At 107, she's ready to cast her ballot

Back in 1899, when Sarah Wilkins was born, women were still being fined or even imprisoned for trying to vote. All that changed in August of 1920 when the 19th Amendment to the constitution was ratified. Sarah, today the oldest current resident of the Thornton Heights Assisted Living Center in Lansing, was only 21 at the time. She has been voting ever since.

Sarah grew up in the Harpers Ferry area and, according to her niece, Marcie Hale from New Albin, has vivid memories of the first automobile she ever saw. Sarah tells how she ran home to tell her father about the "buggy" she had just seen with no horse pulling it. Sarah says her father eventually bought one of those strange-looking new inventions, but he never bothered to learn how to drive it. That chore always fell to her brother Peter, who was only too happy to tell his dad, "I can drive a car, Pop!"

There were seven girls and two boys in Sara's family. Her father was a lifelong Democrat and Sarah says she has always voted Democratic, too. After growing up in Harpers Ferry, Sarah moved to Minneapolis in the 20's and found a job in the woolen mills. She also met and married Harry Wargen. They had four children and eventually moved to Chicago as part of Harry's job. When Harry retired they moved back to northeast Iowa, settling in New Albin. Sarah says that, while Harry did a lot of fishing, she joined every card club she could.

After Harry passed away in the early 70's, Sarah continued to play cards with friends. That was how she met Wilbur Wilkins. In 1981 they married. Recently the two celebrated their 21st anniversary at Thornton Heights (where Wilbur is also a resident). Wilbur will turn 100 this December, undoubtedly making them one of the oldest married couples in Iowa, if not the entire United States.

With elections upcoming in November, Sarah made plans to exercise her right to vote once more. Recently, she completed the paperwork to get an absentee ballot delivered to her in time for the election.