HURON — Huron resident Virginia Erickson marked a special day this past weekend, when she celebrated her 100th birthday at a party for her, with family and friends.

“I believe that they are planning a party on Saturday (March 2)” she said. “Although my birthday is actually on the fourth.”

Erickson actually had two parties, the one with family and well wishers on Saturday, then a second one, a surprise party, on Monday.

“I was born March 4, 1924, in De Smet,” said Erickson from her comfortable apartment in Huron. “My parents farmed - Dad was a farmer and then Mom taught school. I remember I had her for a teacher.”

Growing up in the De Smet area set her on a course for her lifetime. “I had great parents and a wonderful childhood,” she recalls. “I have to tell you,” she added, “I really feel pretty good. I have some aches and pains. It comes with age, I guess.”

She had one brother, and graduated from De Smet High School in 1942. A short time later she began working at K&K, a department and grocery store in De Smet, where she worked for four years before she was injured in an auto accident.

“I have been in two pretty serious car accidents - neither one was my fault,” she points out. “After the first accideent I was not able to work for several years.” When she returned to the workforce it was for a company in Huron for a short time, before beginning work in a government office in De Smet and some other part time jobs as well. “I stayed there until I retired in 1980.”

“And then, at the suggestion of a boyfriend at the time,” she said, “I moved to Florida. I really loved Florida and I stayed for 34 years!”

As a Florida retiree, Erickson said she enjoyed going dancing many evenings, shopping trips with friends and getting together to play cards or to go to the beach. “Although I often thought it was too hot to go to the beach,” she said.

It was in Florida where she and a carload of friends were involved in her second accident, when another driver ran a stop sign and collided with their vehicle. “My first accident caused a problem with my neck and the second one hurt it as well,” she said.

Erickson returned to South Dakota in 2014, at the request of a cousin who lived near Aberdeen. By that time, her brother and both parents had passed away, as had many of the friends and family from her generation.

“I have outlived all my friends and boyfriends,” she says, while thumbing through a shoebox of photos. “I believe that all my classmates have passed on as well.”

She said that her brother died when he was 57 and both her parents had passed away in their 70s.

“I don’t know what has led to my living this long,” she said. “Maybe I got all the good genes! Some friends jokingly said it must be because I never married or had children.”

She stays in touch with her cousins in the area, who she says are very good to her.

She added that there has been some discussion about moving to a retirement home or nursing home, but she is not convinced to make the move yet.

“I guess I just prefer living on my own,” she said. “At least until I get older!”