Her friends at the Cape Henlopen Senior Center compare her to the Energizer Bunny. Within a few minutes of meeting Alberta Favinger, it’s hard to believe she just celebrated her 90th birthday.
Alberta, who learned hard lessons about life during the Great Depression, has devoted most of her life to serving others through the fire service, church and her music.
She still drives from her Pot-Nets home to shop, visit family, attend state and county fire service auxiliary meetings and to visit Cape Henlopen Senior Center in Rehoboth Beach. There aren’t many people born in 1919 with a driver’s license.
And she’s proud to say she drives day and night.
Music is her passion
Alberta’s passion is the Three Hits and a Miss Band (no one fesses up to being the miss part in the name) at the senior center in Rehoboth Beach. She has been involved with the band for 19 years.
As band director, she also plays the keyboards with Charlie Tumini, accordionist; Cork Walters, trumpeter and vocalist; and Robert Palese, drummer. The band plays throughout the year at nursing homes and adult daycare facilities, other senior centers, churches and local organizations. In other words, they will play just about anywhere in Sussex County, including clubs and dances.
Alberta and the other band members get great satisfaction from performing for other seniors, particularly those at nursing homes.
“It’s great to see. Most times they sing along because we always play the golden oldies, and at some places people get up and dance,” she said.
And whenever music is needed at a production or event at the senior center, Alberta is also involved.
She led the senior center chorus for 14 years.
Music has always been an important part of Alberta’s life. She grew up in a household filled with organ and piano music and said she picked it up naturally.
She was in the Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church choir in Seaford for 30 years. She also wrote music and performed in the old Bridgeville minstrels.
Rita D’Ascenzo, former membership president of the senior center, is one of the many people who have been inspired by Alberta.
“There are some persons who may cross our path in life that leave a lasting impression,” she said. She said those people may have great talents or boundless energy or spend a lifetime giving to others. “When one individual possesses all these characteristics, she is unforgettable,” D’Ascenzo said.
Life in the Depression
Alberta was born in New Jersey and moved to Milton when she was 12. She lived in Laurel and graduated from Laurel High School during the Great Depression years. She moved to Bridgeville when her father, a farmer, was offered a job to grow pepper plants for H.P. Cannon.
“Those Depression years were tough,” Alberta recalls. “We had no income. The farm didn’t produce anything.”
Her father got a job working for the Works Progress Administration to help build what became Trap Pond State Park near Laurel, before he was offered the job in Bridgeville.
She said the family had gardens and canned vegetables and fruits. “Somehow we always had food on the table,” she said. “I don’t know how my mother did it.”
A special bond
In Bridgeville, Alberta got involved with an organization that would define her community involvement for almost 70 years – the Bridgeville Volunteer Fire Company. She has been a member of the auxiliary for 69 years and held just about every office including the office of president in the state and Delmarva organizations.
Her late husband, William R. (Bob) Favinger of Seaford, was a state fire marshal.
She said those in the fire service have a special bond that has not changed over the years. “To this day, we are still close,” she said.
Although it was unheard of in the 1950s for a woman to ride a fire engine or ambulance, Alberta was a groundbreaker as the first female radio operator for the fire company. She is proud of being one of the first women to get a Federal Communications Commission license.
It must be in the genes, because her daughter, Meehris McLaughlin of Pot-Nets, was the first woman dispatcher for the county emergency dispatch system. She retired after 37.5 years.
Alberta also has a son, Thomas Smith of Dover, two grandchildren, four great-grandchildren and two great-great-grandchildren.
Recalling simpler times
Although Alberta does not consider herself retired, she officially retired from the Delaware Department of Public Health where she worked as a clerk at offices in Dover and Georgetown. She also owned her own florist shop in Bridgeville.
She said she doesn’t have a secret to long life, unless it’s staying active. “I’m going all the time and don’t know when I retired,” she said.
Alberta vividly recalls when times were simpler – a time without all of the material things we take for granted today, when people knew their neighbors and spent time visiting them. She said people looked forward to the weekends to go dancing. The favorite spots were the Log Cabin and Old Spinning Wheel, both near Delmar.
“We always had everything we wanted. We were satisfied and happy,” she said.
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