Elizabeth Good turns 100 today.

But if she had her way, she'd be like Jack Benny — 39 forever.

Good, of St. John's Herr Estate, 200 Luther Lane, Columbia, doesn't like to talk about her age.

"I'm young at heart," she said.

 Nor does she feel her age.

"If I didn't have arthritis, I'd be OK."

And you would never guess the former Strasburg resident is 100 when you hear her play the piano.

She practices daily and although she claims not to be nostalgic — "It's no use," she said — her favorite piece is "Memories."

She is the pianist for the Saints and Angels Chorus at the retirement community, where she has resided in an apartment since 2003, the same year she gave up her silver "Chevy."

For many years, she was the organist for Zion Lutheran Church in Marietta. Later, she was a substitute organist for English Presbyterian in Marietta and St. Michael's Lutheran in Strasburg.

The Marietta native was born into a musical family. Her father, Jacob Thuma, played the trombone. He was a molder for a pottery shop in the river town.

Her sister, Anna, who was 12 years older, also played the piano. She died in her 40s. Good also had a twin sister, who died when she was 10 months old.

Her mother, Anna Mary Eater Thuma, died when Good was 4, and she was raised by a "strict" grandmother.

When she was 21, she rebelled. She and Martin Good Jr. eloped to Elkton, Md., where they were married.

They had a son, Dr. Raymond E. Good, husband of Rita, of Lancaster, and a daughter, Joanne, wife of Carl Hacker, of State College.

The centenarian has four grandchildren, nine great-grandchildren and five great-great-grandchildren. One grandchild is deceased.

A graduate of the former Maytown High School and former Lancaster Business College, Good was a secretary in the days when secretaries "took shorthand."

"I could still do it, but I wouldn't have the speed," she said.

While most wives and mothers of Good's generation were homemakers, Good said she returned to work after a doctor she consulted for her "nerves" said, "Get a job."

Anyway, she said, she was never one for house cleaning or for cooking, which her husband did.

"But he wouldn't wash the dishes. I had to do that."

Good retired in 1969 after 25 years with the federal government, first at the Marietta Depot and, after that closed, for the Air Force.

Her husband, who also worked for the federal government, retired the same year, when they moved to an apartment in their son's home in Strasburg.

They rarely traveled because Mr. Good didn't enjoy traveling. But after his death, in 1976, Mrs. Good went with friends to Europe seven times.

She misses traveling but has her piano and also enjoys reading and watching early TV games shows.

She won't join fellow residents who do "crafty things" because she doesn't enjoy crafts, but she will join them in a game of canasta or bridge.

"And she likes to win," said her son.

"Well, who doesn't like to win?" she countered.

That's why she doesn't want people to know she is 100. She wants to be just like everyone else. And she is as spunky as a 39-year-old.

Her son and daughter-in-law held a surprise birthday party, with about 60 guests, for Good on Saturday at the retirement home.