104-year-old ‘Bayside Bonnie’ stars in show at Bottle & Cork

In the golden afternoon light June 21, 104-year-old Bonnie McCarthy, known by her neighbors as Bayside Bonnie, walked onto the Bottle & Cork stage, her bright-pink lipstick matching the pink lettering on her “Bonnie Jam” T-shirt.

“Bonnie! Bonnie! Bonnie!” the crowd erupted, holding their drinks in the air and pumping their fists. Together, they formed a sea of matching white Bonnie Jam T-shirts, each with the same smiling photo of her printed in the top corner.

Organized by Dewey Beach Mayor Bill Stevens, his wife Janine, and Bottle & Cork owner Alex Pires, the Bonnie Jam marked Bonnie’s very first Bottle & Cork jam session, a time-honored tradition in the town featuring live musical performances. Several of her family members, including her four daughters, sons-in-law and grandchildren, attended alongside friends, neighbors and community members.

“Everyone was so nice, and it was a great evening, really,” she said with a smile. “I don’t have many of those.”

Mayor Stevens, who first met Bonnie when she moved to Dewey at age 99, introduced her onstage. 

“She was 16 when the Bottle & Cork opened in 1936,” he said. “She has lived through 17 presidents, [a] world war, and today she’s here celebrating her first Dewey Beach jam. Bonnie, you’re an inspiration and living proof that rocking out at the beach never gets old.”

Throughout the evening, folks young and old came up to Bonnie to talk and take pictures with her.

“You get to an age where you feel like you’re just in the background, and it’s your privilege to be there,” she said. 

“And she’s never been one to ever try to be at the front,” added her daughter Jenny, with whom she’s lived since 2019. “So to see her open into that at 104, I mean... One of my friends said she was like the prom queen. And the generosity of the people’s emotions were so touching to all of us as her daughters ... It was just a great event, and we’re really appreciative.”

Even those who didn’t know Bonnie joined in on the festivities. 

“Is she actually 104?” one said. “She looks so good!”

Indeed, Bonnie said she doesn’t feel her age. She can still walk and take care of herself for the most part, and she still insists on doing all the dishes and the laundry.

“I feel good, and I’m grateful,” she said. “I like to keep going. I don’t want to be a blob, so I’m grateful to have things to do.”

Born Nov. 16, 1920, Bonnie grew up in coastal East Haven, Conn., and has always loved the water. She spent much of her time at the beach and enjoyed swimming in Lake Ontario on family vacations.

World War II started when she was in her 20s, and nearly every boy from her town got drafted or went into the service, she said. An Air Force base was built about a mile from her family’s home, bringing lots of men to the area, and many of her friends got married during that time.

She ended up meeting her late husband Charlie several years later in Florida, where she and her family moved after the war had ended.

She had a younger sister, Virginia, who passed away last year at the age of 103, and a younger brother, Jerry, who died in his late 80s after surviving being struck by lightning decades earlier. She was especially close with her sister, to whom she talked every day.

Bonnie still enjoys relaxing in the pool by her Dewey townhome and occasionally going to the beach, though it has become increasingly difficult for her to get around in the sand. 

“I can walk around here great, but when I get there, my feet don’t want to go where I want to go,” she said. “It’s too mushy.”

“She only goes now if I have another sister with me,” Jenny said. “I go up there, get all the umbrellas set up, and then I come back, pick her up, and we usually get the handicapped space, and then she can walk up and sit on the beach for two or three hours, if she has something to eat and drink.”

She also loves spending time with her family, including her six grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren, and playing cards and board games.

She’s very appreciative of her Dewey friends and neighbors, who’ve welcomed her with open arms.

“I’ve never run into anybody being icky because I’m not young,” she said. “They’ve all been helpful. I feel very comfortable, so I don’t think about my age.”

“They really have taken her on like their mother,” Jenny said.

To this day, she almost never goes anywhere without lipstick, earrings and a collared shirt.

“The other day, my sister and I were doing work around here, sweating, and my mother comes out, 104, looking good, and we both looked at [each other] and said, ‘This is pathetic,’” Jenny laughed.

She’s always maintained a positive outlook on life, even through all the obstacles that have been thrown at her.

She’s survived breast cancer, COVID-19 and multiple blood transfusions. A couple years ago, she collapsed in her home and was rushed to the hospital, where doctors discovered a medication she’d been taking to curtail a possible lung tumor had caused her hemoglobin levels to plummet.

“Well, I feel good now,” she said. “I don’t want to think about that.”

That attitude, she believes, is part of the key to happiness.

“I’ve thought about it often, and I think [anything] that makes you unhappy, you have to talk it out and get rid of it, and then you’re back on stable ground again,” she said. “I don’t try to ignore it, but I don’t want to hold it either ... I don’t think I worry about stuff.

“I feel great,” she continued with a smile. “I have no complaints. Not one.”