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We can forgive Inez Butler for relying on others to tell us her story.

With her 109th birthday coming on Tuesday, she is not as mentally sharp as she used to be, though physically she is remarkable.

In this age of medication, she uses drops for her dry eyes and has only two prescriptions -- one for her blood pressure and one for her dementia.

She is supposed to use a walker, but abandons it frequently to walk on her own.

She lives at Eastwood Assisted Living in Northeast Roanoke and has so many descendants that her family calls them "a host."

Butler grew up in oil-rich east Texas on the cotton plantation her grandfather, a former slave, inherited.

She was one of 18 children. She earned her bachelor's and master's degrees in education from Bishop College in Marshall, Texas, and took advanced courses at Hampton University in Virginia. She taught elementary school for 39 years.

She is the mother of Wendell Butler, a retired dentist and former vice mayor of Roanoke, who looks nowhere near his age of 82.

Milestone

Today, perhaps two dozen of Inez Butler's descendants will celebrate her birthday at the Roanoke County home of her granddaughter, Susan Waldron.

Inez Butler will probably stay for an hour.

She and her late husband, Thomas Butler, were educators who emphasized achievement.

"We didn't have any democracy at our house," Wendell Butler said. His father was a dictator, his mother a strict disciplinarian.

All three of their sons are college graduates.

As a school principal, Thomas Butler earned $75 per month and worked on six-month contracts. He operated a restaurant between school terms.

Segregation was firmly entrenched.

Wendell Butler said he was not allowed to enroll in a Texas dental school. Instead, the state paid his tuition at Howard University's dental school in Washington, and provided his train fare back and forth.

Inez Butler was born in 1898, the same year as George Jessel, Golda Meir, Norman Vincent Peale and George Gershwin. She has outlived them all.

Photos by Tim Gruber | The Roanoke Times

Inez Butler (right) makes her son Wendell Butler and granddaughter Susan Waldron laugh Thursday as she discusses her upcoming 109th birthday.

People 105 or older

105-109

• Four women and two men in the Roanoke and New River valleys
• Fifty-one women and 13 men in Virginia
• Nationwide, 2,836 women and 685 men

110 or older

• One Montgomery County man
• Twenty-one women and 15 men in Virginia
• Nationwide, 844 women and 544 men

Obvious affection

Thursday afternoon, Butler sat in a chair in Eastwood's lobby and tried to make sense of the commotion. A reporter, a photographer, relatives and numerous staffers surrounded her, excited by her moment in the sun.

She wore brown slip-on shoes, white support hose, brown slacks and a white blouse. She said, in response to questions, that she always tried to do what was right.

Butler drove until she was 96, when her doctor in Texas called Wendell Butler and said she showed signs of dementia and should no longer live by herself.

He moved her to Roanoke.

It is not every day that you encounter someone who has lived in three centuries.

Nor is it possible to say whether she is the oldest person in the state. The Virginia Office of Vital Records doesn't keep its records that way.

The 2000 U.S. Census for the Roanoke and New River valleys, which is pretty dated by now but which has the most recent numbers available, showed only four women and two men between ages 105 and 109.

Statewide in 2000, the census showed 51 women and 13 men between 105 and 109.

On Thursday, Inez Butler eventually relaxed and showed a smile that shone like a beacon.

She imparted a bit of wisdom unsurprising in a schoolteacher.

"If you make a mistake and admit you didn't mean to do it, I won't hold you for it," she said.

"If I made a mistake, I'd tell you I'd made a mistake."

When thanked for her time, she responded with grace.

"Thank you, sir," she said. "I'm glad you came."

Staff writer Ray Reed contributed to this report.