Margaret Buckendorf left her second-floor apartment and took the elevator down to her polling place Tuesday morning to help make history.
At least, that was the plan.
“I tell you, it’s been the most exciting year,” said the 100-year-old who lives at Gramercy Hill. “I’m real anxious to know how it’s going to turn out.”
She clutched a folded slip of yellow paper, her voting choices neatly printed. Leading the list: President -- Hillary Clinton.
At 9:12 a.m., she became the precinct's 76th voter -- and five minutes later she finished darkening the ovals, a smile on her face.
“That felt pretty good,” said the mother of four daughters, stepmother to three more.
“This was her next bucket list thing,” said Buckendorf’s daughter, Judith Cross, who accompanied her to the polls. “She’s been waiting for this.”
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This election was important to her determined mother, the daughter said.
The great-grandmother had decided she wanted to learn to swim for her 98th birthday -- and did. The next year, she mastered ballroom dancing. And when she hit the century mark July 22, she rode into her birthday bash on the back of a motorcycle.
Then Buckendorf, a twice-widowed woman from the Sandhills, turned her attention to Nov. 8, watching the news, reading the paper, discussing the race at lunch in the Gramercy dining hall.
After she cast her vote, she posed for a portrait in her apartment, a HRC sticker next to a photo of one of her great-granddaughters.
Hillary is tough, Buckendorf said. She’s experienced.
“I think she’ll be a good woman to start with.”