Harford council honors 100-year-old Katherine Jennings as Cenutry Club inductee

Mary Katherine Smith Jennings, who turned 100 years old last October and has lived in the same house in Fallston since age 18, was honored by the County Council Tuesday as the latest inductee into the Harford County Century Club.

“I just want to give the Lord the credit,” Jennings said. “I couldn’t live this long without His help.”

Council Vice President Joe Woods read a proclamation that listed some of the details of the honoree’s life.

Jennings was born Oct. 20, 1918 in Fallston. Her mother died two days after Jennings was born, a victim of the global flu pandemic happening that year, and she was raised by her grandparents. Jennings’ grandparents owned a farm that is now the site of Youth’s Benefit Elementary School, which opened in 1953.

Jennings’ family moved to a new house on Carrs Mill Road when she was 18, and she still lives there today. She and her late husband, Gene Jennings, were married in 1940, and they had one child, Karen Lloyd, according to the proclamation.

Jennings worked at Aberdeen Proving Ground as a secretary for 25 years, plus she was a Sunday school teacher at Fallston United Methodist Church. She and her husband were also youth group counselors there.

Jennings and her daughter are currently members of Oak Grove Baptist Church in Bel Air.

Councilman Curtis Beulah, who said he attends Oak Grove with Jennings, said it was “an honor and a blessing” to present her with the proclamation.

Woods, who represents the Fallston area in District B, presented her with a District B pin. He also acknowledged people in the audience from the Fallston area, including a Youth’s Benefit Elementary School family, who later gave public comments about the Harford County Public Schools budget for fiscal 2020.

“That’s where it all started, people,” Woods said of Youth’s Benefit, indicating Jennings’ former family farm.

Jennings’ name and birth date will be added to a plaque with other Century Club inductees who reached age 100, which is in “a place of honor with the Harford County Council,” Woods said. Seventy-five people, not including Jennings, have been inducted into the Century Club since July of 1988, according to the Harford County website.