Ruth Willoughby is a firecracker of a 100-year-old.

She travels the halls of Lake Prince Woods, threatening to run over slower folks with her walker. She’s liable to hit someone — playfully — if they wish her another 100 years. She volunteered to be the “pregnant” woman several years back when Lake Prince Woods held a baby shower to benefit a local children’s hospital. She once impersonated Minnie Pearl at a women’s retreat and danced a jig.

And she doesn’t appear to be slowing down anytime soon.

Willoughby celebrated her birthday on Wednesday with dozens of residents and staff at Lake Prince as her guests. The Thanksgiving baby, whose birthday fell a day short of the holiday this year, wore a shirt of pink — her favorite color — and blew out candles on a pink-iced cake.

“It doesn’t feel any different than any other day the Lord gave me,” she said.

That Minnie Pearl clip was played on the big screen during the party, and musical selections included “Amazing Grace” and a rendition of a favorite children’s song: “Jesus loves me, this I know, though my hair is white as snow.”

Willoughby said the outpouring of love overwhelmed her.

She was born and raised in Wise County. She married Harry Willoughby, and they had two children, Ron and Becky.

Becky had polio as a child, and the family was making long journeys to Richmond for her treatments, Ron Willoughby said. Harry Willoughby was able to take a transfer to Suffolk in 1951 to make the journey shorter.

Ruth Willoughby worked as a school crossing guard in the 1950s and ’60s on Pinner Street and at the intersection of South Main and Cedar streets.

“She really liked that,” Ron Willoughby said.

Ruth Willoughby said she believes the keys to long life are simple.

“I walk a lot,” she said. “I do a lot of puzzles and stuff to keep my mind sharp.”

But what puts life in your years is most important.

“I’ve loved and been loved, and that’s enough,” she said.

Attending from her family were Ron Willoughby, his daughter Kathy Willoughby, and her daughter Wesley Slack, making four generations in attendance.