At the age of 110, Dollie Booten Berry of Culpeper County, Virginia, has lived through 19 presidents, four major wars, the Great Depression, Jim Crow discrimination and the Civil Rights Movement.
The supercentenarian has witnessed the advancement of automobiles and airplanes, the moon landing and more.
The Culpeper County Board of Supervisors introduced a resolution honoring Berry at their meeting Tuesday night.
“Dollie Berry is now a supercentenarian, having reached the age of 110 years,” Culpeper County Administrator John Egertson said Tuesday night during the meeting. “According to the School of Boston Medicine, (she) is one of an estimated 60 people in the United States, which constitutes only 0.02 percent of the entire U.S. population.”
As the county paid tribute to her life and legacy, Berry sat surrounded by her family, which includes two children, three grandchildren, two great grandchildren, and two great-great-grandchildren.
Born in Shanktown in Culpeper County on March 7, 1914, Berry was sent to New York to live with her Aunt Mary when she was 13. She eventually became an accomplished seamstress and fashion designer, as well as a social worker. In 1936, she married her husband, Arthur Berry.
She has maintained a home in Culpeper County, which she visits once or twice a year.
“She embodies the spirit and the values of family in her real home in Culpeper County,” Egertson said. “Culpeper County is proud to call Dollie Berry a native daughter of Culpeper.”
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