Santa Maria Woman Celebrates 101 Years

Birthdays are usually a special occasion in most families.

For Mary Johnston and her family, they are really a time to celebrate.

Tuesday afternoon Johnston and her family as well as friends gathered for her 101rst birthday.

Johnston spoke very little but was in visibly good spirits with her family by her side.

“How happy and how pleased I am for her to be here today”, said her son Ken Huddleston, “she’s been around a long time, longer than I ever expected, and she’s healthy, she has a good appetite, she eats good.”

Huddleston and other family members brought out Johnston’s favorite birthday cake, chocolate, which she heartily enjoyed along with a room full of Johnston’s fellow residents at the Country Oaks Care Center in Santa Maria.

What is Mary Johnston’s secret to her long, healthy life?

“She didn’t drink a lot of alcohol, she did have a drink occasionally, but very few, she never smoked”, Huddleston says, “she has lived a lot healthier life than I have.”

Johnston comes from a large family and raised a large family of her own on the Central Coast.

Her son says she is one of the original Williams Brothers Grocery Store employees from a time when that was the only market on East Main Street, site of the current Vons Supermarket.