Birthday Girl: Maggie Pontius turns 99

She was a mover and a shaker in her day.

Maggie Pontius — who turned 99 on April 5 — took a little time to relax and reflect last week.

Last Thursday, Pontius had her own special day at the Bigfork Senior Center, which she was instrumental in founding.

Friends and family gathered at the local venue for a lunch birthday party with Pontius.

It was the first time she had visited the senior center in six years, Pontius said. “I’m amazed when I see the changes,” she said.

Pontius was actively involved in creating Bigfork’s first library as well as the senior center, said her longtime friend Julie Soule.

Pontius even used her own books to help start the library in 1972.

She also helped start the senior center in 1983.

“She’s had her fingers in everything,” said her daughter, Luella Dixon, 72, who lives in Ferndale.

Other things Pontius has been involved in over the years include artwork and water aerobics classes.

Dixon moved to Ferndale from Huntington Beach, Calif. in 1971 and her mother followed the next year. The rest, as they say, is history.

 Pontius’ granddaughter Christina Wiltfong, 45, also attended Thursday’s birthday party. Wiltfong, who spends time cooking meals for her grandmother every day, has some pleasant memories of her grandmother. “She would always take me and my siblings to the library with her. So I knew everything there was to know about the library. I remember when they first started planning the Crestview Apartments,” Wiltfong said. “She said, ‘I want this one on top,’ and that’s the one she’s always been in (since 1986).”

Even into her nineties Pontius stayed active. Soule remembers when Pontius would sit near the entrance and take money for the senior center’s pancake fund-raisers. She was the social chairman, senior center Board President Phil Bolstad said.

Maybe the longest-running endeavour for Pontius has been the Ferndale Sewing Circle, which started sometime prior to the 1950s. She is still involved in that group. Pontius has also been attending Swan Chapel in Swan Lake since it was built, Wiltfong said. These days she attends the church when she can get a ride, Dixon said.

“She’s just an interesting lady,” said Soule, who has known Pontius for 32 years and took her out to lunch at Echo Lake Cafe on Friday for her birthday.

Dixon is Pontius’ only child, but she has seven grandchildren and two great-grandchilden with another on the way in June. Undoubtedly they are all proud of her.