AMount Gambier matriarch celebrated a significant milestone at the weekend when she joined the exclusive centenarian club.

Joan Coombe marked her 100th birthday with family and friends at the Mount Gambier and Community RSL on Sunday.

Mrs Coombe was born Joan Isobell Grierson on July 6, 1923 (with Influenza) in Saint Peters Nursing Home in Adelaide.

Mrs Coombe never thought she would become a centenarian.

When asked by The SE Voice if she had any secrets for living so long Mrs Coombe said she “would not have a clue” but maintains keeping active for as long as she could definitely helped.

She first moved to Mount Gambier when she was a year old due to her father James Grierson being transferred through his work as an auctioneer and land salesman with Elders.

Mrs Coombe lived with her family on Chute Street for about a decade and had two brothers and sisters.

She attended Mount Gambier Primary School on Wehl Street until grade six before her family moved back to Adelaide to a house at Henley Beach.

“He (my father) developed asthma and the doctor said to move away, live near the beach, well they had already bought a house in Adelaide at Henley Beach so that’s where we returned,” Mrs Coombe said.

Mrs Coombe attended Henley Primary School for a year before she went to Woodville High School and furthered her education at Peacocks Business College where she graduated as a comptometer.

“I did temporary jobs from the college at this time of the year when everyone is doing all their bookwork to send their things into the taxation department,” she said.

“We were sent from the college with various firms to double check all their bookwork.”

Mrs Coombe worked at the Hendon Munition Works and the Adelaide Steamship Company during World War II.

“I was there after the war and right through the war at the Adelaide Steamship Company,” she said.

“That was very interesting because the ships they owned of course several of them were quite involved with carrying troops.

“At one stage the ships were returning from the Middle East and there was a whole convoy of them coming up the gulf.

“We were in the city of Adelaide and we climbed up this ladder up the wall to the ceiling onto the roof to watch the ships coming up the harbour.

“I will never forget that … it was absolutely marvellous to see the ships coming in.”

Mrs Coombe loved dancing and would attend dances several times a week often with her friend Lois who contracted polio.

Mrs Coombe was visiting Lois when she met her future husband Basil Coombe who also suffered from polio.

“We met there and that was it,” she said.

The pair married in 1948 and lived in Brooklyn Park in Adelaide before relocating their family to Mount Gambier in 1956.

“Bas had a job delivering the Daily News from Adelaide to Mount Gambier,” Mrs Coombe said.

“He used to drive to Keith and we had a chap (Sid) living here down in the Mount and he would drive up to meet him (swap cars) and then take that newspaper back.”

Mrs Coombe said Sid wanted to move to Adelaide, so the two men swapped locations.

“Then he (Basil) had the Sunday Mail run which he used to be up at 4 o’clock on a Sunday morning and drive to Penola to pick up the Sunday Mail,” she said.

Mr Coombe would deliver the newspaper to towns all over the South East and Western Victoria clocking up 450km before lunch on a Sunday.

“The kids all learnt to drive on the paper run because in those days in Victoria a junior could learn beside a qualified driver,” Mrs Coombe said.

While in Mount Gambier the centenarian did a brief stint at SE Timbers as an office clerk before she worked at Laurie Fox Motorcycles for 17 years.

She worked with her husband and two sons at what was formerly Car City Services in 1976 and is now Highway Mechanical and Airconditioning Services.

Unfortunately, she became a widow in 1986 and is now the last remaining member of her immediate family.

The stalwart received Citizen of the Year in 2002 from the City of Mount Gambier in the Australia Day Awards for volunteering in a range of community organisations.

Over the years she was on the committee for Celebrate Seniors, Mount Gambier Girl Guides and Boy Scouts, the Mount Gambier branch of the Australian Retired Persons Association, the Caledonian Society and the Mount Gambier Motorcycle Club where she is a life member.

Mrs Coombe was also a delivery person for Meals on Wheels for 35 years up until she was 94 years old.

Later on in life she joined senior tennis, indoor bowls and the walking group of the Mount Gambier branch of the Australian Retired Persons Association for 30 years.

“We had a lovely friendship group actually at the tennis and then of course with the bowls we started off playing bowls at Senior Citizens (Club) and then we joined the Moorak team and played for Moorak for quite a number of years,” Mrs Coombe said.

“I would have been over 95 when I gave up bowls.”

Mrs Coombe has four children who live close by, 14 grandchildren and 20 great grandchildren.

The centenarian still lives independenly, does her own cooking, owns a car and maintains a driver’s licence.