Florence "Peggy" Anderson of Waterford Township is a feisty octogenarian who is probably one of the most loyal Democrats the party would ever want.

She is adamant and outspoken about both local and state Democratic political figures and issues. And she’s rightfully proud of her strong views. While that’s enough to qualify her as the subject of a news story, that’s not the reason I’m writing about her.

Amid all of the bluster that she can produce in support of her views, she is truly one of the most open-minded and fair individuals I’ve ever met.

Oh, she will argue or fight hard for what she believes in, but she also will respect an opposing view. She may not agree with you but if you present your side logically and fairly, she will accept your position.

In other words, she is the ultimate example of a person who believes in freedom of speech.

I respect and admire her for many reasons. She’s experienced much in her 85 years on this earth. Born in St. Joseph County, about 30 miles from Kalamazoo, Florence, as she says I can call her, grew up on a farm.

“My parents were democratic farmers, they were Soapy Williams fans,” she says. “I was a depression kid, born in 1926. My grandmother made our clothes but we had food because we grew all our own and we raised chickens.

“We didn’t have electricity or running water and burned wood to stay warm. We pumped our water with a wind mill.”

Florence certainly knows what it means to get a long on less and is obviously no stranger to hard work.

Her first job was at age 9 on a mint farm, where she worked for $1 a day. She still had to go home and help milk the cows.

In high school she took a Commercial Education course and graduated at age 16.

She got a job with the War Department, working from 1943-46. She came to Pontiac in 1946 and married her husband, Bob, in 1947.

They remained married for 60 years, until Bob’s death about four years ago. They had two sons, four grandchildren and she was blessed with her first great grandchild when she was just recently at age 84.

She and her husband moved to Waterford in 1972. Florence is a retired state employee who worked at the former Clinton Valley Center. She also worked for six years for the Pontiac School District.

She says she is a decedent of George Read, one of the signers of the Constitution and so politics runs deep in her family.

“I really think that I was born with political genes,” she says.

In a time when I have received so many calls from readers who have threatened to cancel their subscriptions because they don’t like a particular view expressed on the Opinion Page, Florence has been wonderfully refreshing.

She’s not afraid to let us know when she thinks we’ve missed the mark on an editorial. There have been times when she has loudly and at length told us why a particular editorial was just not right.

But by the same token, she will call and let us know — in equally vibrant and vocal terms — if she agrees with an editorial or likes a particular feature that was published.

She scolds us when she thinks we’ve erred but praises us when she believes we’ve done something good. And most important, whether she agrees with us or not, she continues to be a loyal reader.

What more could we ask for, other than to have a few thousand more subscribers like Florence.