Fallon’s Juanita Moffatt turns 100

Juanita Moffatt celebrated her 100th birthday March 30 at Highland Village of Fallon, complete with balloons, cake, family and friends.

Moffat’s children — son Gary, and daughter-in-law Mary — as well as Highland residents, staff and Fallon Chamber of Commerce Director Lucy Carnahan, joined the party in honor of the centenarian.

Moffatt has seven grandchildren, 11 great-grandchildren and one great-great grandchild.

“That’s what you end up with when you live till 100,” Mary said smiling.

A first-grade schoolteacher for 45 years, Moffatt lived in Texas for 11 years (moving there right after World War II was over) before California then Nevada, where her son and daughter-in-law also live. The family moved to Fallon after Henderson kept growing in size.

“She was unique; she treated everybody the same,” Mary said of her mother-in-law as a teacher of young children.

Mary added there would be students who couldn’t grasp reading or phonics, and Moffatt would talk to the parents and stay after school working with students.

“I’m feeling as well as can be expected for 99 years old,” Moffatt said when asked how she was doing.

A staff member corrected her laughing, saying she’s 100 now.

“Oh yeah,” Moffatt said. “I forget.”

Gary, who was a UHIC (Charlie Model Gunship) helicopter pilot during Vietnam, mentioned something his grandfather used to say. His granddad would wake up, have a cup of coffee while reading the newspaper — and if he wasn’t in the obituaries — he would go to work. Gary said his granddad worked until he was 92 at a wrecking yard.

Highland staff member Vicky Johnson, a certified nursing assistant, said there have only been two centenarians at the facility since its opening, and when she came on board, in 2005.