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30
Jun 2010
Happy birthday to a true original
Posted by Scott Spielman
at 1:02 PM | Comments
Click image to enlarge
Margaret Dunning (second from right) celebrated her 100th birthday with friends from all over Michigan this weekend at the Plymouth Historical Museum“I’ve been very fortunate to lead a long, healthy life,” said Margaret Dunning on Saturday.
Dunning, who turned 100 years old that day, greeted friends from across the country at the Plymouth Historical Museum, the facility that she helped make one of the jewels of western Wayne County—if not the State of Michigan.
Henry and I took a trip down to the museum on Saturday, which served as the official kick-off of Margaret Dunning Week in Plymouth (Mayor Dan Dwyer provided her with a key to the city).
Dunning has led a remarkable, long life filled with the kind of philanthropy to which most of us can only aspire.
She served on the founding board for the Community Federal Credit Union and was president of the board for 19 years. That institution, founded with $1 million at one office, now has six locations. Her contributions helped bring the library to town.
Her donations to the historical museum not only helped build the structure, but expand it to its current state. She’s donated more than $1 million to the facility since her initial contribution provided for its construction in 1971.
“She’s an amazing lady,” said Jean Martin, wife of former Mayor Eldon ‘Bud’ Martin. “She’s an inspiration to all of us.”
Henry and I went down on Saturday. I figured the chances he’d have to meet someone that was 100 years old—and could talk so eloquently about her life—were few and far between.
“What was it like when you were a kid?” Henry wanted to know.
“Oh, there were quite a few things to do,” she said with a wink and a twinkle in her eye. “More than you’d think.”
He might not think of those things as fun, but such was the life of a young girl who spent the early part of her life on a potato farm, in the day of the horse and buggy.
Dunning and her mother moved to Plymouth around 1923. She worked at the Phoenix Mill—a Ford facility that employed only women—and later at the First National Bank of Plymouth, where she was the victim of a bank robbery. She took her entrepreneurial spirit into the clothing industry, when she purchased Goldstein’s Apparel on Main Street in 1947 and renamed the store Dunning’s. In 1950, she moved Dunning’s Department Store to Forest Avenue. She sold Dunning’s in 1968 to Minerva Chaiken, who operated it as Minerva-Dunning’s until she closed it during the late 1990s.
At 100, Dunning is nearly as spry as she ever was. She drove her classic, 1976 Cadillac convertible to her birthday celebration on Saturday to greet hundreds of well-wishers.
“I tried to get her to sit down, but she said she didn’t have to sit down,” said Sanford Burr, president emeritus of the Plymouth Historical Society. “I couldn’t argue with her.”
I guess you could, but it would be rather pointless. Anyone who’s accomplished as much as she has in her life—with more, no doubt, to come—has certainly got it all figured out.
Margaret Dunning Week will conclude on Sunday, during the Good Morning USA Parade, which kicks off at 7:30 a.m. Dunning is the Grand Marshall, said event organizer Fred Hill. She’ll be driving her own car, too. Hill said he hopes she drives the ‘Caddy’.
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