EASTMAN, Ga. — A Georgia woman celebrated quite the milestone this week. She turned 108 years old!

Flora White’s family and friends gathered on Tuesday to celebrate their matriarch.

“Flora has overcome so many obstacles. She has outlived all her siblings and both of her children, aunts, uncles,” her granddaughter Cheri Lavender said.

White grew up in Eastman, Georgia where she was raised along with her five younger siblings by their aunt. Lavender said her grandmother only received a sixth-grade education, but she was the hardest worker growing up on the family’s farm.

“They owned 100 acres of land in Eastman, farmed and raised and sold up to 36 cows. According to my granny, back in those times, they were considered upper-class Black folks because not many had what they had,” Lavender said.

Over the years, White worked several jobs from picking peaches in the Florida Everglades to working as a cook in a candy factory, according to her family.

After the birth of her two children, White moved to Macon, Georgia, where she raised her family and has now lived for 80 years. What is the key to longevity?

“If you treat people right, good things will follow. I believe in treating people right,” White tells people.

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