BY FAYE M. DASEN

Features Editor

Not many people get to celebrate their 100th birthday, much less their 105th, but Southern Pines resident Wilma Cunningham has done just that.

Cunningham, who turned 105 Wednesday, Jan. 18, was honored Saturday, Jan. 21, with a reception in the fellowship hall of Southern Pines United Methodist Church.

"Well, I can't tell any difference," Cunningham says, when asked how it felt to be 105.

Known for her "snake oil," a liniment that she mixes up on occasion, and as the author of "Fillis: the Black Angel," the story of a slave girl who was stolen and later escaped to return to her own family, Cunningham raised two children, and then took on the responsibility of raising two grandchildren after her son and his wife were killed in a commercial airplane crash.

Over the course of her life, she has been a restaurant owner, done clothing alterations and, of course, continued to make snake oil.

"Her laughter is contagious, her love is unconditional, and her life is an inspiration," her granddaughter-in-law Jill Cunningham told the crowd during the reception.

Contact Faye Dasen at fdasen@thepilot.com.