"From the senior citizens of Graterford, Miss Kuhn, we'd like to wish you a very happy birthday. You are a special lady," said Roy Williams Sr., Graterford's Gray Panther president.
"It's marvelous to be with you," Kuhn replied, her soft voice boosted by a microphone.
There are three things she likes about being old, she said: "One. I can speak my mind. I can say outrageous things. Two, I've outlived much of my opposition. Three, I've been blessed with the opportunity to be with people like you."
Kuhn has been coming to the state prison in Montgomery County twice a year since 1989. She first visited at the request of Julia Hall, a Drexel University gerontologist and criminologist who organized a seniors group at Graterford 10 years ago to deal with the problems of growing old behind bars.
"It was a metamorphosis to behold," Hall said yesterday of Kuhn's first visit. "She wore her little pink sneakers and held onto my arm as we walked down the hall, looking like a gentle little old lady. Then when she got in front of the group, she banged on the table and told them they had to take responsibilities in their lives and make changes in the system. She said they shouldn't just sit there like a bunch of old people waiting for somebody else to do something. They were the elders.
"The men were flabbergasted," Hall said. "I was awestruck."
At that meeting, Kuhn invited the prison group, called Concerned Seniors, to join the Gray Panthers, a national organization of older people devoted to social change. They did and are the only prison chapter in the nation, with 100 members.
