By GARETT VALCOURT
There were pies to bake and cornbread muffins to make. For Francis Gardner, turning 100 was no reason to let the work pile up.
Gardner celebrated her 100th birthday October 2 much the same way she has spent countless days throughout her life…staying busy.
Friends stopped by to offer birthday wishes and celebrate a milestone few people ever reach, but Gardner’s attention remained on the work still waiting for her in the kitchen. For Gardner, that determination to keep moving is more than habit. It is a way of life she credits with helping carry her through a century.
Born and raised in the Mississippi Delta, Gardner eventually found a home in Bonifay, a community she has grown to appreciate for its small-town character and slower pace of life. Long before she became known for her work at the family restaurant ‘The Holiday’, Gardner devoted much of her life to education. She spent 45 years teaching, a career she remembers fondly and one she believes suited her well.
“Oh, that was fun. That’s what I do best. That’s exactly what I do best,” Gardner said.
Retirement, however, apparently was never going to mean slowing down. After decades in education, Gardner bought the restaurant and went right back to work trading classrooms and students for a kitchen, customers, and the daily demands of running a business.
“I taught school 45 years, and then I came and bought the restaurant and went to work,” she said. “Got right out of the frying pan and into the fire.”
Even at 100, Gardner maintains a schedule that would challenge people decades younger.
“I work all day long,” she said. “I go home at 2 o’clock, 2 or 3 o’clock. And I’m a very independent person too.”
That independence, paired with the good health she considers one of her greatest blessings, has allowed Gardner to continue doing what she enjoys. She doesn’t dwell much on bad days. Instead, she approaches life with a simple sense of gratitude.
Her contributions to the community have not gone unnoticed. On Thursday evening, October 1, Gardner was honored during the Northwest Florida Championship Rodeo in Bonifay in recognition of her remarkable longevity, lifelong work ethic, and dedication to the community. The recognition came on the eve of her 100th birthday, allowing the community she has come to call home to celebrate not only a century of life, but a woman who has spent much of it serving others through education, business and hard work.
“I have a good day every day, just about,” Gardner said. “I don’t know about any bad days. I’m just real blessed to be healthy. See, that’s my good, the blessed thing I have is good health. So, I can do anything I want to do. Yeah. I’m fine.”
A 100th birthday naturally brings questions about longevity what someone ate, how they lived or what secret might explain reaching an age that spans an entire century. Gardner’s answer is much simpler. It goes back to a lesson she learned from her father and carried through 45 years in education, years in the restaurant business and all the ordinary days in between.
“I’m going to give you a little secret,” Gardner said. “Work keeps you alive. My daddy taught me how to work, and I’ve been going after everything.”
And on her 100th birthday, with pies waiting to be finished and cornbread muffins still to be made, Francis Gardner was practicing exactly what she preached.
