WHITEHALL, MI (July 26, 2006) – Mary Hogan just keeps going and going and going. <\/p>\n
The member of Fruitland Evangelical Covenant Church recently celebrated her 109th birthday. \u201cI don\u2019t know why God wants me on this earth for so many years, but I don\u2019t have a say in it, so I just keep going,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
![\"Mary](\"http:\/\/old.covchurch.org\/uploads\/BM\/Y8\/BMY8C1zEF84gsdEgtG0OAA\/Hogan.jpg\")
Hogan was born in 1897 and has lived her entire life in the area around Muskegon, Michigan. Hogan reads the newspaper every day, expresses her opinion on world events, and continues to beat her opponents at cards. She constantly works word puzzles or plays solitaire \u201cto keep my mind active.\u201d<\/p>\n
She is as physically fit as her mind is sharp. She walks briskly with her wheeled walker around the assisted living complex where she resides. Hogan lived in her own home until she was 102 and worked a large garden until she was 100.<\/p>\n
Hogan told her pastor, Brian Kyle, \u201cHave you seen the show \u2018Little House on the Prairie?\u2019 The house in that show is just like the one I grew up in.\u201d She loves to share about living when horses and wagons were the main form of transportation.<\/p>\n
Hogan has lived during 19 presidencies, with William McKinley beginning his term the year she was born. She relates that the one she didn\u2019t care for was William Howard Taft, the 27th president, who served from 1909 to 1913.<\/p>\n
Copyright \u00a9 2011 The Evangelical Covenant Church.<\/p>\n