Happy 100th Birthday, Frida Burling, Georgetown’s Centenarian!

We are all denizens of the perpetual, virtual reality of momentous times and events that recede. We are in the moment and anticipated all at once: another momentous Republican debate will be held tonight, Europe appears awash in refugees from Middle East wars, and right on schedule Pope Francis is coming to Washington next week.

Here is another piece of news: Georgetowner Frida Burling is one hundred years old today. Now, that’s something worth celebrating.

Burling, who wrote her autobiography, “Finally Frida,” several years ago, is worth celebrating, especially in Georgetown. 

When people talk about legacies and life stories, usually the tale is about how you lived your life, and what your markers there are along the way that tell your story and note what you bear your participation in your life and in your community.   

Here at the Georgetowner, we’ve always felt, ever since we encountered Frida Burling in her first forays into making something iconic, lasting and permanent out of the yearly Georgetown House Tours, that in many ways, she represented an ideal of community and citizen here.  Not just because of the tour itself—although she always gave the yearly celebration of Georgetown history and essence her full energy—but because she embraced the idea of community service and identity with place with all the joy she could muster, which was considerable.  

Burling is and has always been, even now, with some of that beautiful energy unavoidably diminished, a Georgetowner who represents her town and herself more than well.  She has a deep, abiding love for the place where she lives and has never been afraid to show it—and to be persuasive in her efforts to get others  to join her in her various efforts that included the Georgetown Ministry Center as well as the homeless programs at St. John’s Episcopal Church. When she came looking for volunteers and help for the tour, whether to host patron’s parties, or have homes on the tour, she was pretty hard to resist, because Frida has and always had an immense reservoir of charm, humor and knowledge and a sense of life’s duty and rewards.  

When we sat down with her two weeks ago at her 29th Street home—which is one of those sunny, stylish, bookfilled residences that perfectly reflects the life she and her late husband Edward Burling shared there—she still had that empathy in her eyes and certain certitudes also.  She had led a life which allowed her to dive into causes with fervor that was fueled by compassion, as well as self-assurance—she was at the 1963 Civil Rights rally and historic Martin Luther King, Jr.’s  “I Have a Dream” speech. In her book, you will find a picture of her gleefully holding up a sign (“Money for Jobs Not War”) at a rally protesting U.S. policy.

Burling’s lifetime now spans  17 presidencies: Wilson, Harding, Coolidge, Hoover, FDR, Truman, Ike, Kennedy, LBJ, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush 1, Clinton, Bush 2, and Barack Obama. And her health allowing, she will see the inauguration of the 45th president.  She remains firm about her loyalties and preference. Asked who her favorite president during the course of her life was, she emphatically said, “Barack Obama.”

This is not a story about biography,  except to suggest that a long life such as Burling’s produces a sense of continuity, a feel for its history, detailed and otherwise, and that burgeoning consistent warmth provided by family. In Burling’s case one that produced a fair-sized clan and tribe from two marriages, both by any measure fruitful and well-shared.

But knowing Frida and knowing about her also gives you a sense of her values and the values and history of the community which she championed with sustained energy—she was still seen exercising in the gym in her nineties. 

On this day remembering and celebrating her 100th birthday, we will save  biographical details and deeds and accomplishments for more appropriate times. This is not even a time for history.  It’s a celebration.

So: Happy 100th birthday to Frida Burling! We join her and all who love her in wishing her as many more birthdays as possible.