Dorothy Mygatt Top Celebrate 100 Years

Today, women are all over the work force, but 75 years ago it was not as common. But there’s not much common about Dorothy King Mygatt who will turn 100 years old next Tuesday, June 5.

Mrs. Mygatt was born June 5, 1918 in Glendale/Queens, N.Y. where she grew up. In 1945, she met a young man in the U.S. Navy, and she married Lucien Mygatt in 1946. After marrying him, they moved south, as he was born and raised in Athens, Ga. Mrs. Mygatt was somewhat discriminated against as she was a Yankee and a Catholic, neither of which was particularly welcome in the south. She said she quickly learned to keep her mouth shut. But she has a good soul, and people learned to love her wherever she turned.

One of five girls, her father worked for Pennsylvania Railroad, and she said they had it good during the Depression. Because of his job, he would get fresh produce, when it was not readily available to most. Her family did not get its first automobile until after she married and moved south.

One of her first jobs was operating a comptometer, a mechanical calculator. She did that while working on the 24th floor in New York City where she could see the Hudson River. She remembers wearing high heels to work, and walking up and down all those flights of stairs in her dress and heels. Women didn’t wear pants or tennis shoes back then.

Walking the stairs wasn’t hard on her, it was just something she did. She got steps in early, as she attended a five story brick grammar school. The building was divided by grades. She graduated from Richmond Hills High School, and attended secretarial school, all while living in New York.

When she was older, she became active in senior citizens annual walks. Should would win every year, even walking with other seniors 20 years her junior. Someone complained they should divide the prizes into age divisions, so others would have a chance to win. After that Mrs. Mygatt quit competing, wanting to let those others have a chance.

She remembers Charles Lindbergh and the advent of the airplane. She says that whenever a plane flew by, they would go out on the fire escape and wave, Hello, Lindy. She remembers wearing out skates, as she and her friends would skate over manhole covers repeatedly.

As an adult, she has been a knitter, knitting hats for almost everyone, and was an avid reader. When she had to leave her home in Douglasville and move in with her daughter here in Jasper County a few years ago, they gave away more than 1,000 books. She had complete sets of various authors, and although the library there said it could only take two boxes, when they saw what she had and the condition of the books, they took them all.

When asked about the most amazing thing she had seen in her 100 years, she said all of it. Each invention was amazing in itself at the time, she explained, and one didn’t stand out above all others.

In 1947, they were living in Memphis, where Mr. Mygatt was going to optometry school. When she had her son, George, the following year, she decreed she wasn’t going back to work until he walked. Well, lo and behold, he walked at eight months. So back to work it was. Eight years later, sister Barbara, was born.

Child care was somewhat difficult to find, as not a lot of women worked, so there weren’t day care centers readily available. And, of course, Mrs. Mygatt had no family nearby. She found neighborhood ladies, though, that were willing to watch the children, and she was a working mom.

One amazing thing about Mrs. Mygatt working for all those years is she did not drive a car…her husband didn’t want her to. He died in 1973, and then she learned to drive, taking professional driving lessons. Barbara Robbins, Mrs. Mygatt’s daughter whom she lives with these days, tells how she skipped school the first day mom drove herself to work, because she knew that mom was scared to death, and that she was not the best driver. She followed her, unbeknownst to mom, and made sure she got where she was going, then went back to school. Mrs. Mygatt did get where she was going; she just took a little detour as she missed the driveway to her work.

By this time she was a real estate broker, at a time not many women were in real estate. She had worked as a secretary at Arrow Shirts for many years, before trying her hand at real estate. They lived in southwest Atlanta while she was a secretary, and her husband’s optometry practice was in West End. In 1968, the practice was moved to Douglasville, where Mrs. Mygatt lived until coming to Jasper County. Her son, George, remains in Douglasville where he is a urologist.

She was one of the first women brokers, starting out under the tutelage of Ray Mitchell who encouraged her and other women to achieve their dreams. She became a broker in the mid-1960s, and worked until the mid-1980s. When questioned how she showed property without a car, she said other people in the office would help her out, and she would share her commissions with them in return.

Mrs. Mygatt didn’t make it to this milestone without bumps in the road. She is a cancer survivor, having had a mastectomy in 1984. Later in life, her appendix ruptured, and the doctors said if she hadn’t gotten to them when she did, that may have killed her.

She currently attends Monticello Presbyterian Church, when able, where her daughter, a retired school teacher, teaches Sunday school. Mrs. Mygatt loves to ride in cars, and admire the scenery. They, along with Barbara’s husband, Dan, live in rural Jasper County. Mrs. Robbins commented that when they meet a car on the way to town, mom will jokingly comment on the traffic. Mrs. Robbins has a dog, Pixel who is a Papillon. Mrs. Mygatt has taught the dog sign language, and can get her to sit and do other tricks by using one finger.

Mrs. Mygatt is on oxygen, but doesn’t wear glasses or have a hearing aid. She doesn’t look to be 100 years old, and is quite spry for a centurion. She’ll be sitting pretty when she celebrates her milestone day next week.