Carol Stream woman celebrates 111th birthday

Merle Phillips marked another year older Monday with a party that would make a millennial proud.

The birthday girl stepped aboard her party bus with close friends just after 9 a.m. and took a tour of her old haunts around Wheaton and Carol Stream. For her first of six bus stops, Phillips was greeted with a bouquet of red roses from adoring Carol Stream firefighters.

So, how old is Phillips? The itinerary for her birthday blowout was misleading, but her feathered party hat told you the three numerals of her extraordinary age: 111.

"We've had a busy, busy day celebrating this remarkable woman," said Jeanne Hansen, who helped organize the festivities as the executive director of Phillips' retirement community in Carol Stream.

And if you think, gee, such a busy day might be a bit tiring for a supercentenarian, Hansen and others who know Phillips will say the adventurous practical joker is usually the life of the party. They came together Monday to celebrate not just an incredible milestone, but a life that's touched so many others.

"She has a strong will to live, but to live well," friend Kathi Leach said. "She has such a lovely quality of life and even though she's taken these falls and these tumbles, she has bounced back. It's been to me incredulous that she has done as well as she has."

Phillips documented many of those hardships writing 11 books - the first at age 72 - about her life and devout faith in God. She was born in Arkansas on April 2, 1907. Her father died when she was four months old.

She met her husband, Leonard, at the University of Iowa, where she was a graduate student. He died 50 years ago in 1968 from leukemia.

"She still gets teary-eyed over that after all these years," said Linda DuBose, who has known Merle through their Wheaton church since the 1980s.

Phillips never had any children and never remarried. But her friends consider her family, and they in turn seem to sustain her. She remained independently in her Wheaton house off Webster Avenue - a surprise stop on her birthday bus tour - with the help of friends until she moved into her Belmont home at 107.

"It's incredible the imprint she's made on so many lives and in so many ways," Leach said.

The St. Charles woman always has referred to her as Mrs. Phillips since she hired her in the 1970s to baby sit her now 39-year-old daughter and late son when the family lived in Wheaton.

"She remembers everything, and she'll ask about our son and our daughter, and I'm thinking, 'Oh my gosh I've got friends who don't remember all of these things,' and yet she does," Leach said.

As a baby-sitter Phillips had an "enormous clientele," Leach said.

"She's like a kid herself," Leach said. "She was just so amusing for them."

Phillips is still young at heart pulling off pranks around the Belmont Village Senior Living community. Shortly after she moved in, Phillips invited Hansen to her apartment for a slice of sponge cake that actually turned out to be sponge covered in Cool Whip.

"She thought it was hysterically funny, and then was worried I might kick her out, but no way," Hansen said.

Phillips acknowledges her prankster reputation, saying Hansen avoids her every April Fools' Day.

"She still doesn't know what I did this year," Phillips said mischievously.

But joking aside, Hansen said it's an honor to know Phillips.

"Everybody has some challenges in their life, and this is a woman who's really overcome some amazing things and some hardships, too, and so to be able to share in her life everyday is just an honor," Hansen said.

Her friends think there are more than a few reasons why Phillips has lived such a long life.

Leach said: "She has the most positive outlook I think of any person I've ever known. She takes great joy in life."

Hansen said: "I think her willingness and desire to help other people as well as her belief in God has kept her on this Earth for us to enjoy for 111 remarkable years."

Phillips has demonstrated that generosity her last two birthdays. Instead of gifts, she asked for donations to the Spectrios Institute for Low Vision through a GoFundMe page. Phillips herself had surgery last year to fix a congenital cataract at the Wheaton facility that treats patients with vision problems.

She visited the Spectrios Institute during the bus tour and made a stop at Cosley Zoo, where she helped fund the butterfly garden and renovation of the aviary in honor of her husband, a butterfly collector.

"It's always about giving to other people, whether it's her church or her friends or the residents here at Belmont," Hansen said. "Merle baby sat for many children. She taught Sunday school. Merle's whole life has been about helping other people. Even at the age of 111, she's still helping other people."

Phillips doesn't like to make a big fuss about aging, but she's willing to give her own advice for longevity.

"Have a good attitude regardless of what happens," she said.

So even though she's outlived her peers, she celebrates getting older. She marked her 110th birthday last year by climbing into the bucket of a ladder truck with Carol Stream firefighters to get an aerial view of Belmont.

But for her 112th birthday, Phillips doesn't think Hansen will be able to top Monday's party.

"I've got to live, so I can see what she does next year," Phillips said.