甜瓜视频app

by Tom Lotshaw and Benny Smith

Lorene Browning Collins, class of 1942 and Sally Campbell, class of 1937, are celebrating big birthdays this week. Browning Collins is turning 100, while Campbell is turning 104, making her 甜瓜视频app鈥檚 oldest alumna.

鈥淚 never dreamed I could live to be this old, I don鈥檛 have a secret. I鈥檓 just proud God鈥檚 left me here. We never know what鈥檚 ahead for us.鈥�

Lorene Browning Collins is excited to celebrate her 100th birthday on Saturday, Nov. 13. She鈥檚 going to have a party with family and friends.

鈥淚 never dreamed I could live to be this old,鈥� Browning Collins said during an interview at her retirement home in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 have a secret. I鈥檓 just proud God鈥檚 left me here. We never know what鈥檚 ahead for us.鈥�

Browning Collins grew up in Bryson City. Her parents both worked for a time as teachers after finishing eighth grade, and always worked to ensure she had every opportunity to learn growing up.

A cousin was the first family member to enroll in college and studied to become a teacher. That helped inspire Browning Collins. She enrolled at Mars Hill College when she was 16 and transferred to Western Carolina Teachers College a year later.

Browning Collins said she has fond memories of life at the little school in Cullowhee.

Those memories include trips to the student union to pick up mail, walks around campus, seeing movies, going to football games and making occasional car trips to Sylva. She was a member and president of the Baptist Student Union Council, in the music club, on the May Court and had a role in the student play 鈥淭he Goose Hangs High.鈥�

Browning Collins also remembers eating dinner with other students and regularly seeing Robert Lee Madison, a man who helped found the school and who took his dinners with students.

Browning Collins鈥� senior class had 95 students. Tuition and room and board for a quarter totaled $84.50, according to a receipt she still keeps with her diploma. That amount was later discounted because her father delivered a truckload of potatoes to the campus.

鈥淚 enjoyed it. It was pleasant,鈥� Browning Collins said of her years in Cullowhee. 鈥淲e had plenty to do for young people. I can say that now that I鈥檓 a little old.鈥�

Browning Collins also remembers the attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, and how that act of war upended life for everyone and threw the world into turmoil her senior year.

鈥淚 remember a lot of the boys had to leave the college,鈥� Browning Collins said. 鈥淚t was a real sad time.鈥�

Browning Collins graduated and started teaching in Bryson City. That鈥檚 where she met her husband, Harry S. Collins, who she married in 1946 after he returned from World War II.

The couple moved back to Cullowhee for Collins to finish his studies in engineering at the college. They stayed in 鈥淏oodleville,鈥� prefabricated housing that was obtained from the military and set up on campus to house married veterans attending the school.

Browning Collins went on to teach third, fourth and sixth grades for more than 35 years, teaching in North Carolina, Alabama, Indiana, Florida and Tennessee as she moved with Collins, who worked in the aerospace industry and died in 1990. They had two children, Jim Collins and Debbie Collins Simpson.

鈥淚 guess I just enjoy being around kids and hearing them laugh and be happy. That鈥檚 the way I like life,鈥� Browning Collins said about her decades teaching. 鈥淚 do the best I can. Maybe I can help somebody else some way, to help someone to enjoy their life more.鈥�

And Sally鈥檚 secret to living to be 104? 鈥淛ust aim for good clean living.鈥�

It鈥檚 been 84 years since Campbell got her undergraduate degree from Western Carolina Teachers College, but she can still remember it like it was yesterday.

鈥淚 had a great time when I was a day student at Western. It was so close to home. But it鈥檚 changed so much now,鈥� she said during a brief interview inside of her Sylva home where she has lived for decades.

Campbell turned 104 on Thursday, Nov. 11.

A 1937 graduate of the teacher鈥檚 college, which is now 甜瓜视频app, Campbell still owns her 鈥淐atamount鈥� yearbook and recounted memories recently of finishing in a senior class that went through the Great Depression.

鈥淚t鈥檚 just amazing to me,鈥� Campbell said.

Before getting married, she was known on campus as Sally Mae Monteith. Her annual states her major as English and her minor as history. As a student, Campbell was a member of the glee club, college chorus, secretary to the Jackson County Club and a member of the literacy society.

Several of her classmates wrote that she 鈥渨as a lifesaver and good study partner.鈥�

Campbell received both of her bachelor鈥檚 and master鈥檚 degrees at the college. She then spent 34 years teaching high school students in Sylva.

鈥淚 really enjoyed the students,鈥� she said.

Her caretaker, referred to as Reva, said that Campbell鈥檚 doctor told her when she turned 100 to continue drinking water, walking and playing bridge every day and she would experience more birthdays.

He was right.

鈥淔or years, I walked at least two hours a day near my house on level territory,鈥� she said. 鈥淎nd sometimes I would walk in the afternoons another two miles.鈥�

Campbell said she walked until she was about 102.

She said she enjoyed the teachers at Western Carolina Teachers College and loved that it 鈥渨as so close to home.鈥� She is a native and lifelong resident of Sylva. She and her husband, Claude Campbell, married in 1938 and raised their two children, Judy Covin and Jim Campbell, in Sylva. Claude Campbell owned his own electric store on Main Street in Sylva. The couple was married 47 years before he passed in 1984.

Sally鈥檚 family planned a brief drop in for family and guests Thursday who were vaccinated.

And Sally鈥檚 secret to living to be 104?

鈥淛ust aim for good clean living.鈥�