News
Ellie Huson: Definitely Among The Very Young At Heart
By Muriel J. Smith
ATLANTIC HIGHLANDS - Elly Huson might not always remember the specific date, or even the specific address of something that made her happy. She just remembers the happiness it brought. She might not be judging the numerous flower shows she has judged over the years, but she still remembers the beauty of a violet, the soft face of a delicate pansy, or the vibrant color of a spring daffodil or crimson geranium. Maybe that's the secret of how this charming Atlantic Highlands resident who wins the hearts of everyone who meets her stays so vibrant, young and healthy. Elly Huson is 104 years young and her no-holds -barred outlook on life and her joy in living it brings out the twinkle in her eye, the strength in her step, and the thrill in every story she tells. A native of Orange, N.J., where she was born October 14, 1903, Elly has had a life filled with thrills and excitement, with rewards for her talents and gratitude for the way she has shared them with others. And she still looks forward to more. "I just junked my ballet shoes a short time ago," she chuckles, as she graciously entertains a guest in her living room overlooking Atlantic Highlands harbor. "I just didn't think I'd be using them again." But ballet was just one of her talents. She had such an inborn genius for art that at 14, she was making her own paper dolls, and designing all their clothes, patterning them after the fashions her family wore at the time. She shrugs off the idea of talent, in spite of the album her mother saved filled with Elly's colorful and unique dozens of outfits for both her male and female paper dolls...which she also created herself. "That's what you did after school," she explains, "it was either that or wrap bandages for the Red Cross." She did that, too. World War I was wreaking havoc in the world, and Elly joined other friends and students in cutting the bandage-size pieces of gauze from the large bolts, then wrapping them for Red Cross packages. In spite of winning a scholarship to one of the prestigious colleges..."I can't remember whether it was Smith or Wellesley, or one of them," she shrugs, "it doesn't make any difference. An artist friend of my father said I should go to the Art Academy at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. And so I did." Her talent in a variety of media, red chalk, pen and ink, oils, "and of course, water colors," is obvious. It's a talent she apparently inherited from her mother, because blending in with a self-portrait and a studio-size oil of her husband, Arthur, a classical musician and baritone, her home also has two paintings her mother did.
"That's the back road," she explains, looking at the dark oil of a path lined with a fence and shrouded under trees. "My mother sat at the kitchen table one day and painted that out the window." Elly did her self-portrait on another day when the weather was bad, she had no flowers to paint, and "well, you just had to do something!" For years she created her own Christmas cards, as well as pen and ink sketches still on church programs, or on stationery for herself and others. Her love of flowers and her uncommon ability to create magnificent still life in flowers probably date back to when she was four or five years old. The very thought of it brings new smiles to Elly's face, a new sparkle to her eyes, and an aura of contentment to her slim and energetic body. "Every morning, I had to pick violets and arrange them in that little obsolescent pot for my mother," she recalls, pointing to a tiny lavender-hued pot on a shelf made by a family member. "I can't remember a time when we weren't raising pansies and violets." As an adult, though, Elly judged hundreds of flower shows as a National Judge for four decades. The uncountable blue ribbons she has won for her own arrangements are long gone..."I chucked them all!" ...But the mastery of her own talent is still very much alive in the numerous students to whom she taught artistic design. This year is the first time her balcony overlooking the harbor hasn't been splashed with the color of red geraniums. "But they'll be out there as soon as the weather improves," she smiles. Her journalistic abilities have been widely known and appreciated, too. Elly was editor for close to 40 years of The News Leaf, The bi-monthly news magazine of the Garden Club of New Jersey, where she also served as president. "But they chucked me," she says matter-of-factly, "they have some by-law that says you can only be president for five years! So they booted me out." Musical talent? Of course. Elly has played the piano, guitar, and ukulele. Marionettes? She not only has made them she designed their clothes, and created them in the likeness of close friends. Historian? Well, three portraits on her wall are of Washington, Jefferson and Lincoln... "they're the Great Leader, the Great Commoner, and the Great Emancipator," she'll explain in a single breath. There seems to be no end to her talents. She had a few Presidential connections as well. Laurel Bank, the Huson home in Montvale, was built in 1712, and George Washington "held court on the porch" of the house that had seven fireplaces and a hand- driven well "that had the most wonderful water you could ever imagine." Theodore Roosevelt presented a young Elly with a Teddy Bear when he disembarked from a train near Ocean Grove, and Elly was there with her grandfather. Elly has been widowed twice and has no children, but is quick to point out she has always been surrounded by family. She cared for her mother in her declining years, her sister, and her sister's children, and tended tenderly to Arthur when he was blind during the last ten years of his life. She has a great fondness for many people, including "Mark and Connie, owners of the Memphis Pig Out on First Avenue. In good weather, Elly walks to her favorite restaurant "on Wednesdays and Fridays," and frequently goes on Sundays, too... "because the chicken is delicious. Salmon is wonderful on Wednesdays," she chuckles, smacking her lips at the very thought of a Pig-Out dinner. The restaurateurs are personal friends, she admits proudly, and during the winter it isn't unusual for one or both of them to deliver a meal to her door. Her secret to a long life? "Well," she muses, "I've been sick. I had measles and chicken pox. She also had a severe mastoid problem as a child, probably the reason for her present slight hearing disability. She wears glasses to read and do the Word Jumbles and crossword puzzles she does daily. She walks straight, tall, and with a spring in her step when on her way to display a favorite photo or painting, or the plaster cast of herself when she posed as Pocahontas for an architect designing a building. But in a pensive mood, Elly Huson, the centenarian plus four will quietly admit, "I realize I'm a lonely spirit." About the deaths of her husbands, her parents, her sister, and many friends, she candidly concedes, "I don't think you ever forget... they've been a part of your life." But then that spark comes back to her spirit, those stars come back in her eyes, that deep chuckle that creates some creases in a face hardly touched by deep wrinkles brings her back to the personality that has made her the charmer she is. "There's no secret to a long life," she laughs, "unless, of course," and she makes reference to the glass of sherry that has been a ritual for decades..." it's that tonic every night."
