Getting to age 100 seems like it would take some planning, but Woodrow Wilson Boulware said he's not quite sure how he got there.
"I don't know; it just happened," he said. "I just went to bed early. I ate honey quite often."
Boulware and a bunch of family members and friends celebrated the big 1-0-0 on Wednesday with a party at Fulton Presbyterian Manor. Another is planned noon-3 p.m. Saturday at the Hatton church. On Wednesday, there were bunches of family photos and even more hugs.
His son, Don, turned the pages of his father's antique baby book.
"First fish - it says age 3, but he wasn't able to take the fish off the hook until he was 4," Don Boulware said. "He smiled at 3 days. His first laugh was at 3 months. "
Woodrow's first word was "Alright," and his second was "Hello."
"He said 'Howdy' a few days later," Don added.
Woodrow was born March 21, 1918, in Callaway County.
"I was born on the farm just west of Hatton," he said.
He mostly spent his life as a farmer with a couple of twists and turns.
"I spent four years in World War II," Woodrow said. "I helped build the Alaskan Highway before I went across (to Europe). I went across Germany with Patton."
He served in the 143 Engineer Combat Battalion, Third Army, under Gen. George S. Patton. Following the invasion of Normandy in June 1944, D-Day, Patton led a highly successful rapid armored drive across France. He led the relief of beleaguered American troops at Bastogne during the Battle of the Bulge, and advanced his Third Army into Nazi Germany by the end of the war.
In that drive, Boulware drove a bulldozer, pushing debris and some unspeakable things off the roads, and he patched bridges. He was in a plane coming home when America dropped an atomic bomb on Japan, he said. His service ended Aug. 17, 1945.
"In 1950, I got Jalie," he said of his wife.
They had two boys, Don and Mike, then six grandchildren, and now nine great-grandchildren. The couple met at church.
"We met at Pleasant Grove Church," Jalie Boulware said. "He'd gotten home from the Army and I was in his Sunday School class."
She was 11 years younger than Woodrow.
"I got up and asked him a question, and he said, 'Who is that whippersnapper?'" she said, laughing. "I was his whippersnapper a long time."
Jalie and Woodrow have an obvious deep fondness for each other as she pecked him on the head as his family sang the Happy Birthday song to him.
Woodrow said his pastimes included deer hunting and fishing.
"I've been driving four-wheelers the last 30 years," he said. "I've still got one at the farm. I've still got the farm - 320 acres."
Jalie recounted a family story about Woodrow growing up in the Great Depression.
"He had $7 in the Auxvasse bank," she said. "He got a letter from the bank saying they were going to close."
The going rate Woodrow could receive was a nickle for every dollar he had in the bank. That came to 35 cents; still worth going to Auxvasse to pick up.
"He never got to hold the $7, but he got to hold the 35 cents," Jalie said. "He thought he was the richest guy in the world."
Making it to age 100 with a life well-lived and a loving family, perhaps Woodrow is.