Dorothy Winfield Howell Hines, 100, died Sunday and was buried Friday at Cedar Hill Cemetery.

At her death, she was believed to be the oldest living graduate of Suffolk High School, said her niece, Deborah Howell Johnson.

Family members held a big birthday party when Hines turned 100 back in April, Johnson said. Becoming a centenarian fulfilled a lifelong goal, Johnson said.

“She was quite a character,” Johnson said.

Hines graduated in 1934 after being born and raised in Suffolk, Johnson said. She attended business school and then was the office manager at the Rose’s on West Washington Street for many years.

“She pretty much ran that place,” Johnson said. “She was always really good with accounting and numbers.”

Hines and her husband, Henderson S. Hines, never had any children. He preceded her in death in 1975.

Hines retired in her 60s, her niece said, and did some traveling.

“She went to Europe a couple of times and went quite a few places in the United States,” Johnson said.

Hines lived on Route 460 until about 11 years ago, when she moved in with her aunt in Virginia Beach. When her aunt passed away, she moved into a Chesapeake residential care facility.

Despite living a comfortable life in her later years, Hines had lived through the Great Depression, and it affected her all of her life, Johnson said.

“She was a teenager when the Depression hit, and her family pretty much lost everything,” Johnson said. “That left a definite impact. She was a packrat and had a hard time throwing anything away.”

Along with Hines, her brother, Carl Howell Jr., as well as her nieces, Johnson and her sister Dottie Scott, all graduated from Suffolk High School.

The family requested memorial contributions to any charity. R.W. Baker & Co. Funeral Home served the family.