MOLLY BATTEN(
excerpted from an article by Blake Morlock, Az Daily Star)Molly Batten just turned 101 this year (2001) . Molly, ancestrally British but born and raised in Ireland, is centenarian out of central casting. She’s full of short stories about how her great-great-great grandfather was beheaded by order of Oliver Cromwell in the 17th century for harboring Irish rebels, or how another relative was excommunicated from the Catholic Church for chasing a fox through a church-yard. Her sons both served in the Royal military and asked Queen Elizabeth to send her a birthday card, as is custom for British citizens who turn 100. "The queen said ‘no’, Batten said. "she said that I was not British. She said I was Irish" The City of Tucson threw her a 100th birthday party, complete with "a huge chocolate cake and hundreds of friends," Batten said.