Meet America’s newest viral sweetheart, a 90-year-old from Hurst
When she was young, Sally Maze imagined sharing the silver screen with Hollywood idols like Debbie Reynolds, Elizabeth Taylor and Rock Hudson. Never in her wildest dreams did she think stardom would come via a cell phone, and certainly not at the age of 90.
But fame is a fickle friend, often showing up unannounced and at the most surprising times. That was the case when Maze’s daughter, Katherine Rauzi, first posted a video of her mother on her TikTok account, @ladywholounges.
In that clip, Rauzi asks her mom what she thinks about 90-year-old women wanting to date.
“I said I want to wish you luck, but I would give you my opinion on it, and that was that I don’t want to look, I don’t want to be around an old man. I don’t want to be in the room, I don’t want to look at him, I just don’t want to be around it,” said Maze, of Hurst.
Rauzi knew she’d struck gold, but she didn’t expect the response she got.
“I literally hit the post button,” said Rauzi. “Mom and I were going to a doctor for a checkup, and by the time we got to the doctor’s office, it had almost 100,000 views. It was shocking. I mean, I’d seen other viral videos, but I didn’t know how fast it happened.”
Pretty soon, that video had racked up a million hits, and subsequent ones, including a viral clip of Maze roasting the city of Dallas for its “flooty tooty” sheen of glamour, have garnered millions more views on TikTok and Instagram.
Maze grew up in Fort Worth’s Riverside neighborhood, and she said her distaste for Dallas wasn’t fake in her now-famous video. Recently, a few eateries in that city to the east have invited Maze for a visit in the hopes of changing her opinion, including Crown Block at the top of downtown’s Reunion Tower.
“Mom said she’s going to look out and be like, ‘The best part of this restaurant is that I can see Fort Worth,’” said Rauzi, who calls Dallas home.
That’s the beauty of being 90, observed Maze: you can say what you want, when you want. But really, she’s always been this way. Growing up, Rauzi said, their house was the one where the other kids wanted to hang out, and when Maze had an audience, she would turn on the charm and the wit.
Maybe that’s why she is largely nonplussed by all the attention she’s gotten recently. Maze is a born raconteur, and just like in her videos, in real life she is unabashedly authentic, sharing the same perspective and sage wisdom — equal parts profound and profane, much to her daughter’s chagrin — that have earned her legions of new admirers.
Underneath it all, though, there lies a heart of gold, and that’s maybe Sally Maze’s greatest gift. Just like with Debbie Reynolds, Liz Taylor and Rock Hudson, people like Maze. They like to watch her, and they like to relate to her, and for that, she is eternally grateful.
“I love it,” Maze said of the attention. “It’s a blessing. I just enjoy when people write and say, ‘I love you.’ I mean, my goodness, it’s wonderful. I’ve enjoyed it. And I hope that my 15 minutes of fame, as they say, maybe will last a little longer.”
This story was originally published May 2, 2025 at 12:24 PM.