Hutson celebrates 100th birthday and shares his secret to a long life

Roscoe Hutson, of White Oak, celebrates his 100th birthday with Wilma, his wife of 68 years.

So what is the secret to living to be 100 years old?

“One of them is be in a place like this or going to a place like this,” Roscoe Hutson said about his church, Clearfork Missionary Baptist Church on Dec. 10, which was five days before his 100th birthday. “I have been going to church all my life. So that is my secret. My mother started me.”
Hutson, who turned 100 Friday, was born in the Whitley County community now known as Black Oak.

Then it was a coal-mining camp named after the East Tennessee Coal Company.

Clearfork Missionary Baptist Church members helped Hutson celebrate his upcoming birthday after the Dec. 10 morning worship service.
At the close of the service, Clearfork Pastor Tyler Jones presented Hutson with a new bible.

Then the church held a fellowship dinner featuring a birthday cake commemorating Hutson’s centennial accomplishment and presented him with a certificate of appreciation for his service to his country during WWII.

The United States Army Air Force certificate reads, “To recognize World War II Veteran Roscoe Hutson in appreciation of your tireless efforts in support of our United States Armed Forces. Your dedication to our country and its military is commendable and a honorable addition to the fight for freedom  throughout the world. We pay special tribute to you for your military service to America. God bless America. God bless you.”

Hutson enlisted after Pearl Harbor and served four years in the military.

Roscoe energetically blows out the candles of his 100th birthday cake.

“I was one of the lucky ones. I was always training. From the time I got in, I got through with mine and then they put me to training. I must have had a good voice to holler at them or something another,” Hutson said laughing. “I stayed all over the United States from California to New York.”
Hutson remains in good health. He still drives, cuts his own grass and doesn’t walk with a cane.

Hutson said some key factors to staying in good health include following your doctor’s orders, get enough sleep and to be in a good family.
Hutson and his wife Wilma, who is 90, have been married for 68 years.

They met in January 1949 in church and started dating. They were married on Aug. 11, 1949.

“I knew all his brothers and sisters, his mom and all of them before I ever knew him,” Wilma recalled. “I knew he would make me a good husband.”

Their secret to happiness is living good clean lives and trying not to get mad at one another, Wilma said.

“We don’t get into anything we shouldn’t get into,” she added.

Tyler Jones presents Roscoe Hutson with a new bible for his birthday.