Margaret Gebb celebrated her 100th birthday on Sunday, becoming Sonoma County’s newest centenarian.

Gebb, a resident of Villa Capri Senior Living in Santa Rosa, was born in 1924 and is the third centenarian in his family; His mother lived to be 106 and his grandmother to 105.

He attributes his longevity to living a life full of healthy habits.

“We all grew up with fresh fruits and vegetables,” Gebb said. “We knew nothing about junk food and walked everywhere. “I think that has a lot to do with it.”

Gebb said that in her 100-year life, she has experienced many important historical events as well as great advances in women’s rights.

Highlights in his life, he told The Press Democrat, included World War II, the painful diphtheria vaccine and the 1933 earthquake in his hometown of Long Beach.

Gebb described the Second World War as a “very traumatic” period that not only changed the landscape of the world but also led to new beginnings and unexpected events in his life.

Gebb, like many women during the war, had to work because most men were enlisted. After high school, she took a job at the Port of Long Beach and eventually married her high school sweetheart, John Wesley Gebb II, during the war.

“We got married at night so people could come because everyone was either working in shipyards or aircraft factories,” Gebb said.

Her husband, who served in the army during the war and fought in the Battle of the Bulge, could only communicate through heavily censored letters.

“We only heard from him weeks later by censored mail, which often had large gaps and could not tell us where they were,” Gebb said.

During the war, he purchased war bonds, which the couple cashed in and used to make a down payment on their first home in Southern California after the war; a house they had to leave because her husband suffered from asbestos poisoning from the war.

A doctor told them to leave the Los Angeles basin for cleaner air, which led them to Sonoma County, where they built a home in Freestone in 1984.

The couple had two children, followed by four grandchildren and five great-grandchildren; Another one is on the way.

Gebb said he has had the opportunity to travel in his life and has visited numerous countries, including China, Egypt and most of the European continent. She and her husband even spent their 50th wedding anniversary in Australia.

Travel has always been important to Gebb, and he said he encourages young people to travel if they can and if they have meaningful friends with whom they can share those experiences.

“We had a lot of great experiences and friends and met a lot of nice people,” Gebb said of his travels. “I love people.”

Gebb believes that, like his mother and grandmother, he will live a few years beyond 100, and he hopes for a more peaceful time in the final years of his life.

“The future is now going to be very challenging for young people,” Gebb said. “I wish a peaceful time for all of them. “I don’t understand wars at all.”

Gebb spent time with his family to celebrate his birthday.

“The fact that my mother, grandmother and great-grandmother lived to be over 100 years gives me great hope for a long, healthy life for my daughters and me,” said her son Chet Gebb. “I am amazed at these genetics that allow for such long-lived and well-lived lives.”

Contact Staff Writer Anna Armstrong at 707-521-5255 or [email protected]. @annavarmstrongg on X (Twitter).