Martha Capwell, of Catasauqua, was born in 1925 during the Gilded Age. Now in 2025, she is gliding into her 100th birthday and celebrating with family and friends.

“Thoroughly Modern Martha” has lived in Catasauqua her entire life. Her family can be traced back to 1850 in the Lehigh Valley. Raised in Catasauqua, she attended school at St. Mary’s, Central Catholic High School and the Institute of Art of Philadelphia.

Married in 1948, she settled with her husband in Catasauqua to raise their five children. While raising their children, she remained active at St. Mary’s school.

Throughout the years, she has also served on the board of directors at Public Library of Catasauqua. She also volunteered and served on the boards of Catasauqua Community Partnership and the YMCA and is the last surviving founding member of the garden club.

When asked what she thought has been the biggest change in her lifetime, Martha thoughtfully acknowledged how “quickly people embraced technology.”

In her lifetime, she has seen the use of the radio, telephone, television, computers and cellphones become major influences in everyday life. Martha wistfully spoke of a time, before technology, when people shared face time not Facebook with each other. Neighbors would go for walks, talk to each other or sit on their porch and watch kids play.

Martha remembers when there was much more community interaction as “everything you needed was in town.” Doctors, grocery store, dime store, school, library, church, fire department, drugstore, lawyers, banks and restaurants were all easily available and in walking distance.

Now you need transportation to get these things, resulting in “limited services for everyone.”

Martha is celebrating her 100th birthday with her five grown children, who continue to live locally — the farthest being Macungie — and eight grandchildren. Family members traveled from various regions of the country to attend the celebration.