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City Beat: Beverly Hills centenarians help kick off city centennial

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Brent Freedman, 3, pushes his grandfather, Gary Freedman, who is pushing his 100-year-old father, Walter Freedman, after Beverly Hills’ tribute to residents who are at the century mark. The city itself turns 100 next week.  (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)
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Charlotte Rubin, 104, right, pauses for a photo during the Beverly Hills centenarian celebration. The event was one of the first in a rolling, yearlong birthday party for the city, which turns 100 this year.  (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)
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Sitting on dad Eric Freedman’s lap, Brent Freedman, 3, talks with great-grandfather Walter Freedman, 100, as grandfather Gary Freedman right, and grandmother Nancy Freedman, in back, look on at Beverly Hills’ tribute to residents as old as or older than the city. Beverly Hills was incorporated Jan. 28, 1914.  (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)
By Nita Lelyveld
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Live 100 years or more and you certainly earn the right to do what you want to do, when you want to do it.

Mary Goldberg will be 106 next year. She likes to sing “God Bless America.”

On Tuesday, Goldberg was one of four centenarian residents of Beverly Hills honored by the city. The youngest, Elly Newton, turned 100 just a week ago.

Beverly Hills turns 100 next week and will be celebrating for months to come.

The centenarians’ event was one of the first in a rolling yearlong birthday party.

Before being ushered into the City Council chambers for speeches and the official presentation of centennial pins and certificates, the centenarians gathered in a room nearby, surrounded by their relatives.

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Asked what Beverly Hills was like when she first saw it, Goldberg said, “I don’t know. What difference does it make? I’m living. I’m living. I’m living.”

Then she said, “I sing. I sing. Now I’ll sing for you,” and she started belting out her favorite number.

In the council chambers, she did it again, into a microphone. The assembled crowd ate it up.

Read all about Mary Goldberg and the other centenarians in my latest City Beat story.

And feel free to send me ideas for future City Beat stories about moments in the life of Los Angeles.

Follow City Beat on Twitter and Facebook. Read more City Beats here.

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Email ideas for future City Beats to nita.lelyveld@latimes.com

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Nita Lelyveld

Former Los Angeles Times columnist Nita Lelyveld wrote City Beat stories about moments in the life of Los Angeles. She was born in New York and grew up around the world, but lived in L.A. longer than she lived anywhere else. Before joining The Times in 2001, she wrote for the Tuscaloosa News, the Associated Press and the Philadelphia Inquirer, which sent her to L.A. as a national writer in 1997.

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