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A seldom celebrated birthday
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| H&N photo by Todd E. Swenson Kalandria, left, and Klarissa Odle were born on Feb. 29, 1992, and will be celebrating their fourth birthday. |
A four-year treat: Leap Year Day babies get chance to enjoy, celebrate actual day of birth
By LEE BEACH
H&N Staff Writer
It’s a trick of the calendar for babies born on Feb. 29 — they only have an “official” birthday every four years. But for several Klamath Basin residents, it hasn’t made any difference. A party is a party and they have one every year. Florence DeLap, 88, will celebrate her 22nd Feb. 29 birthday today. She says a birthday every four years keeps her young at heart. “I don’t have anything planned for my birthday, but it wouldn’t surprise me if my family does.”
She has never missed any celebrations because her mother promised her she would always have a birthday each year, maybe just a day early.
Her older sister was easy-going, but when she and her brother teased DeLap about only having a birthday every four years, she would always tell them her birthdays were special, and she still feels that way.
“I’ve been here since I was 8 years old,” she said.
“We moved from Leavenworth, Wash., where my dad worked for Great Northern Railroad, to San Francisco, then to Klamath Falls, where he worked for Southern Pacific Railroad.”
She has lost count now, but in 2004, she had 13 grandchildren, 14 great-grandchildren and four great-great-grandchildren.
Kalandria and Klarissa Odle, fraternal twin daughters of Mary Littrell and stepfather Bryan Littrell, are sweet 16 today, or in leap years, 4. They were born Feb. 29, 1992.
They are sophomores at Mazama High School, but each is pursuing her education in a different way.
Kalandria attends night classes, studying English and computers. Klarissa is emphasizing classes that will help her get into the health occupations field so she can be either a nurse or anesthesiologist.
They have two older sisters, Sasha, 18, and Tiah, 19.
Neither remembers exactly when they realized they had special birthdays, but their mother said they always celebrate on Feb. 28 in non-Leap Years “to keep it in the month of February.”
“I’m wanting a huge cake,” said Klarissa, who wanted to try to get her driver’s license, but was told by the DMV she would have to wait until March 1. That’s a Saturday, so it will be Monday, March 3.
“We’ll have two cakes,” said Kalandria, and their mother said the cakes are going to be “a real surprise.”
David Velador, 28, (officially 7 years old), is a medical assistant at Klamath Open Door Family Practice.
“When I was about 8 years old, my family explained leap year to me and told me the actual date would only come around every four years,” he said. “On each fourth year, we would do something special — like take a trip, or I would get a special present like a dirt bike.”
Other years, he celebrated around Feb. 28. When he was 21, he went in for his first drink and explained the situation to the server.
After puzzling over it briefly, she finally said she would serve him one drink. He remembered she told him, “Then come back on March 1, and you can order all you want.”
“It’s been an easy birthday to remember, because not many people have a leap year birthday,” he said. “I have only met one other person — Brittany Pickering — a girl in the fourth or fifth grade, who had one.”
Velador was a firefighter for both the Forest Service and a private contractor before starting with his current employer. He hopes to go back to school to become a paramedic or a nurse.
Velador’s mother, Penny, remembers she didn’t want him to have a Feb. 29 birthday, but he was already a month late when the doctors delivered him by C-section after three days in labor.
“I thought it was depressing — you wait until March 1, and well, you missed it. He didn’t tell me until he was 16 that he always wanted it on Feb. 28 instead of March 1.”
Lorayne Duryee is still a teenager, 18 today, though she was born Feb. 29, 1936, in a house on Crosby Street in Klamath Falls.
She worked as a bookkeeper, waitress at The Broiler and at Weyerhaueser. When county commissioners wouldn’t pay for a woman matron, her second husband, former sheriff Tom Duryee, asked her to, on her own time, come down when female prisoners needed to be frisked.
When she was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s disease years ago, she called her son, a doctor. He told her there was nothing they could do.
“My doctor’s office called me back later and said, ‘Let’s try this treatment.’ Since then, I’ve been taking infusions every three weeks for eight years, and I’m hunky dory. Every day is a miracle.”
She already celebrated with a cruise to Cabo San Lucas given to her and her husband by one of their sons.
Anita Bannister of Paisley will be 92, or 23 in leap year birthdays, today.
She and her family moved to the Klamath Basin from Madera, Calif., where she finished high school at Silver Lake.
“I married a local boy from Paisley — he was a barber by profession. I was postmaster in Paisley for almost 30 years before I retired.”
One of her favorite memories of her years in that office was when the first- and second-grade teacher would bring her students to the post office, and each bought a stamp for valentines they had made.
Five generations of Bannister’s family live in the area, and “no one else was born on Leap Year Day.”
Her children and grandchildren are planning an open house birthday party for her tomorrow.
Also celebrating her birthday today is Norma Mac Millan, though she keeps the actual year of her birth confidential.
In an interview in 2004, her last official birthday, she shared that she spent most of her life in Klamath Falls. She owned, then managed, a beauty shop.
While she didn’t want to be interviewed again, she did want to mention that this leap year will be special because her niece has chosen today for a C-section for a baby she was expecting. She wanted the baby to have the same birthday as Mac Millan.
Margie Schrader of Lakeview shares the same birthday and year as Duryee, and said she enjoyed claiming to be younger than she was.
“I first realized my birthday was different when I was 4 years old. My older sister gave me a birthday party and a point was made at the party that I was 1 year old.”
Schrader has lived in Lakeview 27 years, after she and her now ex-husband moved from the Bay Area to get away from “the wild crazy life there.”
Over the years, she worked at any job she could find, including taking inventory, working part-time for attorneys Bill Hanlon and, later, in the Nichols’ office, then as a secretary in an insurance office.
“I became an insurance agent then, and when Midland Empire purchased the business, I was an agent for them.”
After working in her ex’s computer business for 10 years, she retired.
She didn’t have anything special planned to observe her birthday except going out to dinner.
John Meyers, 20, will celebrate being 5 years old (born Feb. 29, 1988) by going to Redding to help his dad, who recently broke his femur.
Meyers graduated from Klamath Union High School after moving here in his freshman year. He now runs his own excavating company, Northern Lights Excavation.
“I remember not having birthdays, just getting little things when it wasn’t leap year,” Meyers said, “then on each fourth year, all the things that were saved up over the previous years would make a big birthday.”
She has never missed any celebrations because her mother promised her she would always have a birthday each year, maybe just a day early.
Her older sister was easy-going, but when she and her brother teased DeLap about only having a birthday every four years, she would always tell them her birthdays were special, and she still feels that way.
“I’ve been here since I was 8 years old,” she said.
“We moved from Leavenworth, Wash., where my dad worked for Great Northern Railroad, to San Francisco, then to Klamath Falls, where he worked for Southern Pacific Railroad.”
She has lost count now, but in 2004, she had 13 grandchildren, 14 great-grandchildren and four great-great-grandchildren.
The Odle Twins
Kalandria and Klarissa Odle, fraternal twin daughters of Mary Littrell and stepfather Bryan Littrell, are sweet 16 today, or in leap years, 4. They were born Feb. 29, 1992.
They are sophomores at Mazama High School, but each is pursuing her education in a different way.
Kalandria attends night classes, studying English and computers. Klarissa is emphasizing classes that will help her get into the health occupations field so she can be either a nurse or anesthesiologist.
They have two older sisters, Sasha, 18, and Tiah, 19.
Neither remembers exactly when they realized they had special birthdays, but their mother said they always celebrate on Feb. 28 in non-Leap Years “to keep it in the month of February.”
“I’m wanting a huge cake,” said Klarissa, who wanted to try to get her driver’s license, but was told by the DMV she would have to wait until March 1. That’s a Saturday, so it will be Monday, March 3.
“We’ll have two cakes,” said Kalandria, and their mother said the cakes are going to be “a real surprise.”
Dave Velador
David Velador, 28, (officially 7 years old), is a medical assistant at Klamath Open Door Family Practice.
“When I was about 8 years old, my family explained leap year to me and told me the actual date would only come around every four years,” he said. “On each fourth year, we would do something special — like take a trip, or I would get a special present like a dirt bike.”
Other years, he celebrated around Feb. 28. When he was 21, he went in for his first drink and explained the situation to the server.
After puzzling over it briefly, she finally said she would serve him one drink. He remembered she told him, “Then come back on March 1, and you can order all you want.”
“It’s been an easy birthday to remember, because not many people have a leap year birthday,” he said. “I have only met one other person — Brittany Pickering — a girl in the fourth or fifth grade, who had one.”
Velador was a firefighter for both the Forest Service and a private contractor before starting with his current employer. He hopes to go back to school to become a paramedic or a nurse.
Velador’s mother, Penny, remembers she didn’t want him to have a Feb. 29 birthday, but he was already a month late when the doctors delivered him by C-section after three days in labor.
“I thought it was depressing — you wait until March 1, and well, you missed it. He didn’t tell me until he was 16 that he always wanted it on Feb. 28 instead of March 1.”
Lorayne Duryee
Lorayne Duryee is still a teenager, 18 today, though she was born Feb. 29, 1936, in a house on Crosby Street in Klamath Falls.
She worked as a bookkeeper, waitress at The Broiler and at Weyerhaueser. When county commissioners wouldn’t pay for a woman matron, her second husband, former sheriff Tom Duryee, asked her to, on her own time, come down when female prisoners needed to be frisked.
When she was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s disease years ago, she called her son, a doctor. He told her there was nothing they could do.
“My doctor’s office called me back later and said, ‘Let’s try this treatment.’ Since then, I’ve been taking infusions every three weeks for eight years, and I’m hunky dory. Every day is a miracle.”
She already celebrated with a cruise to Cabo San Lucas given to her and her husband by one of their sons.
Anita Bannister
Anita Bannister of Paisley will be 92, or 23 in leap year birthdays, today.
She and her family moved to the Klamath Basin from Madera, Calif., where she finished high school at Silver Lake.
“I married a local boy from Paisley — he was a barber by profession. I was postmaster in Paisley for almost 30 years before I retired.”
One of her favorite memories of her years in that office was when the first- and second-grade teacher would bring her students to the post office, and each bought a stamp for valentines they had made.
Five generations of Bannister’s family live in the area, and “no one else was born on Leap Year Day.”
Her children and grandchildren are planning an open house birthday party for her tomorrow.
Norma Mac Millan
Also celebrating her birthday today is Norma Mac Millan, though she keeps the actual year of her birth confidential.
In an interview in 2004, her last official birthday, she shared that she spent most of her life in Klamath Falls. She owned, then managed, a beauty shop.
While she didn’t want to be interviewed again, she did want to mention that this leap year will be special because her niece has chosen today for a C-section for a baby she was expecting. She wanted the baby to have the same birthday as Mac Millan.
Margie Schrader
Margie Schrader of Lakeview shares the same birthday and year as Duryee, and said she enjoyed claiming to be younger than she was.
“I first realized my birthday was different when I was 4 years old. My older sister gave me a birthday party and a point was made at the party that I was 1 year old.”
Schrader has lived in Lakeview 27 years, after she and her now ex-husband moved from the Bay Area to get away from “the wild crazy life there.”
Over the years, she worked at any job she could find, including taking inventory, working part-time for attorneys Bill Hanlon and, later, in the Nichols’ office, then as a secretary in an insurance office.
“I became an insurance agent then, and when Midland Empire purchased the business, I was an agent for them.”
After working in her ex’s computer business for 10 years, she retired.
She didn’t have anything special planned to observe her birthday except going out to dinner.
John Meyers
John Meyers, 20, will celebrate being 5 years old (born Feb. 29, 1988) by going to Redding to help his dad, who recently broke his femur.
Meyers graduated from Klamath Union High School after moving here in his freshman year. He now runs his own excavating company, Northern Lights Excavation.
“I remember not having birthdays, just getting little things when it wasn’t leap year,” Meyers said, “then on each fourth year, all the things that were saved up over the previous years would make a big birthday.”
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