She won Miss Windsor in 1935 and is celebrating her 107th birthday this year

Elmira St. Onge-Frenette says she was one of the first people to shake hands with Americans when the Ambassador Bridge first opened. That was more than 90 years ago, in 1929. 

Now about to turn 107, she hopes she'll be able to check out the new Gordie Howe International Bridge one day.

"I haven't gotten anywhere near the new bridge and I gotta do that before I die," said St.Onge-Frenette, who lives at Chateau Park Long Term Care Centre in Windsor, Ont.

St. Onge-Frenette was born on Tuesday, Aug. 8, 1916, in Windsor. She'll celebrate her birthday this weekend with family.

She said there's something about the city that makes it special. 

"I went out of town for five years and came back because it was always better here."

At age 19, she won a beauty pageant and was named Miss Windsor. According to an 88-year-old Windsor Star article the family has kept, St. Onge-Frenette said, "I'll do my best" when she earned the title. 

More than a beauty contest

St. Onge-Frenette said her favourite memory about winning was it was something fun, "just something to do." 

"It [the contest] was something that was important in those days because there was so many people that needed entertainment, and that was entertainment at the time," she said.  

"We were asked a lot of questions about Windsor, about Canada, all geography stuff too, so we were judged on that and some of it was judged on different things we've done in our life, and it turned out that I won," said St. Onge-Frenette.  

After winning, St. Onge-Frenette was taken on a tour to see Windsor and was given different prizes. 

"[It] was sort of surprising [I won], but [I was] hoping because there were some prizes, and I wanted to win the prizes," she said. 

Winning beauty contests isn't foreign to the St. Onge family. Five years before St. Onge-Frenette became Miss Windsor, one of her four sisters won Miss Western Ontario. 

Key to life

"What makes me happy is keeping the family together not letting them stray too far away," said St. Onge-Frenette.  

When asked about her secret to living so long, she said, "How do you expect me to know that? I keep wondering how come I'm still here." 

However, her daughter, Donna-Marie McDonald, said while giggling, "She would always tell me 'curiosity.'" 

"Who is 80 years old and still has their mother alive? It's very cool and it's lovely because mom has always been a wonderful person," said McDonald. 

She said she was also one of the people to witness the birth of television in 1939 in New York.

"A few friends of mine and myself had gone to the World's Fair and someone asked us if we wanted to see ourselves on the stage, and we said oh yeah sure, we are just young," she said. 

They then watched themselves on TV, and St. Onge-Frenette told the staff she didn't understand what was happening when they explained to her that she was watching a recording of her and her friends on stage.    

"I had an interesting life — telephone was different, everything was different. But it's interesting that it got changed so much," she said.