Mildred Holt; Drank Highball, Traded Barbs on ‘The Tonight Show’

Mildred Holt, 108, who achieved a degree of fame after trading barbs with Johnny Carson while drinking a highball on his “The Tonight Show.” During her August, 1987, appearance, the Kansas woman kidded Carson about his appearance and drank a highball from a coffee mug. “If my minister saw it, he probably would say, ‘Oh, my goodness,’ but I say anybody that’s 105 can do what she wants to do,” she said later. A reporter for Mrs. Holt’s hometown newspaper called the feisty woman to the attention of Carson producers to get her a spot on the show. The Kansas Legislature honored her in January, 1988, as “a wonderful lady who all Kansans can be proud of” and “a good match for host Johnny Carson.” Her daughter, Catharine Merydith, said Mrs. Holt taught in a one-room school house for a few years in Ellsworth, Kan. then took a business course in Enid, Okla., and became a legal secretary. In Ellsworth on June 23.