One hundred years.
That’s what Dottie Williams of Richmond Hill will celebrate on Sunday when she and her family and friends gather at Magnolia Manor on the Coast for her 100th birthday.
Born on April 21, 1913, in upstate New York, Williams has lived through some challenging times, including the Great Depression and World War II. But she has also seen many beautiful things and places, like Hawaii and Costa Rica.
Williams has traveled for pleasure and moved several times with her family throughout the years. But of all the things the centenarian has seen in her lifetime, she said her favorite memories are those with people.
“My good memories is my love for people — I love being with people, and wherever we went, I met new people and saw new things,” Williams said.
Williams’ husband, Charlie, who she was married to for nearly 70 years before he died, worked as a forester and moved quite a bit. She met him at Syracuse University, where they both took classes during the Great Depression.
“Everybody was depressed and there was no money — no anything,” she said. “Of course where I was from everybody was poor, but we didn’t know we were because we were all in the same condition.”
The pair were married in 1938 and soon after moved from New York to Virginia.
“I was delighted because I was going to get warm,” she said with a laugh, adding she never liked the cold weather of New York. “We lived in Virginia, then he got a job in Savannah. We also lived in South Carolina and eventually got to Georgia, and we’ve been here ever since — close to 60 years, but probably more than that.”
Although Williams didn’t finish school, she said she enjoyed her job of looking after her family while her husband worked.
“It was great — it gave me the opportunity to read, to do community things, do church things,” she said. “You could really get involved, and girls don’t have that opportunity anymore. They don’t have the opportunity, I think, that women my age had.”

Read more in the April 20 edition of the News.