90th BIRTHDAY PARTY

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28895, 15 May 1959, Page 2

90th BIRTHDAY PARTY

Mrs E. Silvester’s Celebration

“It is a wonderful gesture to an old lady who has only done her duty," said Mrs Emily Silvester thanking members of her family and of the Halswell subcentre of the Red Cross Society and the Halswell branch of the Women’s Division of Federated Farmers who gave a party in honour of her ninetieth birthday at the Wesley Old People’s Hospital yesterday. Mrs Silvester has always been devoted to working for the Methodist Church. She taught Sunday School at Greenpark where she was born and lived for most of her life. Two of the three children of her first marriage to Mr John McDonald, “Belleville,” Greenpark, were present at the celebrations yesterday. They are Mrs H. A. Hunt, Christchurch, and Mr John McDonald, who is a farmer at Oxford. The other daughter, Miss I. McDonald, was unable to be present. Five years after her first husband’s death, she married Mr John Silvester, and from 1921 until three years and a half ago lived at Halswell. For 30 years Mrs Silvester was a member of the Red Cross Society, and on her retirement was awarded a long-service badge. She was also a worker for the W.D.F.F. After her active life at Greenpark, such work was a great boon and filled her life, said Mrs Hunt.