5 centenarians at Ohio nursing home celebrate 500+ years at epic birthday party

NORTH CANTON, Ohio − It had been years since Lillian Smith, who is just shy of 100, met anyone older than her.

A special birthday gathering put an end to that this month when Smith made four new friends who'd lived through even more days than she had. Five residents at Smith's assisted living facility in North Canton are turning 100 or older this year, and staff got them together to celebrate their shared 500-plus years of life.

"You're going to be the youngest one there, you'll get to meet four people older than you," Smith's daughter, Linda, told her mom ahead of the party, eliciting a chuckle from Smith, whose hundredth birthday is on March 26.

It's unusual for the Danbury Sanctuary Grande facility to be home to so many residents who were born more than 100 years ago.

"We've only had one other resident who was 100," the facility's executive director Alicia Hoffman told The Repository, part of the USA TODAY Network, in Canton. "We're very excited. It's a remarkable milestone."

The crew being honored lived during the early years of Prohibition. Around the time they were born in 1924 St. Petersburg was renamed Leningrad, the world saw the first Winter Olympic Games in France and the first-ever crossword puzzle was published by Simon & Schuster.

Nearly 100 years ago, Lillian Smith was born to a superintendent of schools and a stay-at-home mom in the small town of Cadiz, Ohio. She was one of three daughters who learned from their father that women should become independent and support themselves in case their husbands passed away, Smith's daughter, Linda, 72, told USA TODAY.

As an adult, Smith taught secretarial and shorthand typing classes in high school, subjects "no one learns anymore," her daughter said.

"She taught from the time she graduated college into her 60s," her daughter said, finishing her studies at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh at 22, at a time when most young men were serving overseas in World War II.

When Linda Smith was growing up, shes said, "Most of the women were stay-at-home moms," but her mother "was always working."

5 centenarians celebrate shared 500+ years of life

Attending the epic North Canton gathering on Friday were Philip Alonzo, Paul Miller and Lillian Smith, who were all celebrating their upcoming 100th birthdays, along with Juanita Woods who will be 101, and Helen Blocker who will turn 103.

The town's mayor, Stephan Wilder, was on hand to give each celebrant a proclamation and personalized letter marking their achievement. Collectively, the group lived through 17 presidents and had, of course, outlived all presidents ever.

"Outside of performing a marriage, which I have done as mayor, being here is probably the highlight of my career," Wilder said.

Alonzo, born on Jan. 26, 1924, is a retired engineer, guitarist and the longest-standing member of the Arrowhead Golf Club, where he has played daily for 80 years. The lifelong bachelor now likes to be driven around the course on a golf cart, staff at the Danbury Sanctuary Grande told USA TODAY.

Smith also played golf through her 80s, until she broke her pelvis while playing with her dog outside, her daughter said.

Alonzo, Smith and the rest of the centenarian crew all like to be on-the-go and be out and about, according to staff.

"They are still very active," said Alicia Hoffman, executive director of the facility. "Yes, you may see them in wheelchairs and yes, you may see them using walkers, but they participate in activities and are still very vibrant and still find purpose."

Woods, who was born on Sept. 3, 1923, was a church choir director for 35 years and performed with the Canton Civic Opera, traveling to Europe to perform with the group.

Blocker, the eldest of the group, was born on Sept. 18, 1921. She served during World War II as an Army nurse and rose to the rank of lieutenant. The mayor, also a Navy veteran, gave her a salute and veteran's pin.

Retired journalist and Army veteran Paul Miller will celebrate his official birthday on Feb. 7. He, too, received a salute and pin from the mayor. For 30 years, he worked for The Repository newspaper, according to Hoffman.

"He feels so blessed in his life to have made it this far, to this milestone," said Sherry Weaver, the enrichment director at Danbury Sanctuary Grande.

"He so cherishes, and loves and adores his family," she said. "Each and every day, to him, is a gift."