Legendary Milwaukee journalist turns 102 & still writes weekly newspaper column

Jet, Nov 15, 2004

Mattiebelle Woods can't slow down and she won't slow down. For more than four decades the 102-yearold journalist has painted the town as a social columnist for the Milwaukee Courier Newspaper.

A working journalist for more than five decades, Woods is still gainfully employed as the columnist of Partyline and is among the oldest living, working journalists in America.

Even though she recently turned 102, she doesn't expect to retire anytime soon. "Why should I stop? I like what I'm doing. As long as I'm able, I will do this. People fax me things, call me, send me invitations and tickets to everything. Since I live alone, why stay alone?"

Woods, who has no background in journalism and never attended college, says that her writing abilities "just came naturally."

Her career as a writer began in 1952 when she wrote a Partyline column for the Milwaukee edition of the Chicago Defender. She later worked as a columnist for the Milwaukee Star and as a Milwaukee stringer for JET Magazine in 1956.

There's no secret to her longevity. "I don't have one. I get up and do the same things I've been doing 'all my life. I wear high heels."

She says that she eats and drinks what she wants. "I drink a lot of liquids. I don't smoke. Everybody knows my favorite drinks are 7-Up and Canadian Club, which I've been drinking for 40 years"

Born in Milwaukee on Halloween Day, Woods has been married twice. She was married the first time at 19 and widowed shortly afterward when her husband was killed in a car accident coming from a college football game. At 23, she remarried. That marriage ended in divorce.

"I didn't stay married to him very long. He didn't think like I thought," she explains. "I'm a person who likes to do things."

She has one daughter, Kathryn Bedford, 80, three grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. There is no special man in her life, but that is fine with her.

"I'm so happy the way I am," she declares quickly. "That second husband cured me of marriage. He didn't do any of the things he should have done as a husband. I like to go. I just came back from the Circle City Classic. I go there every year."

Her active life has worked to the spry 5-foot, 100-pound writer's advantage in more ways than one. "I go places and do things. That's what keeps me alive and moving. I don't have arthritis and the things I would have supposed to have when I got middle-age ... I'm exercising all the time because I move around. There are wheelchairs, canes and walkers for people my age, but I don't have any of that. I'm something you read about."

She has a chauffeur drive her to all the major events in town. "Have you heard of Driving Miss Daisy? Consider me Miss Daisy, but my driver is blonde and blue-eyed. He's in his 40s. Honey, I don't have to worry about a dime. I don't need a car. I can't drive anyhow."

Speaking of driving, she recalls trying to learn how to drive "30 or 40 years ago," but it wasn't in the cards for her. "You see, it was like this," she begins. "I was quite an aged woman when I learned how to drive. I drove on the City Hall sidewalk. I lost control of the car. I quit driving that day. I thought this is it since I didn't go to jail or kill anybody."

She doesn't have any health problems either. "She is a very remarkable woman," says her grandson, Ken Bedford, an ABC-TV 7 Chicago cameraman. "I've never seen her ill or with a cold. She has a lot of energy."

Her storied career is a history lesson in itself. She's interviewed Eleanor Roosevelt, met Ray Charles and had Dr. Martin Luther King. Jr. stay at her house as a guest. She Helped to bring EBONY Fashion Fair to Milwaukee and is the founder/director of Ms. Bronze Milwaukee, Miss Black Teen Wisconsin and the Ten Dressed Black Women in Wisconsin.

She remains active in politics as well. She has chaired her area's voter registration efforts and has worked on campaigns since the 1940s as a registered Democrat.

An active member of St. Mark's AME Methodist Church, she has been honored by the NAACP, Milwaukee Press Club, the National Urban League and the Top Ladies of Distinction. A journalism scholarship has even been named in her honor at Marquette University.

Earlier this year, "Showtime At The Apollo" executive producer Suzanne de Passe invited Woods to appear on the show. The former dance instructor brought down the house by doing the electric slide. At one point, she dropped low and touched the floor. That episode is still being aired.

"She's more limber than I am," laughs Bedford. "I hope I can live that long, dance that long and work that long. She can bend down and stand back up in high heels.... She is Milwaukee's living history. The whole town just loves her."