A baby girl was born in Napa on Oct. 29, 1908.

Wrapped in cotton, she weighed 3 pounds. She had a hole in her heart and a sore in her mouth. The doctor said she wouldn't live the day out. She couldn't eat and regular milk didn't agree with her, so her mother fed her goat's milk with a medicine dropper every hour of the day. Her heart healed and the sore went through her. They kept her warm on an oven door of a wood stove.

She grew and was a very active girl in grammar school and played baseball in high school. She was the pitcher for four years in high school and also played basketball and ran track. She wanted to learn to sew and her mother said she could learn that after she got out of school. But she worked for a dressmaker and took sewing in high school. She worked in the Red Hen when it first opened making salads. She did a lot of babysitting in the afternoon and evening.

In 1930 she married her high school boyfriend and was married 50 years. In seven years she had a son and six years later she had a daughter. Her son had two boys and her daughter had a boy and girl. Now she has one granddaughter and three great-granddaughters. She has three grandsons and one great-grandson. She has always been busy with the house, yard and children until the last two years. She fell and broke her hip two years ago and last year fell and broke the other hip.

Now she is alone with the children helping her. She gets around with a walker. She has lived in Napa all her life and is a fourth generation native.

That little baby born Oct. 29, 1908, is still in Napa at the age of 98 years and is Virginia Maxwell Tallman.