Grace Hedrick of Upper Tract, the oldest living citizen in Pendleton County, received 304 cards for her 105th birthday which was on May 25. She received cards from all 50 states, Australia, the United Kingdom, Canada and Guam. In addition, she received 92 emails/texts, many flowers, gift certificates, stamps, money and a number of phone calls and visits.
Hedrick is truly amazing as she still lives alone with help from her family in an eight-room flat-roofed house that she has lived in since she was 7 years old.
She graduated from Franklin High School in 1939 and married Raymond Hedrick on Aug. 28, 1939. Her husband passed away in 1994.
On her 89th birthday, Hedrick roto tilled her garden. On her 90th birthday, she walked to the top of Seneca Rocks, and that summer with her son, she raked hay using a 50-year-old Ford tractor. When she was 91-years-old, she went sled riding with her family. From 2012 to 2015, she gathered eggs in her great-grandson’s chicken houses. Due to her failing eyesight, she has slowed down the last nine years.
