It’s no joke! — Newport Beach woman celebrates 106 years on April Fool’s Day

Josephine “Josie” Sim turned 106 years old on Friday, a milestone she takes in stride.

In fact, she doesn’t seem to take it as much of a milestone at all, given her self-effacing jokes with granddaughter, Laurie, during a recent interview. She gently ribbed her family for waiting on her hand and foot these days, though Laurie quickly interjected that they wait on “Mom-Mom” hand and foot precisely because Sim waited on the rest of her family — her son, her daughter-in-law, her five grandchildren and six great-grandchildren — for many decades.

Sim was born on April 1, 1916, in Phoenixville, Pa. She was the second of six children, though she notes that she’s the only one who’s still alive. She described her childhood as “ordinary.” She attended a Catholic school up until the eighth grade and went to a public high school in the ninth until she decided to drop out at the age of 14 and find a job.

“That was the thing to do at the time. It was to go to work,” said Sim.

She worked at a hosiery mill that produced silk stockings for women. Sim recalls playing on the mill’s recreational basketball team. The sport continues to be an active interest of hers.

A co-worker named George caught Josie’s eye, and they began dating. The two married on Feb. 22, 1936.

“We just got married,” Sim said with a chuckle. “He just asked me to get married, so I got married. It was OK. There was no such thing as all the kind of stuff they do now [for engagements], but I made up my mind: ‘I’ll just go along with whatever happens.’”

The two ended up owning a tavern called the Jefferson House, a mom-and-pop shop where steelworkers could get a shot and a beer before going home. Sim herself tended bar. The tavern, for a time, even offered accommodations for roomers. She remembers the prices for those rooms with clarity.

Josephine “Josie” Sim marked her 106th year on Friday, April 1.

(Scott Smeltzer / Staff Photographer)

“It was $5 a week, and they’d get their breakfast and lunch with it,” Sim said, grinning. “The beer was only 15 cents. You’d get an 8-ounce or 10-ounce glass. The whiskey ... well, it was a shot. We didn’t have any of that fancy-dancey stuff, you know?”

During World War II, the Sims lived on a cul-de-sac and held a party for every boy that came home from the war, though she said with a touch of quiet sadness that not all of them did. She lost two cousins on the battlefront.

“We used to take white bedsheets and write on there, ‘Welcome home,’ and string them across the street we lived on,” said Sim.

The Sims owned that bar in Pennsylvania for almost 50 years, until George died on Dec. 12, 1990. She lived in the house they had shared until three years ago when she realized she wasn’t going to be able to continue living on her own.

“I realized I’m losing my strength slowly, so I thought, ‘Well, I’m going to ask my son and daughter-in-law if they’ll take me in,’” said Sim, though she added she’d worried a little because she wasn’t going to be able to help with the house much when she did move.

Her son, Richard, moved to California to work for the Irvine Co. for about 25 years, until his retirement in 2001. He and his wife, Ann, were classmates at Villanova University, the school Sim made a point to add that she’s supporting in its basketball team’s game this Saturday against the Kansas Jayhawks.

“I have a wonderful family here. My son and daughter-in-law, my grandchildren and great-grandchildren,” said Sim. “Everyone is just so helpful, you know?”

Sim doesn’t think she does anything special health-wise that has allowed her to live to 106. She recommended keeping all food in moderation. She mused about the fact that she used to encourage people to just keep going and not let life pass them by.

“And now I’m sitting and waiting,” said Sim, laughing.

She said she belongs to a church and she keeps a lot of hope in her faith, though the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic has made it a challenge for her and her family to attend services.

“Since then, we’ve not gone, but we watch the Catholic mass on Sunday at 9 in the morning on the television, which is good, yeah,” said Sim, before adding with a cheeky grin, “But the main thing now is Villanova. Villanova, go, go, go!”

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