Norene Blackburn reflects on a century of life

EDISON — Family members of Norene Blackburn have said that she does not act or look like she is 100. Her mind is still very sharp, and she kept a regular walking regimen until three years ago when she broke a hip.

That drive and her belief in a higher being are what she attributes her long life to after reaching the centennial milestone on Jan. 13.

She established and taught a Sunday school class at her current residence at Willowwood Personal Care Home in Edison until she was 97. Before that, she had the opportunity to touch young lives through her roughly 30 years of teaching at Clay County High School, from which she retired in 1979 as the typing/business education teacher, in Fort Gaines.

“I’m very comfortable here,” Blackburn said of her current lifestyle at Willowwood. “I recommend it for anyone who needs to be comfortable. I’m very happy here.”

Nearly four decades after the end of her teaching career, she is still able to reflect positively on the experience of working with children.

“I feel like I made a difference in their lives,” the retired educator said. “I just enjoyed teaching.”

Blackburn said she has traveled a good bit in her life, including several cruises and boat trips, which has gone a long way toward her living a long and full life. In the overall scheme of things, she said, she has few regrets.

As for her longevity, she said much of the credit goes to God — as well as the word puzzles and daily reading.

“My love of the Lord, and staying active (has allowed me to live 100 years),” she said. “I want to be doing something. I want my mind to stay active.”

She taught Sunday school at Vilulah Baptist Church near Coleman for almost 75 years. Over the years, she had impacted enough lives for about 200 people from six states to attend her 90th birthday party a decade ago.

Because of limited space at Willowwood, there was a three-day celebration, with different people invited each day.

Before her arrival at Willowood in 2003, she had lived on the Blackburn family farm near Coleman since 1944 when she married Herbert Blackburn. Together, they were owners and operators of Blackburn’s Department Store in Fort Gaines from the early 1960s through the late 1970s.

The marriage lasted for 46 years and the couple had one child, Donna Blackburn, who works as the campus minister at Georgia Southern University for the Georgia Baptist Collegiate Ministry. When Donna Blackburn was born, her mother was 40 and her father was 45 — and the couple had been married for 13 years.

Donna Blackburn said it is a positive attitude, while remaining realistic, that has kept her mother alive.

“She has always looked at the cup as half full rather than half empty,” her daughter said.

Donna Blackburn said her mother has always taken the time to look out for people, and has served as a listening ear. She has kept her faith, even as she watched cancer claim the lives of most of her immediate family.

“She has always had time for people when they need to see her,” she said. “In her mind, she thinks she is young. She does not let age define her.”

She now uses a walker to get around. Until last year, she had been attending class reunions for her former students in Clay County. While she cannot attend the reunions now, she is still in touch with some of those students.

Not long before her retirement, there were five students on the way to being expelled who she took under her wing during a free period. She worked with them on their typing and went over scripture with them.

This was time for which the students later expressed a great deal of gratitude.

“She always took extra time for her students,” Donna Blackburn said.

Her daughter recalled a couple her parents were close with who she knew as “Aunt Jean” and “Uncle Sammy.” Donna Blackburn’s “Aunt Jean” died in September after she and mother had been close friends for 75 years — which was a dark period for her, but she still had the drive to remain active.

Even on a day she is unlikely to leave home, Norene Blackburn still wants to do her hair and put on her makeup and jewelry. She gets a call from her only child every day to check in, and is insistent on making sure she participates in elections by sending in absentee ballots.

She has also been a faithful Albany Herald subscriber, relying on that as a news source for over 60 years.

“She wants to know what is going on in other people’s lives,” her daughter said.

The daily calls to check in offer a chance for her daughter to get some words of guidance on how to best work with the students at Georgia Southern.

“I look up to her,” she said. “I work with college students and I think, ‘How would my mom handle the situation?’ I call her and ask her for advice.

“She is just amazing.”

Watching her mother interact with Aunt Jean was a big lesson on its own. When someone from either family was ill, a point was made of sending someone from the other family to go visit.

“I got to see what being true friends is like, and it helped me to model that in my own life,” Donna Blackburn said.

Norene Blackburn had been a widow 16 years before going to Willowwood. She is the last survivor of six siblings, but those siblings left behind children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, some of whom know her as “Aunt Norene.”

When asked about how to live for a century, the elder Blackburn’s advice was to trust God and to use the Bible as a guide.

“You need to be kind and understanding of people,” she said. “(When people are rude), you need to understand that is not what people mean to say. We need to help other people to be happy. Sometimes it takes a lot of effort, but it is worth the effort.

“Friends are more valuable than money.”