- April 24, 2024
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“Happy Birthday” was the warm-up song for the Song of the Coast Sweet Adeline Chorus at their Monday, Sept. 18, rehearsal.
They were singing to Patty Tugas who was celebrating her 90th birthday that day, and Tugas sang right along.
Scanning the room full of women, it isn’t easy to pick out the birthday girl. No one looks 90 years old, especially not Tugas.
“Greta Garbo and Chris Hedges,” Tugas said, as she walks in.
She is referring to a famous actress and journalist, both born on that day.
Her decision to join the Sweet Adeline Chorus was inspired by a Barbershop Quartet she saw at the Peabody Theater, 25 years ago.
“It was so good, I rushed out and said, “Where are the Sweet Adelines? I want to join!”
Raised in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Tugas described her childhood as growing up in paradise. In 1989 she moved to Ormond Beach with her husband Florencio Tugas.
“She is the salt of the Earth, Mother Goddess of the Earth,” good friend, and Sweet Adeline, Dr. Valerie Watt Hoffman, said. “She is an avid Universal Unitarian Church member and her best qualities are her open mindedness and tolerance of everyone, even me.”
When asked which birthday was the most special, Tugas replied, “This one.”
