Happy 110th birthday Wally!

WILMINGTON - January 9, 2008 Wally McBride Baker was greeted by well wishers who all had 110 reasons for coming to the Parkview Nursing Center Wednesday.

With a birthday cake with her age, 110, on it, and a birth certificate as proof, Baker is the oldest person in Delaware now, and said to be the 80th oldest person in the world.

Wally's hearing is gone, but not her sense of humor. People find this out by using a message board to ask her how she feels.

"I feel with my fingers," Wally McBride Baker said.

She is the picture of health, and a handful, according to her 80-year-old son .

"About the doctors, she didn't keep them in Cadillacs or bigger cars. She only went when she had to and that wasn't very often," Edward Broderdorp said.

Since it isn't often that anyone lives to be 110, Wilmington's mayor came to Wally's birthday party, and so did the state treasurer who wrote a poem.

"i wish you joy and health aplenty and i hope to be right back here when youre a 120," State Treasurer Jack Markell said.

Wally's relatives hope for that, too.

"I think it's amazing and it makes me a little emotional," great granddaughter, Cyndi White, said.

11-year-old Ried White told his classmates about the woman he calls Grammy Mack, his great-great grandmother.

"Most of them don't believe me. When I said I was going out of school today to see my 110 great-great grandmother they were like no, you're just kidding," Reid White said.

It's no coincidence that Pepsi was served at Wally's birthday party. The soft drink was invented the year she was born.

Well wishers signed Wally's birthday card and looked at pictures of her when she was young.

Her birthday wish was for those relatives and friends.

"I wish they'll all be happy for the rest of their lives," Wally said.