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John Nunnally thinks his mother's longevity is due to taking care of herself.

"A lot of exercise," he said.

"And fun," interjected Elizabeth "Libby" Nunnally, punctuating her statement by raising her hand with coral pink painted fingernails and smiling.

The two were reflecting on her recent birthday and 100 years of life. Nunnally has witnessed a lot: two world wars, the first space travel, the introduction of computers, and countless births and deaths.

The world she entered on April 11, 1909, is different from the one she lives in now.

Born in Mississippi, she was brought into the world by a midwife in her family's home. Nunnally's father was the local school teacher, and she attended the one-room schoolhouse where he taught six grades. Later on, Nunnally and her two sisters were enrolled in a "city school" in a local town, which meant a two-mile walk each day.

She remembers Armistice Day in 1918, signaling the end of World War I. School adjourned at 11 a.m. and students marched to the county courthouse where patriotic songs were sung. The sisters walked home to their homemaker mother, who was surprised to hear the news of the war being over.

During World War II, Nunnally assisted her husband, Peyton Nunnally, with the local rationing board where they rationed things like gasoline, sugar and bacon to residents. Her husband was too young to be in World War I and too old to be in World War II, so he served as the head of the rationing board.

"Those years were tough," she said. "Rationing was tough."

Rationing the gasoline was a big thing, Nunnally said, saying people had jobs they had to get to, and how many miles they drove dictated how much gasoline they could receive.

"You didn't get much gasoline for pleasure," John Nunnally said. "It was all for work."

Nunnally refers to the war as "hell." "Innocent people were getting killed on all sides," she said.

After helping with the board, Nunnally also worked in retail clothing stores, as well as a local grocery store.

"I worked there a long time," she said. "Front, back and all over."

She stayed home after the birth of her son John in 1941. Nunnally and her husband traveled often, and visited the Chicago World's Fair in 1939. They drove there, got the car out once, and walked from then on because they were not fans of the traffic.

These days Nunnally can often be found in her room at the Lorien Assisted Living Facility in Mount Airy, surrounded by pictures of a century past, perhaps watching golf, football and baseball on her TV.

"And Lawrence Welk," daughter-in-law Marilyn Nunnally said, referring to a popular television program from the 1950s to the early 1980s. "But it's harder and harder to find it on TV."

When she can't find the classic music variety show or a game, Nunnally heads toward the soap operas "Guiding Light" and "All My Children." "I get so tired of Erica," she said, referring to a longtime character on "All My Children."

She's been watching Guiding Light since its switch from radio to television more than 50 years ago.

Nearly 89 years of her life have been spent near the town she was born in Mississippi. In 1998, she moved to Marriotsville to be near family until her move two years ago to Mount Airy. She's still a member at her church in Mississippi, First Presbyterian in Louisville, where her family was among those that started the congregation in 1836.

A print of the Mona Lisa hangs in her room above a photo of her and her sisters with their grandparents, the black-and-white photo showing three young girls. Nunnally identified herself by her hair — "I always cut my hair that way."

"It's been on every wall of every house you've lived in since 1962," John Nunnally said of the Leonardo da Vinci print, saying he had bought it while on a trip for a job interview that year. He said he had forgotten the origin of the picture until she mentioned it.

"A very sharp mind," Marilyn Nunnally said. "She's always thinking."

Attention to detail is something Libby Nunnally is known for.

"We say she's the only 100-year-old person with a type-A personality," laughed John Nunnally.

Marilyn Nunnally said her mother-in-law had recently been discussing the Depression and similarities to the current economic situation. She said Nunnally had said you don't have to have a lot of things to be happy, and maybe people would start learning that.

Marilyn said her husband is proud of his mom for making it to 100 years-old.

"We made it," he smiled.

Nunnally will celebrate her 100th birthday with family and friends, some who have travelled from the south, at Lorien Mount Airy on Saturday. Family includes her son, daughter-in-law, two grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

"That's nice," she said smiling. "That's really nice."

E-mail Angie Cochrun at acochrun@gazette.net.