Gulfport resident turns 102 years young

GULFPORT, Miss. (WLOX) - Gulfport resident Edith Johnson was surrounded by family members and friends as she celebrated 102 years of life at Little Rock Missionary Baptist Church on Sunday.

“I never could picture at your age of being this old,” she told WLOX reporter Amber Spradley.

Edith turned 102 on Thursday.

“She’s still in her right frame of mind. She still has the activity of her limbs, and she’s still able to care for herself. And that’s truly a blessing from God,” her niece Tawana Johnson said. “So many people love her, and she loves so many people.”

Looking back on her years, Edith said she has lived a life of adventure.

“I did a lot of traveling in my days,” she said. “But I worked. It wasn’t all just play.”

Edith graduated from Howard University Nursing School and worked as a nurse in Chicago for more than 60 years before retiring.

As an accomplished centenarian, she offered some advice for all of us.

“Be kind,” she said. “A lot of times, you don’t want to be kind, but always remember: be kind. And if you don’t want to be kind, go somewhere in the corner and get it off your mind.”

Her closest friends call her a pillar in her community.

“Her dad lived to be 110 years old, so she has a legacy that is unreal,” Claudette Woulard said.

Edith is also the only daughter out of five brothers.

“I call her ‘Ms. Teenager’ because I told her, ‘When I get old, I want to be just like you’,” Marsha Beal said. “She is so loving, kind and sweet.”

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