Billie Mahoney danced with the best of them — and at 80, this sexy number isn't done yet

At her house in south Kansas City, Billie flips through a scrapbook that she put together to display at her 80th birthday party. The front of the white plastic binder reads: "Billie Mahoney. Dancing for more than 3/4 century!"

Her house has just been remodeled, so mementos are still strewn about. A living-room wall holds about 40 framed pictures in a precise grid pattern. The photos document her career highlights, such as a 1961 photo of her interviewing Chubby Checker. They were both taking part in a dance forum analyzing the twist. Nearby, on a side table, is a photo album from her 2006 trip to India. A brass iguana with scales made of blue lapis lazuli stone — a souvenir from her December trip to the Galápagos Islands — lounges on a half-ledge wall that separates her new kitchen from her office area.

As she goes through the scrapbook, she punctuates stories from the past with her crackling, rousing laugh. Some anecdotes bring her to tears, which come quickly and make her voice shake and squeak. When she describes a dance routine, her compact body demonstrates limber moves as she sits in place in her office chair.

Her hands sculpt the space around her when she talks, which is at a driving pace. She injects onomatopoetic noises into her descriptions for emphasis. When she talks about the first modern piece she danced in 1949, she makes a wrrroooooww sound, followed by a cat screech, to describe the atonal electronic music that accompanied the routine. "I didn't know what the heck was going on," she says.

On the first page in Billie's scrapbook is a short Kansas City Star article dated October 20, 1932. The headline reads: "The Baby Parade Presented A Galaxy of Prize Winners." The accompanying photo features five costumed kids. Five-year-old Billie is up front, gazing seriously at the camera. She's dressed in an iridescent one-piece that resembles a baggy swimsuit. Huge, gauzy butterfly wings sprout from her back. She won the "most attractively costumed baby" category and took home a small gold piece that was worth $5 or $20 — she can't remember which. Whatever the amount, it was a lot of money during the Depression. The third-place winner got a puppy — an injustice that made her cry.