The community will celebrate Missy Wright's 100th birthday with a party at 4 p.m. Friday, Sept. 1, at the Nolan Center. Friends report her favorite color is purple and are inviting everyone to wear something purple.
Margaret "Missy" Wright is an elegantly dressed woman with a bright white coiffure and a loud, infectious laugh. The long-term care resident has been a fixture of the Wrangell community since she moved to town in the late 1980s and now, as she prepares to turn 100, is likely the island's oldest inhabitant.
She has invited the entire town to celebrate her birthday on Friday, Sept. 1, with a massive party at the Nolan Center at 4 p.m. The party theme is purple - Wright's favorite color - and attendees are encouraged to wear their favorite purple attire to the event, which is going to be "bigger than prom," said granddaughter Adrienne McLaughlin.
Reaching 100 is a rare achievement. Wright will join the exclusive world population of people 100 years or older, which is under 600,000 strong - fewer than live in Washington, D.C. - spread across the entire globe, according to a 2022 United Nations report.
The almost-centenarian has been around longer than polyester, the 40-hour workweek and Mickey Mouse.
Long-term care staff and Sarah Merritt, who helps people prepare their Permanent Fund dividend applications, don't know of anyone on the island who's older.
When Wright was growing up in the 1920s and 1930s, there were "very few cars," she recalled, though her family had one. As the daughter of a stockbroker in Pennsylvania, she grew up "well to do," with a butler, an upstairs maid, a cook and a laundress serving her family of five. She was the oldest of three girls.
Wright attended private schools and spent much of her adulthood as a homemaker, though she did take various jobs throughout her life, including during World War II to support the war effort.
In the 1940s, shortly after she turned 18, the self-described tomboy purchased a motorcycle and rode it alone for long distances.
When she was 23, she got married, moved to North Carolina, and had three daughters. Madeleine Wright, her oldest, recalls how Wright would make homemade yogurt by combining bacteria and the cream that was on top of the milk delivered to the house.
"She's a very, very intelligent woman," Madeleine Wright said of her mother. "She loves to fish. Loves the outdoors. Loves the cool weather."
This outdoorsy, adventurous spirit served Missy Wright well when she moved from North Carolina to Wrangell to help care for her grandchildren in 1986. After visiting Anan Wildlife Observatory and going on hiking and hunting trips, "she fell in love with it," said McLaughlin, and decided to settle down in the community.
When McLaughlin was growing up, she spent most days at her grandma's house listening to golden oldies and laughing together. In fact, she has inherited Wright's distinctive "cackle."
"She has a cackle laughter that you could pick out at Pike's Place Market," McLaughin said of her grandmother. "She is witty. ... I wish you could know the grandma that I know. She is hysterical. We have videos of us, on point, cackling at the same time in a room."
Wright's well-ordered childhood left a lasting impression on her, leading her to instill strong Christian faith and good manners in her grandchildren. She's "very clean, very tidy, very regimented," said McLaughlin, recalling her time at her grandmother's house. "We'd have dinner every night at five."
One evening when she was growing up, before visiting a friend's house, she received firm instructions from Missy to remember to say yes ma'am, no ma'am, thank you ma'am and please.
Wright entered the long-term care unit at the Wrangell Medical Center in 2017, after a stroke limited her movement and speech. For the past six years, life in the unit has been "for the most part, very enjoyable," she said. She's the president of the resident council and spends her time playing bingo and visiting with her granddaughter.
She's "a matriarch over there," said McLaughlin. "They call her Queen Bee."
McLaughlin has a suspicion that her grandmother's secret to long life lies in her commitment to her routine and the support she receives from her community. Wright is "dressed to the nines" every morning and maintains a regular schedule of shopping trips and hair appointments, McLaughlin said.
"I honestly think the secret to life for grandma is laughter and love," she said. "The more time you spend with her, the longer she's going to be around."
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