This Sacramento woman performed at her 100th birthday party. Here’s her advice for longevity

Sacramento resident Rhoda Wilson-Jackson surpassed a milestone less than 1% of California’s population sees.

She’s 100 years old “and counting.”

She was born in Camden, New Jersey, June 22, 1923, back when gas was 14 cents a gallon and postal stamps cost 2 cents. She was raised in Chicago, Illinois and became a hair stylist after graduating. Wilson-Jackson moved to Alaska in 1969, where she became an entrepreneur launching Cosmetics by Rhoda, a hair and nail growth product company. She moved to Sacramento nearly four years ago because she had family that lived here and wanted to be closer to them.

Today, she spends her time pursuing hobbies of singing and exercise. Wilson-Jackson is also a classically trained opera singer.

She began singing in a church choir that allowed her to travel around the world raising funds for the Church of God and Saints of Christ, the oldest African American Jewish congregation, which had tabernacles internationally. However, the choir -- named Belleville A capella Choir Ensemble -- is based in Virginia, where she would fly from Chicago to perform with choirmates.

She can sing classical pieces, a capella numbers, as well as some good, old fashion, foot-stomping and hand-clapping, down-home Black gospel music.

For her 100th birthday celebration, she held a small, intimate concert performing seven songs at Journey Ministries, a non-denominational church in NorthSacramento..

During her celebration, the city of Sacramento presented her with a key to the city in honor of her life accomplishment.

“I got the key, but it don’t fit a bank,” Wilson-Jackson joked. “I figured there must not be a lot of 100 year old people around if they give me a key.”

She may be 100 years old, but in heart she’s as young as 18-years-old, she said.

Wilson-Jackson has tips for others on how she got to live to be 100 years old.

“Always keep your body moving, eat right and most of all keep God first,” she said.

Staying healthy

Wilson-Jackson gets around well on her own.

When she wakes up in the morning, the first thing she does is move her legs in a bicycle motion to warm them up and get them active for the day.

She walks a mile almost every day and tries not to sit still to prevent her joints from stiffening up.

In addition to exercise, she ensures she eats right.

When eating, she aims to eat dinner, lunch then breakfast and not the other way around.

“The world tells you to eat breakfast, lunch and dinner, but you should eat dinner, lunch and breakfast,” said Wilson-Jackson. “Why would you go to bed on a full stomach? When it’s time to go to work, you eat a little teeny bit of food and go to work. When you come home to go to bed and rest, you get a whole lot of food that don’t make sense and it’s not healthy, you need to work (the food) off.”

She said it’s small adjustments that really help you to have a long, healthy life.

Despite some of her favorite food being corn bread, molasses, and sweet potato pie, she typically looks to include raw vegetables and fresh fruits in her diet.

She doesn’t recommend meat. Her protein of choice is fish, occasionally chicken.

She drinks lots of water. She’ll drink tea, but prefers hot water, honey and lemon.

She stays away from coffee, soda, and alcohol.

“Don’t bother drinking all that other stuff, drink lots of water. Keep your system cleaned out,” she said.

It’s some of the same advice her father would tell her when she was growing up.

Family values

Wilson-Jackson was one of 14 siblings, seven boys and seven girls. She grew up as the middle child.

She recalled having both parents in her household and how it contributed to her upbringing.

“We had a good father and mother. We had something that a lot children don’t have nowadays, two people in the house,” Wilson-Jackson said.

Wilson-Jackson is the mother of two daughters. She has seven grandchildren from them. She has 12 great-grandchildren and many more great-great-grandchildren along with a host of nieces, nephews, cousins and loved ones who refer to her as “Nana”.

This story was originally published July 12, 2023 at 5:00 AM.