At 105, Laura Bell Messer Burgess lives deep in the groves of Jonathan Creek on Rabbit Skin Road. She's a local living historian whose high-spirited spunkiness could put a 70-year-old to shame.

“I don’t have any idea why God keeps me here, but I guess He’s got a reason,” she said, smiling her contented smile, as she sat dressed in her best in her living room preparing to reflect on 105 years and counting.

Her roots run deep in the waters of nearby Cove Creek where she was delivered on Oct. 4, 1907, in her two-room home to parents Elijah Compton Messer and Callie Doanie Franklin Messer. Eventually, her mother gave birth to 12 children – Lawson (who died at age 1), Laura Bell, Lona Elizabeth, Jerry Lee, Ina Pearl, Stanford Hughes, Horace Eugene, Mae Curr, Amos (who died at age 2), Annie Lou, ...