Rockhampton woman Joyce Marler celebrates her 100th birthday

The Rockhampton woman will join the exclusive “100 club” this weekend after having lived in the town for all but four of her 100 years. Find out her secret to a long life.

A Rockhampton girl through and through, Joyce Marler will join the exclusive “100 club” this weekend and has shared her secret to a long life.

Queensland’s newest centenarian has lived in the town for all but four of her 100 years and celebrates her birthday on Sunday.

She was born Joyce Sarah Lilian Ewings in Rockhampton on February 13, 1922 and was the second child of Tom and Nellie Ewings, who owned and operated Ewings and Worthington bakery.

Joyce had a happy childhood growing up in Rockhampton and enjoyed long bike rides, picnics with friends and weekly dances at Palais Royal Hall.

While attending Rockhampton State High School, she was ranked in the top 10 in Queensland in her junior year, despite being a year younger than the other students.

After leaving school, she worked as a public servant with the Queensland Taxation Department in Brisbane but two years later transferred home to work at the same school at which she studied.

At Rockhampton State High School’s 100th anniversary celebrations held in 2019, Joyce was recognised as both the school’s oldest living former student and its oldest living former employee.

Joyce stopped working at the school in 1946 when she married returned serviceman Cecil Marler.

Joyce Marler at 21 years old in 1943. She will her celebrate her 100th birthday on February 13, 2022. Picture: Contributed

The couple had three children and spent all their married life in Rockhampton, except for two years when Cecil was transferred to rural New South Wales for his job with an irrigation firm.

Following the end of World War II, Joyce continually volunteered for ex-servicemen and women’s groups.

For the next 30 years, the Marler family would holiday at a beach house in Yeppoon, built on a block of land purchased by Joyce’s father.

After playing tennis in her younger years, Joyce later enjoyed lawn bowls, gardening, crosswords, reading, needlework, and playing cards.

Joyce has seen many changes during her life, with technology having advanced at an astounding rate.

“Where my husband worked they had a big computer that would have been the size of a room,” she said.

Cecil died in 2002 and Joyce lived in the family home he built at Park Avenue until she moved into Carinity Shalom retirement village.

She lived there independently for 18 years with support from Carinity Home Care then moved into the adjacent Carinity Shalom aged care two weeks shy of her 100th birthday.

Joyce said her pride and joy in life had been her family of three children, three grandchildren, and six great grandchildren.

Her secret to a long life was to take one day at a time, not hold grudges, and have support from family and friends.

“Don’t worry about what might not happen,” she said.