After 84 years, she’s finally getting 21 candles

Gig Harbor resident Joanne Kingsbury was born in 1936.

By her third birthday she lived through the entirety of World War II. Just after her fourth birthday, she had her driver’s license and graduated from high school. This year she will be celebrating her 21st birthday.

“It’s not my first alcohol,” said Kingsbury, laughing. “They do serve me at the bar.”

Kingsbury, who is actually 84, lives in a chronological twilight zone. She was born on a leap day, Feb. 29.

This Saturday, she and her extended family will celebrate her 21st leap birthday at Anthony’s Restaurant.

According to one online source, she’s one of about 200,000 people in the United States who were born on a leap day. The odds? 1 in 1,461.

Leap day babies include the singer Dinah Shore, the rapper Ja Rule and the actor Joey Greco. Historical leaplings including opera composer Gioachino Rossini (“William Tell,” “The Barber of Seville”) and a 16th-century pope, Paul III

Born in a blizzard

Joanne Kingsbury was born in small town called Story City, Iowa. She was born during a blizzard, and her father had to go out into it on foot to find a doctor.

She lived on a farm with her parents and three younger siblings, selling milk and raising hundreds of chickens.

“Growing up, we did not have electricity or running water. We had to use candles. There was no phone,” Kingsbury said. “My sister, Carol, got sick at the age of one or two. I had to find a neighbor that had a phone and we called the doctor.”

When Kingsbury turned four, her first leap-year birthday, her parents had a big party at her house.

“All my aunts and uncles lived in that direction so I had so many people there,” Kingsbury said. “There were so many presents and cards.”

She was in grade school during World War II, and still remembers the ration cards, the earnest efforts to grow more food, and the fear.

“Every time I heard a plane go over, I’d think maybe it was a bomber,” she said.

Her first real job was as a car hop at Treloars Drive Inn Restaurant in Fort Dodge, Iowa. She went from from car to car, taking customers’ orders and bringing them their food.

“I earned eight percent of what I sold, but mainly I earned the tips,” Kingsbury said. “when I first did it, I actually dropped the food. I had to pay for it.”

It was while working at the drive-in, at the age of 17, that she met her future husband, Duane Kingsbury, who had recently returned from the Korean War. They married in 1954. Duane worked as a carpenter, and later for the Union Pacific railroad in Tacoma. In 1962, they moved to Gig Harbor, on land homesteaded in 1901 by Duane’s grandfather, Alvin Cornell Kingsbury Sr. The couple divorced in 1973.

Ballroom dancing with a beau

Kingsbury is a mother to four children, and a grandmother of two. She has been a member of the Fraternal Order of Eagles, an international non-profit organization, for 36 years.

She loves to do creative writing, saying she has written two books. Kingsbury also wrote two short stories, The Owl and Cat Woman, that were published in the Gateway in 2005 and 2006.

Her ex-husband has since passed away, and she is now dating a man she met through the Eagles.

“We go ballroom dancing twice a week,” Kingsbury said.

Kingsbury’s daughter, Karin Stanley, said growing up she always created home-made leap year birthday cards for her mother.

“when she turned 16, I made a card that looked like a driver’s license,” Stanley said. “I put the date, the weight, the height, and added an older photo of her when she was 18.”

Stanley added that four years ago she made a card saying “you need to wait another four years before you can drink legally.”

When it was not a leap year, Kingsbury said, she celebrated her birthday on Feb. 28 or March 1.

“We always said ‘happy un-birthday.’” Stanley said.

Even if she had a choice, Kingsbury said, she wouldn’t change the day she was born. It made it easy for people to remember her birthday, she said.

“It’s special,” Kingsbury said. “Not everybody has a leap year birthday.”

Although she’s never faced any bureaucratic issues, such as difficulty registering online or obtaining her driver’s license, she has been teased by her Eagle friends.

“When I first joined the Eagles they joked with me,” Kingsbury said. “When you first get a drink, they want to see your driver’s license. They teased me and said, ‘Well, you’re not old enough to drink.’”

Kingsbury said she is looking forward to her birthday party at Anthony’s.

After all, you only turn 21 twice.

An earlier version of this story misstated the name of the drive-in in Fort Dodge, Iowa, the name of the railroad for which her husband worked, and the years Kingsbury’s short stories appeared in The Gateway.

This story was originally published February 25, 2020 at 11:10 AM.