AMERICUS — Annie Leverett is living a life at 112 years that many of us may never live to experience. A native of Ellaville, she has been living in Americus for 65 years, and she resides as an independent woman in her Mayo Street apartment home.

“The Lord let me live this long,” Leverett said.

Leverett was born June 30, 1898, in Ellaville. Her family spans five generations, consisting of nieces and nephews, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren. Her husband Jim Leverett is deceased, and two of her four daughters survive: Inez Moses of Columbus and Lila Moses of Americus.

Leverett still maintains her house by herself and, although she receives meals prepared by Meals on Wheels every day, she enjoys cooking whenever she wants. One event that she looks forward to each year is the three-day Union meeting at her church, Zion Hill Primitive Baptist in Schley County. For this event, she usually cooks something to bring to the church, and for the past meeting she prepared collard greens, potato pie and ribs, among other dishes.

Bertha Smith takes Leverett grocery shopping and makes sure she has her prescription pills. Leverett’s favorite activities include going to the grocery store, visiting her family and friends, attending church and watching TV. She finds a lot of information just by watching the news on TV, and she also loves to watch broadcasts of wrestling and baseball. Leverett also goes to Magnolia Manor to visit her friend Savannah Poole.

Leverett recalls when she was a child and saw a plane for the first time. It was May, and her grandmother was busy chopping cotton. “World War I was fixing to start,” Leverett said. A plane appeared above her mother’s house, and when her grandmother saw it, she became so frightened that “she took off running.” The kids weren’t scared at all by the sight. Instead, they were curious and fixed their gazes on the object. Leverett said the plane looked like a balloon with a tail.

Many years after that, Leverett experienced her first plane flight. She has a framed certificate commemorating her first airplane flight on AirTran which began in Atlanta and ended in Rochester, N.Y. on May 26, 2004. The certificate is complete with signatures from the captain, first officer and flight attendants. When she arrived in New York, Leverett visited with her grandchildren. She was 105 years old at that time.

“So many people look to her for the inspiration that she gives,” said Clara Whitten, a family friend.

Laura Fench, another family friend, said, “We need her more than she needs us.”

Fench said that people are amazed when they hear about Leverett and then finally see her. “People start looking around for a decrepit old woman, and then they see Miss Annie.”

Whitten laughed, “Let me tell you! If Miss Annie sees an old person younger than herself, and they have a bad walk, she will say, ‘Oh, they probably need someone to take care of them.’ And these are usually people in their 60s!”

“She’s got a good memory” said Fench. “A very good memory.”

The women recount an incident in which Leverett was living on Davenport Street and a man came up onto her porch late one night. He started fidgeting with the door, and Leverett was watching him all the while through a window. She saw the man approach the back of the house. When he realized that he couldn’t enter through the windows, he returned to the front porch, where he fell. When the man got up, he was disoriented. Leverett said that God knocked him down on the porch.

Inez Moses said her mother always told her, “I’m going to be still and let God fight my battles.”

Leverett said, “I used to plow a mule from sun up to sun down, sometimes barefoot.” She worked at the King’s Motel in Americus for many years while she was living here. She is proud to have her own house. Since she was a child, the conditions of her housing have changed for the better, and she is glad that she doesn’t have to look up at the ceiling and see the sky showing through any cracks.

“She’s glad that she doesn’t have to worry about toting water to wash, or toting water to bathe.” Fench said. “Miss Annie used to say, ‘My moma told me these days would come ... ’ ”

Whitten said, “In all these years she’s seen a lot of things happen. Some of them were things that we thought weren’t supposed to happen. When Obama became president, she thought she would never see a black man become president, and she knew all things were possible then.”

Leverett’s grandmother told her, “All these things will come to pass. Your children are going to see better days.” Indeed, many improvements have been made during the past century.

Leverett is very humble, and calls people younger than herself “ma’am” and “sir.” “You can do anything small and she will appreciate it,” said Whitten. And Leverett really enjoys God, family, friends and neighbors. She has no regrets about her life. The only thing that bothers her is arthritis, and she has had no surgeries. The only hospitalization she experienced was due to arthritis. Other than these, she has not been sick, and she has never complained about work or being tired.

“I’ve got to have my Maccoboy,” Leverett said, referring to the Maccoboy snuff bottle sitting on her dining table.

“And a cup of coffee in the morning.” Fench added, smiling.

Leverett believes in education because she never had a chance to receive her formal education. Raising her children came first, but she made sure that her children would receive their education. Despite having no formal education, she is wise and experienced. The simplest things in life give her the greatest pleasure, and she is glad to see that others have better things than she.

“And she isn’t scared of anything,” added Fench.

“She is a gift to everyone, and everyone wants to be around her,” Fench, Moses and Whitten agreed.

Leverett says for people not to worry, that everything will be handled by God. “If it don’t come out in the wash, it’ll come out in the rinse.”