PLAINSBORO — Longtime Hopewell resident Catherine C. Blackwell celebrated her 103rd birthday Sept. 1 at the Merwick Care & Rehabilitation Center with other residents, family members and staff.
Mrs. Blackwell always enjoyed reading about American history, especially the chronicles of Hopewell, where she lived for 85 years. After working at a five-and-dime store as a teenager, Mrs. Blackwell landed a job as a telephone operator running an old-fashioned switchboard in Skillman.
It was there that she had a brush with history. She was at the switchboard in March 1932 when a newspaper reporter called asking if she “knew anything about the Lindbergh baby being kidnapped or missing,” Mrs. Blackwell said. “I hadn’t heard anything about it. I put him right through to the State Police.”
Her switchboard was busy as more and more reporters called trying to find out about the kidnapping, which caused a sensation and then resulted in what was called the “Trial of the Century,” for the man accused of the heinous crime, which resulted in the toddler’s death.
“It was horrible,” Mrs. Blackwell said.
Orphaned at 13 after her mother died of cancer, Mrs. Blackwell lied about her age and took a job the next year at a five-and-dime store as a sales clerk. To get a better job, she learned how to rewire lamps.
“I worked hard,” she said.
Mrs. Blackwell was one of five children, and her grandfather, John Deasy, looked after them after his daughter died. Mr. Deasy ran a grocery store at North Clinton and Hart avenues in Trenton. Mrs. Blackwell said that the family had lived on Hart Avenue. Her father, a potter, had passed away when she was 5 years old.
It might be said that it was fate that brought together Mrs. Blackwell and her future husband, Norman P. Blackwell. A taxi that she was riding in broke down outside his garage in Hopewell. He later asked the taxi driver for her number.
Norman Blackwell, whose ancestor, Benjamin Blackwell, fought in the Revolutionary War, ran The Broad Street Garage, at Broad Street and Princeton Avenue, in Hopewell. His wife was a partner in the business, which the couple opened after World War II. She did the bookkeeping and drove to Trenton or Newark for auto parts. Later, the garage became a car dealership and Mrs. Blackwell sold Plymouth and Chrysler automobiles, eventually winning a sales award.
Mrs. Blackwell was very independent, and in 1956 drove her daughters, Cathy and Nora, on a vacation out west. Mr. Blackwell, who didn’t want to stay away from his business for long, met them in Albuquerque and the family drove on to California, said her daughter, Cathy Zuccarello.
Mrs. Blackwell still lives by the advice she gave on her 100th birthday: “You always do what you like to do. You don’t want anybody pushing you around.”
Mrs. Blackwell never smoked and stayed active.
“I didn’t always have my own way,” she said. “I did what I had to do.”
Ms. Zuccarello said her mother never took medication, except for Vitamin B shots, until she fractured her hip in 2010, when she was living at The Gables at West Windsor. After a short hospital stay, Mrs. Blackwell came to Merwick, when it was located in Princeton.
Later, she was one of the first residents to relocate to the new Merwick Care and Rehabilitation Center, at 100 Plainsboro Road.
In addition to her enjoyment of history and reading, Mrs. Blackwell, a Virgo, was interested in astrology and has many books on that topic. She also loves to sing and was a member of the choir at the Calvary Baptist Church in Hopewell and then in the chorus at The Gables. When her daughters were young, Mrs. Blackwell was a Girl Scout leader.
She’s also very fond of dogs. Ms. Zuccarello often brings her King Charles Cavalier spaniel, Harry, to Merwick to visit her mother.
Mrs. Blackwell’s younger daughter, Dr. Nora Dula, lives in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania, with her husband, Dr. David Dula.
Mrs. Blackwell is the grandmother of Michael J. Zuccarello, Dr. Molly Dula Guzic, Dr. Brian Dula and Kate Zuccarello. Two grandchildren passed away in early childhood, Jon A. Zuccarello and Amy B. Dula.
Mrs. Blackwell is the great-grandmother of twins Anthony and Justin Zuccarello, 9; Ava Guzic, 8, and Emily Guzic, 6; Serena Dula, 6, and Ashton Dula, 4 and Aliana, 16 months.
