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(Clark Curtis/For WDN)

(Clark Curtis/For WDN)

(Clark Curtis/For WDN)

(Clark Curtis/For WDN)

“He loved everyone and as you can see today he is loved by a lot of people,” said Cathy Carter, daughter of Jesse Powers Jr. 

On Sunday, July 28, family and friends of Powers gathered at the  Somerset Community Center on Washington’s north side to wish him well and share their memories of the man who has touched their lives over his first 100 years.  “This one is a very special one for me,” said Powers. “I knew I had a lot of friends, but I sure didn’t know that I had this many. I have to thank the good Lord for blessing all of my family and friends with the opportunity to gather together today, tell jokes, laugh, and have a lot of fun. It just makes me feel good to see all of these folks together. I’m having a good day, just a really good day.”

Powers was born in Washington, on July 31, 1924. At the age of 10 he and his mother, Mamie Jane Taylor Powers, moved to Chocowinity, where they lived in the oldest home in town, a two-story 1872 home. He attended Washington High School. Following his graduation in 1943, he immediately went to work at Belk Tyler, which would later become Belk. In 1944 he was drafted and in March of 1945 was deployed to France, where he served as a lineman for the 24th Field Artillery Division until the end of the war. Upon his return, he came back home to Chocowinity where he wed Mildred Weatherly. He went back to Belk where he worked for over 47 years. “My knees started telling me that I couldn’t go another 47 years, so I decided it was time to retire,” Powers said with a big grin.

Powers attributes his longevity to his mother’s side of the family. “The one thing the Taylors were blessed with was good genes,” said Powers. “We live a long time.”

Following a recent eye exam the doctor told Powers that he was going to have to give him a 100-plus score because he didn’t have anything wrong with his eyes. When the nurse asked him to read the eye chart, he responded, “Do you want me to start from the bottom and go up?” “She told me to get out of there,” he said with a sheepish grin.

Speaking fondly of her father, Carter found herself trying to hold back the tears at times. She shared with the gathering that her dad was the first love of her life and set the bar for anyone who came a calling thereafter. “It means so much that I have lived long enough to see my dad turn 100 years old,” said Carter. “We have so many happy memories that we have shared over the years that we can now treasure and keep in our hearts forever. I appreciate him more than anybody.”

Added his son Jesse Powers, III, “I have lived long enough to truly appreciate having a dad this old, ” said Powers, III. “We went Flounder gigging when I was just five years old. We flew model airplanes together and used to run through the junk yards restoring old cars. When I was 13 he took me to the back roads and let me drive the car while we were looking for glass bottles that we could turn in for a deposit. All the while he was watching for the cops. He always seemed in a good mood and told us to not let things upset us because it was all small stuff. That’s just who he was and I feel very fortunate to now be old enough to appreciate all of that and still have him around.”

So after the first 100 years, the question remains, would Powers have done anything differently? “That’s a tough one to answer as I think we all can think of several things,” said Powers. “But in the end, I have had a really good life and I’m shooting for 101.”

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