Whatabirthday! Liberty woman celebrates 99th birthday with restaurant party

What started as a casual lunch with friends has become a birthday tradition for 99-year-old Bobbie Waugh of Liberty, Texas. For the last several years, Waugh has celebrated her birthday – June 15 – at the Whataburger restaurant in Liberty.

During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, when the restaurant was forced to close its dining room, her standard birthday meal – a junior burger all the way with a senior discount drink – was brought to her doorstep by Darwin Davis, the marketing coordinator for BurgerWorks, the franchise owner of the Liberty Whataburger and nine other locations.

“It’s a thrill to me to celebrate my birthday at Whataburger,” Waugh said. “I used to play mahjong with friends in the hospitality room at the First Liberty National Bank (now First Liberty Bank). Afterward, we would walk over to Whataburger for lunch, and the year it fell on my birthday, my friends planned a birthday party for me.”

It became a tradition after that with Waugh and her friends, and it is one she plans to keep for as many birthdays as she has left.

“I don’t make plans that far ahead, but if I do live to be 100, I will be at Whataburger to celebrate,” she said.

Waugh is a lifelong resident of Liberty. She is the only child of the late Joseph Milton “J.W.” and Madeline Rich of Liberty. Her parents owned a ranch in Devers and her father was board president of First State Bank of Liberty. Waugh and her husband, Alexander, were married for 62 years until his death in 2009. They have four daughters – Joann, Julie, Janet and Jean, all of whom live in Colorado or California.

Waugh says she is the last remaining member of the Liberty High School Class of 1936. She also taught Sunday School for years at First Methodist Church.

When asked to share her secrets to living a long life, Waugh attributes it to nutrition and attitude, lessons she learned from her maternal grandparents.

“My grandparents lived during the Great Depression and they lived economically as I believe people should. Don’t eat a lot of junk food. My grandparents drank something called ‘kettle tea’ made with hot water, milk and sugar. It didn’t have a lot of flavor though. They never had soft drinks, mostly because they couldn’t afford them anyway. They never had coffee either,” she said. “They had oatmeal every morning because it was cheap. My grandma lived to be 101 and my grandpa died at 93. My grandpa died prematurely because he started retaining fluid. Nowadays they can get that fluid off with medicine, but back then they couldn’t.”

Aside from nutrition, Waugh said people should strive to keep a good attitude even when times are tough.

“You can’t have a pity party. You have to look at the bright side of things. No matter how good things are, they aren’t going to stay that way, and no matter how bad things are, they won’t stay that way. Your attitude has a lot to do with your life. Anybody can feel sorry for themselves, but just don’t allow it,” Waugh said. “You can always find something happy to think about, but you may have to work at it.”