1911: It was the year of the first successful expedition to the South Pole, the first International Women's Day celebration and the first (and only) theft of the Mona Lisa.

It also was the year Moravian Manor resident Romaine Davidson was born.

Davidson, who turned 100 on Sunday, planned to celebrate at The General Sutter Inn surrounded by 70 family members.

While her eyesight is deteriorating and both hips have been replaced, she otherwise is still going strong.

Davidson credits a lot of oxygen for getting her this far.

"Just keep on breathing," she said. "That's all I can say."

She also eats a banana daily and keeps her mind sharp by working on crossword puzzles.

Great-nephew Gregory Maddox said in a phone interview that Davidson is "sharp as a whip, and not afraid to show it."

Born Romaine Stively, she recalled her days growing up in Silver Spring, when party lines were all the rage and kerosene lamps were replaced by electricity that energized the town in 1927, the year before she graduated from Columbia High School.

To get to school, Davidson walked two miles to Mountville and took the trolley to Columbia, she said.

When her next-door neighbor bought a small roadster, Davidson said, she felt too intimidated to ride in it because she was just age 7. But, with the urging of her brother, the late Nelson Stively, she realized, "There's nothing to be afraid of.

"When I finally got in and had a ride, I wanted to go again."

Davidson purchased one of her first cars, a 1933 Dodge coupe with a rumble seat, for just $783, she said. Her time behind the wheel ended in January,  when she traded in her last car.

Born in an era when a loaf of bread cost 5 cents and taking a trip to a farm to see milk come straight from the source was a usual occurrence, Davidson marvels at how daily life has advanced technologically.

"It all seems so primitive, doesn't it?" she said of her early years.

While the Internet "fascinates" her,  she said she "steers clear" of it because Internet users "can do so much and tell so much and expose so much.

"They can do so much good and so much bad," she said.

The Internet has been used in her favor, though —  Maddox visited Ancestry.com and discovered that Davidson's grandfather, Washington Stively, fought July 2 and 3, 1863, in the Battle of Gettysburg.

Davidson worked with the Visiting Nurse Association and Lancaster County Society for Crippled Children and Adults, which later was renamed Schreiber Pediatric, and she retired in 1972 from RCA after 29 years of employment.

She enjoyed seeing the world with her husband, Paul, who passed away in 1993.

The oldest member of Hempfield United Methodist Church, Davidson said she served as pianist there for 50 years and also made its altar covers.

Her niece, Thelma Hess, listed Davidson's other talents: crocheting, knitting, wedding dress-making for Hess's sister, to name a few.

Said Davidson, "It's all a matter of work and persistence."

akennedy@lnpnews.com