By Sterling McGinn
Longtime Newberry resident Emma Crockett hit the century mark this past weekend: She turned 100.
Friends and family gathered for a meal and party at the Newberry Assisted Living Community on Saturday, May 4. “They sure know how to party—all of the decorations—everybody was wonderful,” Crockett said. “And all these flowers—I never had so many.”
She was born in Sault Ste Marie in 1924 to Antonio and Frances Bonacci. Crockett had five sisters and five brothers who were a little older and took care of their younger siblings. “My mom didn’t live very long—she passed away early in her life,” Crockett stated. “My dad worked for Union Carbide—everybody worked there and my brothers [did, too].”
One of the highlights from her younger years was a trip to the World’s Fair in New York in 1939. “My older brother took my mom and I, his girlfriend, and her mom,” she said. “That was a wonderful trip, and he got ice cream cones all the way there.”
Crockett enjoyed growing up in Sault Ste. Marie, where all of her cousins also lived.
She eventually married the late John Crockett, who worked at Our Own Bakery in Marquette.
“We had a grocery store and that is how I met him,” she said. The couple later moved to Newberry. “It is a good place to be…you know everybody, and everybody knows you,” she said.
Emma and John had two children: Fran Peltier and the late John Crockett.
“I have had a good life. I stayed healthy and did a lot of walking,” she said. “My brother-in-law told me that growing old is not for sissies.”
