Nora Murphy-Johnson celebrates a century of living

The year was 1924. The first Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade was held, J. Edgar Hoover was appointed head of the FBI, the city of Paris hosted the Summer Olympics, and President Jimmy Carter was born.

It’s also the birth year of Nora Murphy-Johnson, a Winter Garden resident who is celebrating her 100th birthday this week.

When asked how she plans to mark her centennial birthday, she laughed and said, “I don’t know; I’ve never done it before.”

Family members are traveling to Florida this week for a celebration.

“It will be like a mini family reunion,” Murphy-Johnson said, excitedly.

Living a long life typically doesn’t run in the family, she said, but she’s working on that. She did, however, have a sister who died at the age of 92.

Murphy-Johnson was born Nov. 6, 1924, in Toronto, and was fortunate to be raised there, she said. She lived an idyllic childhood as the youngest of three girls.

She moved from Denver to Winter Garden 11 years ago to live with her daughter and son-in-law. She has stayed busy and kept her mind sharp with jigsaw puzzles and crossword puzzles, collecting postage stamps — she has a huge collection with multiple full books — and playing Words with Friends and a few other games on her iPhone and iPad.

“I loved doing crossword puzzles, until I kind of got burned out on those,” Murphy-Johnson said. “I like doing jigsaw puzzles, but I did a couple that were 1,000 pieces and I got burned out on that.”

She was an avid Bunco player until age made it difficult for her to quickly move from table to table as called for in the dice game.

“It’s a fun game,” she said. “There’s a little money involved in it. Not much, but a little.”

WORKING 9 TO 5

Murphy-Johnson had top-notch schooling and excelled at spelling and grammar, said her daughter, Paula Woodman, skills that would serve her well for her entire life and in many careers.

“I could type very fast, unusually fast,” Murphy-Johnson said.

“A lot of who she is came from her being a working gal her whole life, quite a variety, from her first job at a bank in Canada to the carnation flower growers to typing jobs throughout — truly typing on all the changing forms of word-processing machines over the years,” Woodman said.

Her first job at the Canadian bank lasted six months.

“In those days, we didn’t have calculators and computers,” Murphy-Johnson said. “We did everything manually. We couldn’t leave until (our registers) balanced. I remember one night my father came down at 11 (p.m.) and said, ‘I’m taking Nora home,’ and we walked out. Shortly after that, I resigned. I was about 19.”

She enjoyed her part-time position at Colorado Carnations, she said. Each morning when she arrived at the former-apartment-turned-shop, she was greeted with a bathtub full of carnations that she was tasked with arranging for customers.

Aside from her earliest jobs at the bank and florist shop, all her positions entailed typesetting and proofreading.

She got one of her positions because her sister got married. The sister was working for two specialists in a dental office, and she got married while her bosses were on vacation. Her sister asked Murphy-Johnson to step in for her while she was on her honeymoon, and when the specialists returned, they had a new secretary.

“I was making appointments, and it was a good-paying job,” Murphy-Johnson said.

She remained there for seven years.

Murphy-Johnson came to the United States in her late 20s when she got married and moved to Washington, D.C., with her husband. She lived in Columbus, Ohio, for a time, too.

After moving to Colorado, she worked for the Society for Range Management, assisting farmers and other people who work with rangelands. Again, she put her typing and proofreading skills to good use.

She also proofread thesis papers for university students and performed typesetting duties at The Bureau of Land Management in Colorado. Her last job, which she held for almost 14 years, was in the development offices at St. Thomas Catholic Seminary in Denver.

A HAPPY LIFE

Music is at the core of Murphy-Johnson’s happiness. 

“I think it’s just the nature of the game; I don’t have anything that makes me unhappy,” she said. “I watch very little TV actually. I don’t watch it during the day at all. In the evening, (I listen to) music on TV; right now, they do a lot of hymns. … If I listen to music on TV in the evening, it puts me to sleep, especially the hymns.”

I stream ‘Lawrence Welk’; I used to watch that regularly.”

As a child, she sang in the church choir; as a young adult, she performed in a choir that regularly was invited to sing at Convocation Hall in Toronto.

“I think everybody should have choir experience,” Murphy-Johnson said.

A FULL LIFE

Murphy-Johnson today enjoys a large family that includes two daughters, four grandchildren and eight-great-grandchildren. The youngest, Nora, who is 11, is her namesake.

As Murphy-Johnson heads into her 101st year of life, she will continue keeping her mind sharp and enjoying spending time with her friend, Elsa Dueno.

“She is delightful,” Dueno said of her friend. “She deserves to feel special. She cannot believe it herself that she will be turning 100. … She is an amazing lady.”

Murphy-Johnson has lived a full and enriching life, she said, but there’s one thing she still would like to do. At 100 years old, she has hopes of fulfilling a bucket list item.

“I always thought I would go to the Kentucky Derby and drink a mint julep and wear a big hat,” she said. “I never did that.”