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At 86, Violet Lewis still working hard to keep herself--and others--in good shape
BY FRANK DELANO Violet May Skinner Lewis is 86 years old, 4 feet 10 inches tall and weighs 95 pounds. But few little old ladies move like her. "C'mon, girls, let's work a little harder!" she barked at her 17 students in an aquatic exercise class one recent morning at the Northern Neck Family YMCA in Kilmarnock. "One and two and three and four! Pick it up! C'mon, higher, let's go!" said the high-stepping, arm-waving, headset-wearing Lewis on the side of the pool. "I don't think you're working hard. Move it! Move it! Push it hard! One more minute! Looks good!" As always, Lewis ended her class with a joke. Her students were all smiling as they toweled off. One of them was Mary John Payne, 80, of White Stone. Lewis "is everybody's favorite teacher," Payne said. "She's unreal. She doesn't sit still. She puts all of us to shame. We think that if she can do it, we better get going. She's an inspiration to us all." "I don't think I'm that remarkable," Lewis demurred between her two classes that morning. "I don't feel old, you know. But I do think you have to keep active." If she hadn't been sitting with a reporter, she said, she would likely have been taking another exercise class or two, practicing her aerobic routines or walking a 15-minute mile on a treadmill. "I'm really fortunate I can do something I love. I thank the Lord every day for giving me the strength to do it," she said. HELPING OTHERS Lewis was 9 months old when her family moved from Aberdeen, Scotland, to Cleveland, Ohio. As a teenager, she won awards for Scottish Highland dancing. "It was aerobic, but we never heard or used that word back then," she said. In February 1942 she married the love of her life, who was soon drafted into the U.S. Army. After World War II, they raised four children at Air Force bases all over the world. Her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren are now scattered all over the country.
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