Schenectady 100-Year-Old Still Dances Through Life—And Shares Secrets: 'You Have To Keep Going'

By Michael Mashburn From Daily Voice

Don’t bother telling Toni Cilberti to act her age — she’s far too busy.

At 100, the Schenectady native still hits the gym and keeps a busier social calendar than most 20-somethings.

“The sad part is if [people] don’t know me, and they know I’m 100, they probably think that I’m wheelchair bound and I can’t move,” she told Daily Voice. “I’m totally the opposite.”

Far from needing a wheelchair, these days Cilberti zips around the Capital Region in her “comfy” red Hyundai Tiburon sports car and fills her days with movement. Since her 70s, she's collected gold medals in prediction walking, bowling, shuffleboard, and even tennis at the New York State Senior Olympics.

"In 2017 [at age 92], I was at the Senior Olympics. Apparently I was the oldest member participating, so they asked me to carry the torch for the opening ceremonies," she said. "It was such a thrill."

Belle of the Ball

But competition isn’t Cilberti’s only outlet. At the Clifton Park Senior Center, she lights up the dance floor, moving with the energy of someone half her age.

“Monday I clog for two hours, and then I do modern dance. Tuesdays and Wednesdays I bowl. Wednesday afternoon I do country western dancing. Wednesday evening and weekends I square dance. And Fridays I do Latin dancing,” she rattled off with pride.

Yet for all the music that still fills her weeks, one dance remains achingly absent. Cilberti’s husband of 45 years, Nicholas, was a World War II Army Air Forces veteran who died from Lyme disease complications in 1992. In the three decades since, it’s been hard finding a ballroom partner who can keep up.

“He danced all the dances,” she said of her late husband, recalling the glittering Shriner and Masonic dinners of their younger years in the late 1940s. In those days, a night out meant dressing to the nines. Guests arrived in tuxedos and gowns, she said, the band striking up long before the first course was served.

They rarely stayed in their seats for long. “We danced throughout the dinner,” Cilberti said, recalling how they would slip back and forth to the floor, guarding their plates so waiters wouldn’t carry them away.

“We were great dancers,” she said. After Nick’s death, she found new ballroom partners to keep dancing — five in all, each now gone.

“This last person, I danced with him for about 15 years. He was such a good dancer, and he always used to say, ‘You’re the only person that could ever follow me,’” she said. “After he died, I haven’t really ballroom danced for about five years now. At age 100, it’s hard to find anybody.”

A Century of Change

Born on Easter Sunday, April 12, 1925, Antoinette “Toni” Cilberti has witnessed the world transform beyond recognition. She has lived through the Great Depression, World War II, and the dawns of television and the internet. She’s seen presidents come and go, men walk on the moon, women gain rights her mother never dreamed of, and technology shrink from room-sized machines to the smartphone in every pocket.

“The best invention was the washing machine. That was the most important thing in my life, I think,” she said, recalling how she’d help her mother with the old wringer washing machine before that. “She taught me to be careful not to cut your fingers.”

Among her other favorite inventions: the refrigerator, telephone, microwave, and the computer – “because you can do anything on it.”

Yet for all that she’s embraced, Cilberti views the recent rise of artificial intelligence with unease. Calling it “evil,” she worries about deepfakes – fabricated images and videos that spread unchecked online.

“I see it as dangerous,” she said. “They can make people look like they’re saying things they never said. That’s what I don’t like about it.”

A century of technological advances has also brought sweeping cultural change, not all of which Cilberti welcomes. Asked about the biggest difference between the world she grew up in and today, she didn’t miss a beat: respect.

“Everybody was just so polite with everybody else. Everybody was respectful, everybody was courteous, everybody reached out to help the next person that was close to you,” she said. “And today's world, I mean they'll walk right over or slam the door in your face.”

Though frustrated, she sympathizes with younger generations, pointing to what she sees as a lack of parental guidance. “Fred Astaire said, how can you expect the next generation to be courteous and polite when they have no example?”

Thriving in a Changing Workplace

Through it all, Cilberti has not only adapted but thrived. After graduating with honors from Schenectady’s Mont Pleasant High School in 1943, she applied to a certified public accountant program in Boston but was rejected for being a woman.

“I was so mad I destroyed the letter. I tore it up in a million pieces,” she said. “I didn't want anybody to know. Imagine that.”

So she forged another route, landing a position at General Electric in Schenectady, where she would spend more than three decades as a secretary for the manager of purchasing. Her starting pay? $18.08 a week.

By the early 1960s, GE was introducing computers into the workplace, and Cilberti jumped at the chance to learn them. She showed up early just to tinker with the new machines.

“I would leave early in the morning to be there a half hour early so I could play around and learn,” she said. What began as part of her job soon became a fascination. “I was just learning the computer. I was curious enough to try to find out how does this work, how else can I use it, and I learned from them.”

Cilberti carried those skills into her second act after her husband’s death, taking a part-time job at an attorney’s office. She’s still a big fan of those computers, whiling away the hours reading online articles, trading emails with friends, and playing video solitaire.

“I look up almost everything that I'm curious about,” she said. “I have friends that send me jokes and they're nice jokes. I pass them on.”

A Lifetime of Service

Cilberti has poured decades into volunteering. For more than 40 years she’s helped stock the food pantry at Sycamore Collaborative. She staffs bingo nights at the Shriners Children’s Hospital fundraiser, rings bells for the Salvation Army, and pitches in at senior centers in Clifton Park and Scotia/Glenville.

She’s also worked with the Red Cross, St. George Episcopal Church, and the City Mission, while fielding calls during WMHT’s public television pledge drives.

In 2017, Cilberti was honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award for Volunteerism from the Town of Glenville, the City of Schenectady, and the State of New York. She also received the DeWitt Clinton Award, which recognizes exceptional voluntary community service by non–Masonic individuals.

“I am very proud and humbled receiving these awards,” she said.

Even before her centenarian years, Toni was a fixture of service — delivering dinners to veterans, modeling for War Bonds during World War II, and showing up for countless school, church, and community fundraisers. 

"Stepping into the outside world and becoming daily involved in activities really gave me the stamina to do more and more," she said.

Still Going Strong

Cilberti, who now lives in Scotia with her daughter, sees no reason to slow down now, even at 100 ("and a half!"). 

At the gym, she works the machines and swings 15-pound kettlebells to keep her arms strong, determined to handle her bowling ball and continue carrying the American flag high for the East Glenville Fire Company Ladies Auxiliary and the Order of the Eastern Star. Her advice for youngsters: get your butt movin'. 

“Be sure that you’re active every day. These people that say they can’t sleep at night—well, I can tell them right off the bat it’s because you haven’t moved your body," she said. "If you exert your body during the day, when you hit that bed, you’re going to sleep.”

And she's not just talking about the gym. Cilberti looks for opportunities to build movement into her routine wherever she can. “For instance, when I go to the market instead of getting the closest [parking] spot, I get the farthest spot and I walk up to the door," she said. "I always shy away from being close because I always think whatever I do, it’s exercise.”

Her mindset toward daily chores is equally practical. “You always have to think—instead of the chore, like, ‘Oh, I hate doing it.’ Don’t think of it that way,” she said. “Think of it as, ‘Oh good, I’m exercising my body.’ To me, exercise is like taking medicine. You have to do it.”

That steady commitment to movement and a positive outlook has carried her through a century of life’s ups and downs. Asked what she considers the real secret to her longevity, Cilberti didn’t hesitate: “It’s very important to keep busy,” she said. “You have to keep going.”

Editor's Note: This is part of a series on centenarians that Daily Voice is doing. Follow for more exclusive interviews with centenarians, and if you have a centenarian in your life who wants to share their tips, email mmashburn@dailyvoice.com.

Related Report: National Centenarian’s Day Exclusive: 100+ New England Native Shares Secrets To Long Life