By CHRISTINE BOATWRIGHT / Staff Writer

Mary Lawson may not look like a typical girl celebrating her sweet 16th birthday party, but as she was born on Leap Day, she relived her youth and celebrated for her actual 16th birthday on Feb. 29.

“It’s kind of fun. It’s a little bit different,” Lawson said. “Everyone makes a comment about how this year you’re going to have a birthday. It’s a little bit special.”

Lawson, the vice president of Bank Trust in Montevallo, said she always celebrated her birthday on Feb. 28 during non-Leap Year occasions.

“I don’t know if my mother did that,” she said. “She always wanted me to have a birthday every year, but on the 29th, it was always a special day.”

Lawson and her husband, “Dollar” Bill Lawson, a local radio personality, live in Alabaster.

“He always does way too much, but he does it all the time,” Lawson said of her husband.

Lawson said she wished she could go back to being 16 again, and she offered advice to 16-year-olds.

“I would tell them to enjoy the moment, that’s for sure,” she said.

Elisabeth Taylor was born on Feb. 29, 1988, and celebrated her sixth birthday over the weekend. Taylor lives in Columbiana with her husband and two children. She said she didn’t have a set birth date celebration on non-Leap Years.