Kids & Family
Happy 100th Birthday, Dorothy Winkles!
The Smyrna resident was born when a Czar ruled Russia and was only two years old when the United States entered the First World War.
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A Smyrna resident had to buy an extra number to stick in her birthday cake this year.
Dorothy Winkles was born in Decatur in January of 1915, the Marietta Daily Journal reports. Winkles spent over 30 years married to her high school sweetheart, George. Winkles spent her last working years at the Georgia state capitol and at Emory University in Atlanta.
Friends, family, and staff at Delmar Gardens of Smyrna held a party for Winkles this month, where the birthday girl feasted on cake and enjoyed some of her favorite beverages, the MDJ says.
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A bit of perspective on just how much Dorothy has witnessed in her long life:
- When Dororthy was born, Russia was still ruled by a Czar (Nicholas II), Germany was still ruled by a Kaiser (Wilhelm II), and the Ottoman Empire still existed. Woodrow Wilson was the President of the United States.
- She was only a few weeks old when D.W. Griffith’s The Birth of A Nation was released in movie theaters.
- She was three months old when the nation recognized the 50th anniversary of the end of the Civil War.
- She was seven months old when an angry mob lynched Jewish businessman Leo Frank in Marietta.
- She was two years old when the U.S. declared war on Germany and entered World War One.
- She was five years old when Prohibition went into effect, when women earned the right to vote, and when the first radio broadcasts were heard.
- She was 12 years old when Charles Lindbergh completed his solo transatlantic flight.
- She was 14 years old when the stock market crashed and the Great Depression began.
- She was 26 years old when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, forcing the United States into World War II.
- There have been 16 different presidents, four kings and queens of England, and eight Popes in Dorothy’s lifetime.
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