Baffled about leap year birthdays? Don't be

By Staff
LEAP YEAR BIRTHDAY Edie Clay of Philadelphia celebrates her 32nd leap year birthday today in Philadelphia.
By Penny Randall / staff writer
Feb. 29, 2004
Maudine Dudley loves for people to ask her age.
Dudley is celebrating her leap year birthday today an event that comes once every four years.
Delayed celebration
Dudley said she will wait to celebrate her birthday this year until her daughter, who celebrates a birthday in March, gets home.
Dudley's other daughter, Denise Roberts, describes her mother as "a diamond in the rough with a unique spirit."
Dudley's parents always told her she was special from the day she was born.
Years of birthdays
Dudley has had years of practice at celebrating leap year birthdays, but Chance Thrash is just getting started.
Chance, son of Tina Thrash and Mark Thrash, celebrates his first leap year birthday today at a family cookout in the Zero Community of Lauderdale County. Chance was born on Feb. 29, 2000, at Jeff Anderson Regional Medical Center.
Tina said her first thought was, "Is there anyway you can stop my labor so he'll have a birthday every year."
March 1 celebration
Chance usually celebrates his birthday on March 1.
Tina said she has tried to explain to Chance why his birthday is so special.
But to 4-year-old Chance it really doesn't matter when he celebrates his birthday. He has only one request.
Edie Clay of Philadelphia also celebrates her leap year birthday today. Clay was born on Feb. 29, 1972.
Clay said it was her Aunt Dot who first made the attempt to explain her leap year birthday to her when she was about 6 years old.
Special birthday
But it's her 16th birthday that Clay remembers the most.
Even Clay's birth was exciting. Her mother, Marthis Riddle, was attending the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg. She had driven to Hattiesburg on Feb. 28 to take a test and was feeling some contractions then.
Clay said her late father, Willie James Riddle, always made a big deal about her birthdays.