WOODBURY, New Jersey (WPVI) — A dinner party was held recently for Mary Capasso at Watermark’s Woodbury Mews in Woodbury, New Jersey to celebrate her 103rd birthday.
“I was born 1919,” says Capasso. “I feel fine, no different than any other day.”
But Community Life Director, Susan Sacks, says they wanted to make it extra special by hosting a ballroom dancing bash where she lives.
“Because that was her passion,” says Sacks. “This was the first year we were able to make it happen; to kind of surprise her.”
Dancers performed in Capasso’s honor since she spent years on the dance floor herself.
“My husband and I, we both enjoyed dancing,” says Capasso.
She says they took to ballroom dancing because it was “something we could do together.”
Capasso met her late husband, Carl, in high school and they married in 1941.
She still has many of the pictures that she had taken for her husband while he was in the service.
“We were only married a few months when he was drafted,” she says.
They had a baby boy, Carl Capasso, Jr., but they called him Chuck.
She says dancing became a part of their life when their son left for college.
“We felt lost without my son, so we decided we had to do something,” she says. “Why not take dancing?”
They took lessons at Touch Dancing School in Philadelphia, which she says was operated by a well-known dancer named Gene Russo.
“It wasn’t easy. We did a lot of practicing,” says Capasso.
And their hard work paid off. They traveled around and danced in five different states.
“We were such good dancers,” she says.
They learned all different styles and could dance the samba, merengue, waltz, foxtrot and swing, just to name a few.
“We did it all,” she says. “That was a lot of fun.”
And for her 103rd birthday, Capasso got to take a spin on the floor once again.
“She is still so vibrant at 103,” says Sacks. “She’s just an amazing woman.
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