GINA B. GOOD / PVT Turzah Ann Fay, Anna Rose Cullender and Frank Fay celebrate Cullender's 101st birthday at Evergreen at Pahrump. Advertisement

Anna Rose Cullender turned 101 years of age Monday and residents at Evergreen at Pahrump health and rehabilitation facility surrounded her to sing happy birthday and share a slice of cake.

The party was orchestrated by Cullender's granddaughter Turzah Ann Fay and her husband Frank who live in Pahrump. Cullender was tired from the excitement of the day but had told her stories to her granddaughter over the years.

Born in 1908, in Dawson, N.M., Cullender lived in California for many years before moving to Pahrump. "She's seen two world wars, lived through the Depression and experienced the Dust Bowl," said Fay.

Dawson was a coal mining town in the early 1900s and Cullender's father and his brothers worked in the mines and lived close by. The wealthy people lived downtown where there was one big company store.

Fay recalled her grandmother telling her the family had to go downtown to buy sugar but did most of their shopping in small stores where they lived.

Later on, her parents bought a farm, but it didn't flourish. Cullender helped her father dig a well but crops didn't do well and eventually her father went back to coal mining.

Cullender spotted her husband-to-be while he was singing at the local opera house and got his name from the program. She told family members, "That's the man I'm going to marry. I just haven't met him yet."

She did indeed marry Everett Cullender when she was 17 in Trinidad, Colo. They had three sons and moved many times to find work.

At one time, Cullender worked as a fireman for the Santa Fe Railroad in Needles, Calif., and the family moved between Needles and Barstow, Calif., for many years.

She has three grandchildren, six great-grandchildren and 15 great-great-grandchildren. She moved to Evergreen at Pahrump in November.