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Community to sing Happy Birthday to 106 year-old Sunnysider

Ethel's 105th birthday

Ethel’s 105th birthday

Nov. 22, 2016 By Hannah Wulkan

A well-known Sunnyside Gardens resident is about to turn 106 and the neighborhood will be marking her birthday in traditional style.

For the fourth year in a row, residents will gather outside her 46th Street home to sing “happy birthday” on Thanksgiving Day. For the last few years, more than 100 people have come together at noon to sing and drink sparkling wine.

Sunnyside resident Pat Dorfman organizes the gathering, and wrote in an e-mail invite that Plimack still “has all her marbles” and has recently taken up swimming again to stay fit.

Plimack, who turns 106 on Nov. 28, has three children and worked at the Board of Education for many years until she retired at the age of 70. She then took a job at Marymount Manhattan College and worked until she was 94 years old, continuing her community activism long past that, fighting for Sunnyside Garden’s landmark status.

The community will gather just before noon at 39-54 46th Street, between 39th and Skillman Avenue, to sing Happy Birthday.

Those attending are encouraged to bring some red flowers or balloons, or “just yourself & your singing voice,” according to Dorfman’s emailed invitation.

email the author: news@queenspost.com

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Maribel Egipciaco

Happy Birthday from Jackson Heights neighbor. Maribel, Laura, Lainie and Isa. Love and health for years to come.

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