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Through more than a century of changes, music and family have remained constant in Ina Reynolds' life.

As she celebrated her 100th birthday, Tuesday, June 17, Reynolds reflected on her life that she said had its ups and downs but was always filled with the love of the family around her.

"I always enjoyed life and I think that helped," Reynolds said of living to 100. "I always tried to find the happy part of life."

Reynolds was born on June 17, 1908 just down the hill from where she still lives on 88th Street in Edwardsville. She was the fifth of a family of seven children.

She grew up with a lot of hard work, she said, as she helped on her family's farm in the Kaw Valley Bottoms raising potatoes and sweet corn. She was also took over many household chores and said it was that hard work that has kept her healthy in her later years.

She attended high school in Edwardsville but wasn't able to finish because she said she had no way to get to school from her home. She was needed at home because of her mother's illness, which forced her to leave early. However, she still managed to take a typing and shorthand class in Kansas City that later helped her find employment.

The fondest memories Reynolds recalls from her childhood surround the family's piano.

"Music has always been in my life," she said. "My sister played the piano, dad sang. We had a musical family."

Reynolds taught herself how to play the piano by ear and has since always had a piano in her house, including the small keyboard she currently uses. She said she likes all kinds of music, but especially church and jazz songs.

In her youth, Reynolds and her family frequented the Fellows Lodge in Edwardsville on Saturday nights for socializing and dancing. She said it was a lot of fun, and everyone always managed to get up for church on time the next morning.

Church has always been an important part of Reynolds' life. She said she always encouraged others to love Jesus.

"(Church) made everything clear to me," she said. "I couldn't have gotten along without the Lord."

At age 19, Reynolds was married. During that marriage, she had her daughter, Ina Jewel, who preceded Reynolds in death.

"She was the love of my life," Reynolds said of her daughter, whom she raised alone while caring for her own aging father. "We were so close. She was all I had and I was all she had."

Just like her mother, Jewel taught herself to play the piano by ear and she shared her mother's great love of music. The two remained close even after Jewel married Louis Espy and began having children of her own.

Reynolds said she helped her daughter raise her three grandchildren, one of whom also preceded her in death. Reynolds' sense of family continues today, and she enjoys frequent visits from her two grandchildren, two great-grandchildren and two great great-grandchildren, in her home where she still manages to live independently. She is able to cook and care for herself, which she said is an important feeling.

"I don't feel like I owe anybody anything," she said.

She has moved into an apartment next to her son-in-law, Louis Espy, who checks in on her and keeps her company. Espy said he was thankful for Reynolds' good health and was impressed with her continued sprit and attitude.

She used to make quilts and crochet blankets, and now busies herself reading. Espy said that Reynolds was the type of person who always likes to stay busy and active.

"I think that's one of the reasons she's had such good health," he said.

Reynolds said the hardest part of living to 100 was outliving her loved ones. Despite that, she said she was thankful for every day she had with the ones who've passed, and has many memories of them she said are just for her.

"I've always had great love for my family," she said.

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