What do you get a woman who just turned 100 and has been shopping at Anthony’s women’s fashion store for 85 years?
You get her a few outfits from her favorite store – Anthony’s! -- in her favorite color – blue!
Meet our friend Dorothy
Dorothy Borden Gooding is the perfect example of ageless style.
She first shopped at Anthony’s after arriving in Palm Beach County as a teen in 1931. Back then, she loved shopping at the big Anthony’s store on Clematis Street, and favorite item at the time were the beautiful dresses.
The salesladies were gracious and helpful, she remembers. And the store was full of the latest women's resort wear fashions.
“I’d go into the store and pick out some clothes I wanted to try,” Dorothy recalls, “and the saleslady would always bring me in a few more to try on.”
Dorothy graduated from Palm Beach High School, went to Florida State College for Women (now Florida State University) and became an elementary school teacher at Central Schools, the complex of schools on the hill that’s now Dreyfoos School of the Arts in West Palm Beach.
“I’d go to Anthony’s two or three times a year and stock up on three or four dresses,” Dorothy says of her teaching years. “Of course, back then, you had to match your shoes to your pocketbook and hat.”
She and her husband raised two sons in Palm Beach County, and Dorothy now lives in Palm Beach Gardens.
To celebrate her 100th birthday in May, friends took Dorothy to the Anthony’s store in North Palm Beach and bought her a few outfits.
“They have the clothes I like!” Dorothy says. “Casual, comfortable…and colorful.”
Her family threw her a big party for her birthday, and she wore a vibrant blue shirt from Anthony’s.
It matched the party streamers, Dorothy says.
She loves to wear blue – but she rarely gets the blues, she says. She credits her longevity to a balanced diet and her personal motto: “Have a happy heart.”
Love Dorothy’s uplifting attitude?
Val’s tip of the week: Stay interested and interesting!
It’s not every day you meet a 100-year-old woman who has an email address, but that’s Dorothy Gooding. Dorothy got a computer 20 years ago so she could write her book, a history of Lake Park called “Tucked Between the Pages of Time.” Now she catches up on her reading and mail via computer, and her cheerful spirit is contagious. “I want to be 100 forever and ever,” she says. “It’s wonderful.”
