Dublin’s Neighbors celebrates 100th birthday, advises others to ‘live each day’

Juanita Neighbors turns 100 today and will celebrate with not one, but two parties. 

She was born Juanita Whatley on April 9, 1926, in the Beauregard Community, which was named after Confederate Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard. This area is now known as  Beauregard, Alabama, which is approximately 10 miles from Opelika, Ala. 

On the day she was born, Calvin Coolidge, the 30th president of the United States, was in the White House. Queen Elizabeth II (April 21) Marilyn Monroe (June 1) and Chuck Berry (Oct. 18) were also born in 1926. “Winnie-the-Pooh” was first published in London that year and the first Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) was given to approximately 8,000 students. 

Neighbors was the oldest one of four siblings – two brothers and one sister. Her brothers have passed away, while her sister is 95 and is coming to Neighbors’ birthday party this week. 

“We have about 80 people coming,” said Carol Thomas, Neighbors’ daughter.

The couple had three daughters. Neighbors has seven grandchildren and 18 great-great grandchildren.

Every day Neighbors makes herself coffee and breakfast. She does have a woman who helps her with her house each week. 

“She doesn’t sleep late,” Thomas said. “She gets up and dresses, and she is ready to go when she gets up. She also plays bridge and canasta card games.”

Neighbors will have two parties. The first one is open to the community from 1  to 3 p.m. Saturday in the First Baptist Church Family Life Center. Later, the family will gather at the Yates Lodge to celebrate. At that event, each table will be decorated as a different decade.

“We have cousins coming in and we’ll have a ’20s table, ’30s and all the way up to now,” Thomas said. “We are really excited about getting the family together.” 

Neighbors retired from being a secretary at Dublin Junior High in 1988. She started going to Fairview Fitness for several years. Then she discovered Silver Sneakers at Clarks Health Club. 

When she was 15, Neighbors received a call from the Holy Spirit but did not go down the aisle. She did join the Methodist church when she turned 18. 

“I assumed I was a Christian,” Neighbors said.

She married her husband, Ed, in 1948, and they moved to Dublin when she was 22. They moved to the area because Ed, who had served in World War II, had a job with JP Stevens. 

Not long after that, Neighbors attended a revival at Marie Baptist Church. This is when she was convicted to rededicate her life to the Lord.

“I was 25 and thought I was a Christian,” she said. “I spent a miserable week with Satan and fought for my soul. At the end of the week, I accepted Jesus. I began doing Bible studies and began my Christian life at that time.” 

Neighbors would be a part of the FBC choir for 70 years. She became a part of a group that called themselves “The Golden Girls.” Of the original group, she is the only one left.

“I was the planner and whatever I said do, they did,” she said, letting out a chuckle. “They all passed away so I had to look at getting some younger friends. Now we’re in a second generation of Golden Girls. They can’t drive now because of their eyes, so I have to find some a little bit younger.”

She has a birthday card ministry.

“She always sends them as a prayer or a message,” Thomas said. “It’s not just a card. There is a prayer or message. When they get a card it’s more like a birthday letter.” 

Neighbors writes in cursive.

“My grandchildren said it looks like hen scratching,” she said. 

Thomas said an adult has to translate it for the grandchildren.

“It is like a foreign language to them,” Thomas said.

At church, Neighbors is called the “Hat Lady.” A couple of boxes were brought into the living room. On Easter Sunday, she was the only one to wear a hat.

“We wore hats in the 1960s,” she said. “I could only wear the hats in Sunday school because I sang in the choir. I stored them all up in the attic in hat boxes. I found a good many old hats.” 

Neighbors continues to be a prayer warrior. She enjoys talking to anyone from a young child to a senior adults. 

“One thing I have always tried to have been was a good listener,” she said. “Most people are not so much interested in what you say, but in how you make them feel. I do like to put my thoughts of the day – and they aren’t always mine – on Facebook.” 

But she cannot understand a smartphone.

“The telephone has come a long ways,” Neighbors said. “We did not get electricity in our own home until I was 10 years old. That’s when we got electricity and an indoor bathroom. We got electricity earlier than some of my relatives.”

Despite this, Neighbors said she does not feel old.

“I think that is because I have stayed active and I have a positive attitude about living every day,” she said. “It is important to stay active and not feel your age. I have not felt my age. Live each day of your life. Don’t waste your life and make it count. If I had any advice concerning life, God has a path for each of us. If we accept that path by becoming a child of the king, we receive peace and a purpose and assurance of where we’ll spend eternity.”