Wednesday, May 2, 2001

Knight Celebrates 104

By JANET McGREGOR
jmac_snippets@hotmail.com

Nettie Knight recently celebrated her 104th birthday with family and her many friends at Southland Nursing Home.

Once again Moby, from Kicks Country Radio, shared a few fun moments with Nettie on his morning radio program. She even sang a few stanza of "Amazing Grace" with the nationally known radio personality.

Knight is well liked and loved by many throughout the community. Her shy smile and often quick wit and sparky sense of humor quickly endears her to those she meets. She loves to see her picture in the newspaper, enjoys time with her large family and is still keeping an ongoing list of firsts she intends to do.

Last year, being with Moby on the radio added a tic mark on her mental sheet of firsts. This year Southland hoped to help her accomplish another "first" - channel 11 was contacted and agreed to try to show some of Knight's birthday on television. Unfortunately, this didn't work out.

With a packed cafeteria of friends and family joining in the birthday celebration, Knight did not seem to mind at all that the TV cameras never arrived. She entered the room surrounded by a bouquet of 104 balloons - some escaped during her grand entrance, adding a touch of humor as they caught on ceiling fans and eventually popped.

A bouquet of 104 roses courtesy of Peachtree Florist in Aberdeen Village, Crescent Mortgage Atlanta, Electronic Systems Products, Debbie Fowler, Angie Brown and Debbie Azzarelli of Southland Nursing Home graced the center table.

Peachtree Florist has been a volunteer partner with Southland through the years, donating corsages and flowers for events like Knight's birthday and the annual Ms. Southland Beauty contest.

Knight opened a table full of gifts and enjoyed at least five rounds of "Happy Birthday" started spontaneously by those coming up to congratulate her. Most stopped and admired the large bouquet of flowers, staring in awe at such a large number of roses.

County Commission Chairman Greg Dunn and Superior Court Judge Chris Edwards joined in the celebration. Dunn has known Knight for approximately four years and Edwards two. Both volunteer to assist each year at the annual Southland Beauty Pageant.

Knight is the mother of four children, 30 grandchildren, 60 great-grandchildren, five great-great-grandchildren and three great-great-great grandchildren. She is active in the many special events coordinated by Southland, and is an honorary member of the Southland Dixie Belles women's group. She likes going to the mall, playing basketball and being in Southland's annual Mardi Gras and July 4 parades.

This year, Knight once again entered the Ms. Southland Beauty Pageant and was honored to be selected as the first runner-up. She sang "Amazing Grace" to the judges and audience.

Asked at the event if she would like to add sky diving to her list of firsts to accomplish, she laughed and said, "Oh no. Oooohhhh NO!"

Knight was born in 1897 and has seen the calendar read "00" twice in her lifetime. She lived in Whitesville, Ga. until 1995.