ORANGE PARK – A person can accomplish a lot in 100 years, and that is the case for Clay County’s most recent centenarian, Hazel Cavanaugh, who turned 100 last week.

Cavanaugh, a resident at Oak View Nursing Home and Rehabilitation Center on Kingsley Avenue, celebrated the day with her family, drawing five generations of her lineage, including her three-year-old great-great-grandson, Aiden Bennetheun.

Her son, James Cavanaugh, 77, reminisced with his mother about their time in California when he was a boy. The family had about 20 horses and Hazel was so good with the animals that she spent some time training actor James Arness star of the television show Gunsmoke.

Hazel also served her country during World War II as a ship welder at Panama City Beach, evoking the image of Rosie the Riveter but in a much smaller, more delicate frame. She was tough – so tough that she was once named honorary Sheriff in Lady Lake, Florida after she was approached by the city to fill the position.

“We would go visit her in Monticello where she had a garden,” remembers her granddaughter Diane Bennetheun. “She was a floral designer and was always making these beautiful arrangements out of real and silk flowers.”

Hazel was a woman of many talents, but on her 100th birthday, her main concern was getting a piece of cake and sipping a cup of coffee in her regular seat in the Oak View cafeteria. She is a regular at the facility’s activities, and “Bingo is her thing!,” according to Patty Mangafreda, activities director at Oak View. In addition to bingo, Hazel is known as a prolific counter, spotting every red car that travels in front of the cafeteria’s windows each day, Diane said Hazel has counted as many as 500 cars in a day.

Hazel can’t offer any advice as to how she made it to 100, but it must be, at least partially, due to her family’s history of aging gracefully. Her mother Nadine made it to 99 and her three sisters all lived into their 90s.