Mark Moore, CBS News
‘Every other night I do vodka, but the other nights I do brandy, bourbon, Irish whiskey, and honey whiskey,’ Elinor Campbell Feihel says.
For 101-year-old Elinor Campbell Feihel, the secret to a long life is belief in God and the occasional veneration of the spirits – the alcoholic kind. “I drink a little,” Feihel told WSYX in Columbus, Ohio. “I have a whole bar.”
“Every other night I do vodka, but the other nights I do brandy, bourbon, Irish whiskey, and honey whiskey,” the great-grandmother told the station in an interview that aired Wednesday.
Feihel’s birthday is Oct. 14, but she’s not making any big plans to celebrate this year, noting that the party for her centennial was the “last hurrah.”
Often compared to Sophia from the TV show “The Golden Girls,” for her zinger comebacks, Feihel was born in 1921 at the beginning of the Roaring Twenties but grew up during the Great Depression.
“I learned from the Depression,” she said. “It did not victimize me. It was good for me. I was about to be a princess, and princesses don’t have a good life.”
With three children, nine grandchildren, and 18 great-grandchildren, Feihel said she continues to expand her network of acquaintances.
“I’m in touch with a lot of people, a lot of people,” she said. “I send out 130 to 150 Christmas cards. I’m good for something. Not just taking up space.”
And while she says part of the key to staying positive is not planning ahead, she does keep Saturdays open for actor Tom Selleck – the “Blue Bloods” version, not the “Magnum, P.I.” one.
“Tom Selleck and I have lunch every Saturday because he’s on Friday night,” Feihel said, adding that she tapes the show.