William Cooke, a 100-year-old honoree recognized during the Thomas Hunter Middle School Founders Day program on Friday, was unable to attend the ceremonies, but spoke with the Gazette-Journal before the event.

Cooke was born in Mathews in 1924 to parents William Eddie Cooke, a Mathews native, and Lossie Bannie Cooke, a North Carolina girl. His father was a waterman who caught oysters, fish and crabs for Arthur Gay, a Gwynn’s Island resident. Cooke had his own boat and worked for himself, as well.

The family lived at Blakes, where they raised a garden and had two hogs, a cow and a horse. They were self-sustaining, just as “most everybody was then,” said Cooke.

One of four siblings, Cooke had an older brother, James Edward, and two younger sisters, Ruth Cooke Jarvis and Addie Cooke Cook.

“It was good growing up then,” said Cooke. “You could go most anywhere you wanted, and nobody said anything to you …We could get anything we wanted to eat—just go and pick up oysters in the ...