On a sunny Thursday morning inside a senior citizen independent living apartment building in north Houston, ABC13 found 102-year-old Ivy Marie Broussard.
It was 9 a.m. and she was dressed in a fancy green suit, wearing makeup, stockings, earrings, a necklace, and sparkling high-heeled strapped sandals.
Broussard was smiling as she used a single cane to walk from the elevator to the lobby couch.
All the attention was on Ms. Broussard and her attire.
“High heels?” Broussard asked. “You know, I still wear them.”
Broussard was born on December 22, 1922, in Houston’s Fifth Ward. She’s a proud graduate of Wheatley High School. She is still very well-known in her community.
She loves getting out of the house, going to church, going to fashion shows and events, and pampering herself.
“I go down there and get my nails done once a month,” Broussard said.
She loves strutting in heels and being stylish.
“I want to look good so I might catch me a boyfriend,” she laughed. “I’m still alive.”
Family members tell everyone that this centenarian is fiercely independent. Once a month, she still walks the entire HEB Mi Tienda grocery store when she goes shopping.
“I get my buggy and walk around and get what I want,” Broussard said.
She even grabs a beverage or two.
“I like Smirnoff,” she says. “That’s my favorite.”
She occasionally cooks for other senior citizens in her building.
This former nurse and hair stylist is the glue that holds her family together. She raised her two sons with her husband, who died 52 years ago. She has eight grandchildren, 22 great-grandchildren, and then there are the great-great-grandchildren.
She’s determined to keep her mind sharp. Every night, she completes pages in her word-search book.
A few months ago, Ivy Marie Broussard took an Amtrak train for a three-day trip from Houston to California. Her family told ABC13 that she did it with ease.
She is now planning to take a bus trip with her senior citizen friends to visit a Louisiana casino.
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