family recently marked her 100th birthday with a party at Notre Dame-Visitation parish in Schuylerville, where she was baptized and continues to worship. She lives only a few houses down from the church.

Some of Ms. Boivin's family debated why she has lived so long.

"We always told her it was because she never married and didn't have any children," joked her nephew, Paul Boivin, who lives nearby on land Ms. Boivin gave him.

All of Ms. Boivin's seven nieces and nephews are devoted to their "Aunt Reet," who appears more fit than many seniors decades younger. Relatives say she has a sharp mind which holds all the family history.

Ms. Boivin stopped driving a few years ago, but loves to cheer on the Yankees and even went to a game with the family in 2007. Her sister, Alma, lived with her until she died at the age of 96.

"It seems like we just had her 90th birthday, which was half my lifetime ago," remarked great-nephew Tom Relyea, 20, of Whitehall. "I can't even wrap my head around her being 100."

Another of Ms. Boivin's nephews, Peter Boivin, lives upstairs from her. Though she uses a walker and worries about falls, he said she strongly resists any help from Meals on Wheels or a nurse's aide: "Her and I duke it out once in a while."

At the birthday party, Isabella Todd, a second-grader from Ballston Spa, was proudly in attendance as a great-great-niece of Ms. Boivin.

"She calls me 'Toots,'" Isabella told The Evangelist. "I usually go over to her house and usually sit down and have fish to eat. It's usually a lot of talking."

(12/02/10) [[In-content Ad]]

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