Dorothy Louise McKeever Yelton celebrated her 100th birthday with a surprise party and entertainment surrounded by friends and family at the Garden Estate senior living community on July 15. (Contributed Photo)

At 100 years old, Dorothy Louise McKeever Yelton has plenty of stories to share. One of her earliest involves herself, a 3-year-old tyke, wandering away — something she did often — from her Aunt Ethel down to a local shop.

“(I) loved to rock in the rocking chair at a store in Webb City, so (I) decided to go rock in it,” Yelton said in a press release from the Garden Estates of Tyler senior living community. “(I remember) having a great time and the nice store owner letting (me) rock away.”

That quickly ended when Aunt Ethel stomped to the store, and Yelton knew she was in trouble.

She celebrated her 100th birthday with a surprise party and entertainment surrounded by friends and family at the Garden Estate senior living community on Monday.

Yelton was born on July 15, 1924, in Virgil, Kansas, to Francis Earl McKeever and Florence Mariah Owen McKeever. She had one brother, Floyd McKeever.

Her parents lived in the oil fields of Osage County, Oklahoma, but her dad was a truck driver at the time of her birth. He was taking a load up to Virgil when her mom decided to ride with him, and Yelton made her debut on the trip, so she was born in Kansas.

Her maternal grandmother and Aunt Ruby lived until they were 98, and four of her aunts and uncles also lived into their 90s.

“The longevity definitely seems to come from them,” the senior living home said.

In high school, she was the newspaper editor, class secretary, homecoming queen, one of the top students, played saxophone in the band and was a chicken judge with Future Farmer of America.

In May 1942, Yelton graduated from Webb City High School and enrolled at Oklahoma A&M University, now Oklahoma State University. She dropped out after one semester due to the war and took a job to help reduce her parents’ expenses.

She was hired at Tinker Air Force Base, where her typing, secretarial skills and intelligence caught the attention of senior officers. Selected as the base commander’s secretary, she managed correspondence and was included in top-secret briefings.

She met Winston “Bud” or “Buddy” Leroy Yelton in third grade after her family moved back to Osage County. He was picking on her little brother, so she put him in his place and sat on him until he promised to stop.

There were many schools in the oilfield that families moved around to depending on their assignments, so she and Buddy ended up at the same school again when they were closer to high school.

They started dating in high school. As Yelton tells it, her dad did his best to keep boys away from her, but Buddy was the son of his boss and the only one he couldn’t threaten.

They were married on Sept. 25, 1943, in Oklahoma City while Buddy was on leave following boot camp just before he shipped out to England for World War II.

They had three daughters, Nancy, Jeanne and Susan and five grandchildren, Kim, Bill, Krista, Bob and Michelle. They adopted and raised Kim and Michelle. Yelton also has seven great-grandchildren and six great-great-grandchildren.

She held various jobs throughout her life, but she is proudest of being a wife and mother to her family.

In addition to working at the air force base, she worked for over 10 years at the Social Security Office in Pampa. She left that job when Buddy was transferred to Norway to supervise one of the new drilling rigs off the coast.

Yelton worked various jobs in the 1980s at Hallsville ISD while Kim and Michelle were students. In addition, she volunteered weekly for over 15 years at Good Shepherd Hospital in Longview in the surgery waiting room.

Now, she can be found riding around on her scooter at the senior living home, zipping off to play Bingo or Blackjack or having a root beer at Happy Hour.

Yelton advises people, “Learn something new every day. One lie leads to two lies and then four, so always be honest,” and “Can’t never tried!”