The Wilson Post
LEBANON WEATHER

No slowing down on 100th birthday




Pauline Sanders smiles as she receives a cake to celebrate her 100th birthday during a birthday celebration last week. Family and friends helped Sanders celebrate and called her a pillar of the Vesta and Gladeville communities.  XAVIER SMITH

Pauline Sanders smiles as she receives a cake to celebrate her 100th birthday during a birthday celebration last week. Family and friends helped Sanders celebrate and called her a pillar of the Vesta and Gladeville communities.  XAVIER SMITH

A staple of the Vesta and Gladeville community in Wilson County celebrated her 100th birthday last Friday with family and friends at Vesta Church of Christ.

Pauline Sanders, born Oct. 17, 1920, expressed how she felt about turning 100 with one simple sentence.

“I feel like getting up and dancing,” she said. 

Her family and friends said she is a pillar in the community because of her selflessness and willingness to help anyone in need.

Her great-nephew Jerry Perrell said she helped to raise him on her 50-acre farm when he was 7. He said she also cared for her bedridden husband for more than 15 years after he suffered a stroke.

“Every time somebody in the community got sick, she was the one cooking a carload of food to take to them,” Perrell said.

“When she got to where she could not get out and go, if there was someone sick in the community or death in the community, she would cook food and call and tell someone to come by and pick it up,” said Kathryn “Ma” McCrary, Sanders’ friend of more than 75 years. “She’s a precious person.”

“I love people,” Sanders said. “I love them all.”

Sanders retired in 1985 from her job at Tuckers Sausage in Lebanon, where she worked for 25 years.

“She was one of our best employees that we had and, personally, she was a good friend,” said Ronnie Tucker, a member of the family that owned the sausage facility.

Tucker said Sanders would wrap sausage and prepare country ham.

“She’s just a good country girl,” Tucker said. “We loved her to death. I’m thankful that I knew her, and she has made my life better by knowing her.”

“We’ve had some fun times. We’ve always been friends, and I talk to her every morning,” McCrary said.

Perrell said although Sanders is now 100 years old, she is still as independent as she has been for many years.

“She’s a trooper. She still lives by herself, does her own laundry and fixes her own food. She does everything out of a power chair, but she’s still doing it,” he said.

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