DECATUR - At 104, Erma Doherty will be exercising the voting privilege she has used for more than 80 years.

"Our Dad always made us vote," she recalled, adding she believes everybody should read and go out and vote.

"When I first voted in Chicago, you had to reregister every time you went. I can remember my mother thinking FDR was the greatest president that ever lived."

But it's not just voting that is one of her passions.

"I think it's terrible that they are going to close that," Doherty said, referring to the possible impending closure of Weldon Springs State Park near Clinton.

Doherty was born in DeWitt County, and Weldon Springs holds fond memories. She recalls attending Chautauqua events there with her grandmother.

"We could put our food in the springs to keep it cool," she said.

Doherty started out working at the fabrics department at Gebhart-Gushard Co. in Decatur. Smiling at the memory, she said she liked it when the "Millikin boys" came in. "I always wanted to wait on them; they gave you a big check."

But at the urging of a co-worker, she left that job and went off to take nurse's training at Illinois Masonic Hospital in Chicago.

"We all cried when I left home."

Yes, they did, agreed her sister, Elizabeth Braden, after her father and Doherty stopped by Braden's country school en route to Chicago. Now 88, Braden is Doherty's only surviving sibling, the youngest of six.

"I graduated from nurse's training. I've got the certificates right over there in the desk," Doherty said.

Doherty's nursing career took her to work in a Chicago tuberculosis facility until it closed, then to private duty work.

In the meantime, she met and married Charles Doherty, a Chicago policeman. When he retired, they moved to Daytona Beach, Fla. The famous stock car races were on the beach then, Doherty remembered, before they built the track.

She and especially Charles were active in local politics in Florida, Braden said.

They worked with two other couples to incorporate what became Ponce Inlet, at the end of Daytona Beach, where the couple moved. Then they lived near the historic lighthouse, where Doherty volunteered in her later years before moving to Decatur about five years ago.

Now a Tanglewood Village resident, Doherty visits the beautician weekly for hair care and gets her nails manicured as well. With few facial wrinkles, she's an advocate of Oil of Olay for skin care and sleeps in gloves every night to keep her hands softened.

Though she no longer attends church, she appreciates weekly communion provided by members of Sts. James and Patrick Parish.

Her days in Chicago made her a staunch Chicago Cubs fan. "We just would walk across the street almost" to attend games at Wrigley Field, she said.

Of her voting, Doherty added: "I'm very proud to be a Democrat."

She isn't making public this year's choices, but she added, "Well, I'm sure going to vote."

amannlein@herald-review.com|421-6976