Ellen Virginia Sorrels Seawright, an eight-year resident of Heritage House Retirement Center, will celebrate her 100th birthday Monday. She was born April 16, 1912, in the Carlisle community in Claiborne County, where she graduated as valedictorian in 1930.

She took courses at Mississippi State College for Women, Mississippi College, the University of Mississippi and Louisiana State University, receiving her Bachelor of Arts degree from LSU in 1933. She taught math and history and coached basketball at a country school before marrying Lou Hoy Seawright four years later and accepting a position in Hermanville. She spent summers with her husband in various places throughout the United States, working for the Navy and the Army and at a coffee shop he owned in Port Gibson.

She taught for a number of years in LaMarque, Texas, and returned to Mississippi with her husband after retirement. Because her mother was living here at the time, the Seawrights settled in Vicksburg. After her husband’s death in 1983, Mrs. Seawright began traveling with groups throughout the world. Her favorite visit was to the Holy Land, where she took a boat ride on the Sea of Galilee.