Today’s rare total solar eclipse may have been a first for you, but it wasn’t for 101-year-old Dorothy Johnson.
- Johnson born in 1916
- Previous U.S. spanning total eclipse was 1918
"I was born in Webster Springs, West Virginia in 1916,” Johnson said.
The last time a total solar eclipse spanned the entire US was on June 8, 1918. Johnson was two years old. She said she doesn’t remember seeing it herself, but remembers all the buzz surrounding it.
"They were just excited and didn’t know what was going to happen,” Johnson said. “Of course, we didn’t have this news then. But they were very happy about it."
Johnson said she is just as excited to have the unique opportunity to be alive for a second eclipse, 99 years later. She watched it on the television at Atria Windsor Woods with her 71-year-old son.
The experience was a little different than when her family saw the eclipse all those years ago.
"When they had the first one, people would put a pin hole in a box and look at it through that so they wouldn’t see too much of the sun,” Johnson said.
While Johnson said she doesn’t remember every detail of her long life, when it comes to watching today’s eclipse, she said, “Oh yes,” she said. “I will remember this one.”