{"id":46153,"date":"2025-08-23T00:01:28","date_gmt":"2025-08-23T07:01:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/barbarafalconernewhall.com\/?p=46153"},"modified":"2026-06-05T06:18:53","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T06:18:53","slug":"sexy-at-any-age","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/sexy-at-any-age\/","title":{"rendered":"Sexy at Any Age — Tips From My 98-Year-Old Aunt Grace"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"sexy-at-any-age<\/a>
Sexy at any age. In 1980, a middle-aged Aunt Grace and a pushing middle-aged me. Barbara Newhall photo<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A writer friend asked me the other day who my childhood role models were. She had a hunch I had some.<\/p>\n

My friend got married young, had kids and settled into domesticity around the time I was packing my bags, saying good-bye to my familiar Midwestern upbringing, and heading off to New York City to seek my fortune in the publishing world.<\/p>\n

A satisfying career ensued — and thirteen years later I was a married woman with a house and hopes for motherhood. Where did I get the spunk and drive to make such a life for myself, she wondered. I must have had what today is called a role model.<\/p>\n

My friend’s hunch was right. When I took a look up and down my family tree I saw female role models all over the place.<\/p>\n

On my mother’s side: My Aunt Dickie, the librarian. My grandmother Toto, the upscale department store saleslady. My great-grandmother Nana, the proprietor of a Lake Michigan resort.<\/p>\n

On my father’s side: My Aunt Fern, the art teacher. My Aunt Ruth, the bank vice president. My Grandma Falconer<\/a>, the farm wife. My Great-Grandmother Loomis, the schoolteacher and president of the local Women’s Christian Temperance Union.<\/p>\n

Those women were powerful role models for me as a young woman just getting started in life. They were enterprising, successful, responsible, all the things I wanted to be back then.<\/p>\n

But as the years went by, the young, adventuresome me became the settled, middle-aged me, who in time became today’s 80-something me.<\/p>\n

And that’s where my Aunt Grace steps in as the family role model.<\/p>\n

In her younger years, my Aunt Grace owned and ran two dress shops in central Michigan. She made frequent buying trips to Manhattan’s garment district. In my eyes, she was a woman of the world, and I learned a lot from her over the years.<\/p>\n

But some of the best advice I got from my Aunt Grace didn’t come until she was 98 years old. I recorded some of those tips in a post on this site in 2013, not long after she died — “How to Be a Glamorous Gal at Age 98.”<\/p>\n

My aunt was a successful businesswoman. But she also had thoughts on how to be a sexy lady — or gal, as she would put it — at any age.<\/p>\n

Things like — get rid of those housewifey aprons with the rumply bibs, she said. They cover up one of a gal\u2019s finest assets \u2013 her bust line.\u00a0 Read more.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"sexy-at-any-age<\/a><\/p>\n

Some of the best advice I got from my role model aunt was how to be sexy at any age.\u00a0 Read more.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":48477,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30,226],"tags":[103,34,148,865,82,3040,3041,3042,1025],"class_list":["post-46153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-my-changing-family","category-older-and-older","tag-aging","tag-dont-miss","tag-feminism","tag-grace-falconer-perlmutter-kleis","tag-on-the-funny-side","tag-role-models","tag-sexy","tag-sexy-gal","tag-women"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46153"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46153\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48478,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46153\/revisions\/48478"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48477"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}