Avid Wolves supporter feels 'like a 50-year-old not 100'
An avid Wolves supporter says she is still young at heart as she marked her 100th birthday with family and friends.
Veronica Knowleson, who is known as Vera, was born in Wolverhampton during the First World War on January 27, 1915.
The retired GP receptionist celebrated her milestone birthday with a party with 36 guests who came as far as Sweden at The Barns Hotel in Huntington, near Cannock.
She said: "In my heart I feel like a 50-year-old not 100."
Vera was the only child for her parents Nellie and Percy Manning, who lived in the Pennfields area. They ran a chip shop business at sites including Bradmore, Penn and Willenhall.
She married husband Walter on September 14, 1939 during the Second World War. He served in the RAF and shortly after they tied the knot at St Chad's Church in Wolverhampton he was posted to Egypt for four years, where he was injured.
Their daughter Diana Jones, 65, says her father suffered from poor health when he returned from the war and died, aged 47 in 1961.
Vera worked for decades as a GP receptionist with at the Warwick, Walker and Forest practise in the Bradmore area.
Diana said: "Mom is a Wolves supporter keep abreast of what they're doing. She loves watching tennis and also loved dancing when she was able to. My dad had been a big Wolves fan and went to the matches. When he was alive they went to the Grand Theatre a lot.
"She is very clever and showed a lot of promise at school, but it was a difficult time and of course girls didn't always get to fulfil their dreams in those days.
"She had it hard during the war years. My granddad struggled a bit during the 1930s and she worked for her uncle to help out.
"And when Dad died she looked after us on her own. In those days mothers didn't get as much help from the state as they do now."
Vera celebrated her big day at a party attended by 36 guests including her grandson Martyn, 37, who travelled from Sweden with his wife Malena and their children Lilia, five, and Emmett, two.
Vera, of Marlyn House, Cannock Road, Blackfords, also has daughter Angela, 69, grandchildren Richard, 43, Robert, 40, and Charlotte, 39.
Her eldest daughter Vanda, passed away aged 65 in 2006.
