Thursday, October 1, 2026
Two Franklin Square women were forced to self-isolate on their 100th birthdays last week, but that didn’t stop the community from celebrating their long lives.
The first noteworthy day was April 24, when almost a dozen vehicles drove past Catherine Gallina’s James Street house, with neighbors and family members honking, holding up signs and wishing her a happy birthday.
“That’s very nice of them,” Gallina said after asking her 78-year-old daughter Josephine Langdon whether all of the passersby knew her.
She hadn’t been happy to find out that she wouldn’t be able to see her three children, seven grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren on her birthday.
“She usually has family from out-of-state flying in, but now they can’t due to the pandemic,” her granddaughter Michele Langdon, 53, explained. “It’s sad [because] she doesn’t understand about the virus, and my mother doesn’t want to panic her.”
Gallina has lived in Franklin Square since 1950, and likes to get lunch at Wesley United Methodist Church. In her free time, she visits the senior center on Martha Place, and goes to Resorts World Casino in Queens.
But, Michele said, Gallina’s family is of the utmost importance to her.
“It’s sad every time I speak to her,” said Gallina’s daughter, Kathy Grossi, 74, who lives in North Carolina, noting that her mother always tells her and her brother, Greg, that she misses them, and “Don’t forget, I love you forever.”
So, to help make up for her family’s absence, Michele decided to ask her fellow Franklin Square residents on April 23 to send her grandmother a birthday message. When resident Kelly Amoruoso saw the post on Facebook, however, she had another idea. She texted her friends to see if they would be interested in holding a birthday parade for Gallina, and reached out to firefighters Joe Pallisco and his son, Anthony, to see if they could drive by Gallina’s house in a fire truck. They all agreed, and Amoruoso posted her idea on social media to get more people to take part in the celebration.
“[I] just thought it was a nice gesture for her, since it’s a huge milestone birthday,” Amoruoso explained, adding, “We have a great community.”
Loretta Dainton
And Gallina wasn’t the only one celebrating her 100th birthday. Loretta Dainton was born on April 30, 1920, and was the first person in her family to reach the milestone.
Dainton was born and raised in Brooklyn, the oldest of five children. She never had any children of her own, but is a great-great aunt and is family-oriented.
“She’s seen a lot of stuff,” her niece Annie Tine said, “and she’s sharp as a tack.”
Tine has been taking care of Dainton for the past 10 years, and has been living with her in her Rosegold Street home since she was released from NYU Winthrop Hospital after having a urinary tract infection in January. She has since had her catheter bag removed, Tine said, and is “in pretty good health,” aside from hearing and vision loss.
Asked last year how she has managed to live so long, Dainton said that she eats well, but added that it was OK for her to have a Bud Light every night, as she has been doing since she was a young adult in the Great Depression, and her drink of choice was simply known as Budweiser.
“She’s enjoyed her life to the utmost,” Tine said.
Dainton moved to Elmont in 1956, before relocating to Stewart Manor and the Bronx, and then settling in Franklin Square in 1984. She never drove, Tine noted, and instead walked wherever she needed to go, getting to know Franklin Square and Elmont intimately in the process.
Her favorite places to eat include King Umberto, Sapienza Bakery and Alpine Restaurant, where her family was planning to celebrate her 100th birthday on May 3 with relatives from North Carolina and her doctors. The party has since been postponed.
Instead, Tine said she would wrap some Bud Lights for Dainton, and possibly share her story with the Anheuser-Busch company.
Dainton’s neighbor, Deborah Detz Clark, also planned to have the children on the block — who she said were “in awe” that their neighbor was 100 — make signs and balloons for Dainton, and sing “Happy Birthday” to her from the sidewalk.
“I know [that] because of the virus, birthday parties are being canceled and postponed, but there was no way we weren’t going to celebrate Loretta,” Detz Clark said. “100 years young is a milestone that cannot go unnoticed.”
Tine said she appreciated the thought, because she considered the neighborhood “like a home to me,” and planned to thank the children and their parents with doughnuts, juice boxes and coffee.
“I don’t even know how to express my feelings about it,” Tine said, noting that everyone is going through a difficult time right now, and for the neighbors to do something like this meant a lot.
“God bless them,” she said, “and God bless everyone going through this crisis.”
**This story was updated on April 30 at 11:42 a.m. to correct an error***
