A New Jersey mother and grandmother is turning 60 on New Year's Day, and she has the distinction being the very first baby boomer, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported at the time.

Kathleen Casey-Kirschling, of Cherry Hill, N.J., was born one second after midnight on Jan. 1, 1946. During this era, an American baby was born every eight seconds, WCAU-TV in Philadelphia reported.

There are about 79 million boomers, according to USA Today.

She danced on American Bandstand. She lived through the Vietnam War, married, divorced, raised two children, and remarried. She said her generation is special.

"We wanted to change the world. We thought we could (do) anything," she said. "First of all, we had the numbers. We were very open to change."

She told USA Today that she is not a conservative or a liberal, but claims to be a Democrat who is somewhere the middle of politics. She said she is opposed to abortion, dealt with her first husband fighting in Vietnam and opposes the war in Iraq.

"I don't like the way the country's going right now," she said to the paper.

The retired teacher is now charting her future with her second husband on a boat appropriately named the "First Boomer."