How to Live to 100

Centenarian Nina Hewett Herring Browder lives the good life in Supply, right next to the house where she was born in 1923.

Have you ever heard of a Blue Zone? It is an area known for its rare population of centenarians — people who live past 100 years of age. There are only five such locations across the globe, including Icaria, Greece; Okinawa, Japan; Ogliastra Region; Sardinia; Loma Linda, California; and the Nicoya Peninsula in Costa Rica. But Brunswick County might just have its own Blue Zone in Supply.

One-hundred-year-old Nina Browder celebrated her milestone birthday on September 13, 2023. Helping her commemorate the milestone were 80 guests including her baby brother, James, 94, whom she nicknamed Sonny Boy when he was just a baby.

“We had to find a big space to fit everyone,” says Rebecca Justice, Browder’s niece. “We rented the Lockwood Folly Clubhouse that overlooks the water. It was a very nice party, and Nina got everything she asked for, which was chocolate.”

Browder says, “My whole table was covered in chocolate candy. I still have some.”

Browder grew up on a farm and still lives next door to the house where she was born and raised by her parents, Ben and Ada Hewett, on Mount Pisgah Road in Supply. Browder is the oldest of the family’s three children. James, the youngest, lives across the street from her. They also had a middle sister, Margaret, who passed away at the age of 96 in 2022. Longevity obviously runs in the family. Ada passed away when she was just two days shy of her 100th birthday.

At age five Browder enjoyed helping her parents work on their farm, though she says with a chuckle that her “daddy wouldn’t call it working.”

Her chore was feeding the animals, which included chickens, pigs and mules. “We had two mules,” she says. “Back then, one mule cost a little more than a car.” She also helped her family make lye soap.

Browder attended what was then Hog Bay School. After graduating, she married her first husband, James Herring, in 1940, when she was 19 and he was 21. Herring was in the army during World War II, so Browder moved “to the big city of Wilmington” to live across the street from his parents.

Once in Wilmington, Browder got a job with Nationwide Insurance Company while her husband was fighting in Normandy. He was part of the D-Day operation of June 6, 1944, in Normandy, France, and earned a bronze star.

At one point, Herring was missing in action. “I got a telegram from the Western Union,” Browder says. “The guy from Western Union came in person to tell us. Fortunately, he had been found after four days.

After Herring came home from the war, he and Browder relocated to New Jersey for five years. “We got unhappy being away from home,” she says, so they moved back to Wilmington, where they built a house.

Herring went to work for the Wilmington Star-News and Browder went back to Nationwide Insurance.

While Browder has been thankful to visit places overseas like Paris and Holland, and several places throughout the United States, Brunswick County is and always was home to her.

The couple moved back to the family’s farmstead and built a house on the lot beside her childhood home. She began working at Cheer’s Nationwide Insurance Agency in Shallotte as an administrative assistant, where she worked for 30 years. In 1980, after 40 years of marriage, Herring passed away.

Browder was lucky enough to find love a second time and eventually married William “Bill” Browder, to whom she was married for 20 years before he passed away.

After retiring in 1988 from the insurance business, Browder spent several years volunteering at the Hope Chest Thrift Store, which benefits the Hope Harbor Home Domestic Violence Shelter. When she was 95, Browder stopped driving after a fall that caused injuries to her hip and arm, so she had to step away from volunteering.

When it comes to her longevity, Browder credits being raised on homegrown food for one.

Her family always had a large vegetable garden. They also raised and butchered hogs and made their own lard, which they “put on everything they ate.” Also, “she’s never smoked, never drank,” says Gary Hewett, her nephew. “I don’t think she’s ever had a swallow of alcohol.”

Socialization plays a key role too. Thankfully, James and her niece Debby Ferebee as well as other relatives and friends are nearby. And though she does not drive anymore, Browder still gets out and about with assistance. Every Saturday, like clockwork, she gets a ride to the salon to get her hair done by her favorite stylist, Martha Stanley, so she will be looking her best for church the next day at Mount Pisgah Baptist Church in Supply.

Gardening has also helped Browder stay active and healthy. Though she sometimes worries her family. One day last year, her nephew came to check on her and could not find her anywhere. He went outside and found her hoeing a row to plant some collards beside the house.

“I did it because it was close to the house so I could get to them easier,” Browder says with a laugh. “That’s the worst part about being 100. Everybody fusses at you when you try to do things for yourself.”

So what’s the best part of being 100?

“I’m not sure yet. I haven’t given it much thought!” she says.

Photography by Brenda Torrey