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Lulu Johnston, 100 |
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Lulu Johnston celebrated
her 100th birthday
on July 6th. |
Lula Johnston wasn’t born in Georgia, but she’s spent the past 95
years living there, reaching the
century mark on July 6, 2008.
Lulu's as sweet and nice a person as
you ever will find. She lives now
with her daughter, Lou Ellen, who
says she’s a real pleasure to be
with, always positive, never
negative and very loving and
giving.
Indeed, in so many ways,
Lula is an inspiration to her three
children, 12 grandchildren and 38
great-grandchildren, and she enjoys
passing on life lessons. She is
also an inspiration to everyone else
who meets her. “I believe in being
positive and in loving everybody,”
she tells. “I love being around
people.”
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Lula’s “life long love,” as she puts it, is
and always has been reading, a passion she
developed as a young girl.
“My daddy worked for the
railroad and he would bring home newspapers
from other parts of the country, like The
New York Times and magazines, so we were
exposed to the outside world at a young
age. My parents both loved to read and we
always had books in the house. As a young
girl, my best friend and I would spend every
Sunday afternoon upstairs in my bedroom,
reading. Historical novels have always been
my favorite because they are based on events
that actually happened; I find that
interesting. When we were children, we had
no TV and no radio, so reading was our
entertainment. I remember when I got my
first school book, I read it right through.
And we used to get paperback storybooks
cheap at the stores when we got older.
There was no pornography then,” she adds. |
Lulu as a child |
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During WWII, Lula took a job as secretary to
the chief of surgery at what was then Gordon Center, now the Eisenhower Center, and remained there
until after the Korean War.
“It was such a tragedy to see
young men with head trauma, which the
hospital specialized in, wandering around
with no idea who they were or where they
were,” she recalls sadly.
Retiring after 20 years, in her
60s, she decided to do something uplifting
for people and especially young people; so
she started a library at her church, which
she ran for many years. “It was very
successful; everybody loved it, especially
the children. They loved the summer reading
programs.”
Like many of her
generation, Lula is very proud of her voting
record, telling that her father took her to
vote when she was 21 and she’s not missed a
presidential election since. FDR is her
favorite president “because he saved us from
the Depression. It was very bad. My
husband and I got along only because my
father farmed and would bring us produce:
that saved us. Very often two or three
families would live together or take in
family members to get by.” Since then, her
belief has been “If you have to, you get
along with what you have.”
Lula still
maintains her own financial affairs, writes
her own checks and balances her checkbook.
“I’ve never bounced a check in my life and
I’ve never been late paying a bill, and I’ve
never missed tithing at church.” Now that
could be one for the record books!
But living to 100
has been more challenging. “I’ve had to
work at it,” she confides. Indeed. Lula is
a cancer survivor, has had five stents in
her heart in recent years, as well as a
cornea transplant “so I could continue
reading.” Her courage and determination are
exemplary.
Along with her strong
faith, family and friends sustain her and
bring her joy. “We have a lot of fun,” she
says. It’s good to be around young people –
they keep you young.” Daughter Lou Ellen
adds that they also enjoy going out for
lunch, to church every Sunday and going
shopping, especially for books. Lula laughs
and says: “We recently went into a Christian
book store and each came out with an armful
of books – there’s always something new to
learn, no matter how old you are!” |
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Respecting the privacy of this centenarian
and all centenarians on our website, we ask
all media (or other businesses) to please
direct inquiries to Lynn Adler:
adler@ncap100s.org. |
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