Frances Converse Rose, born in 1906, always remembers, "I was born on 6/6/06."

At 103, Rose doesn't miss a beat when it comes to her own history. She was born on the family's farm in Kane County near Aurora, Ill., on June 6, 1906, to Edward Converse and Maude McCannon. When Frances was 2, the family moved to Elgin, Kan., to live with her grandparents, Charles and Harriet Converse. Then her father accepted a teaching position at the university in Grand Forks, N.D. During the great influenza epidemic of 1918, her father accepted another teaching job at Kansas State University in Eskridge.

The family lived in Kansas for a number of years and that's where Frances eventually met her husband, Herb.

"One summer evening while I was swimming with a friend, I met a nice young man who offered to walk me home," she said. "A year later, he gave me a diamond ring," Rose recalled.

In 1924, the couple married. Herb Rose took a job as an electrical engineer for Westinghouse while Rose completed her second year of college. They were living in Pittsburgh during the Great Depression when Herb was transferred to New York City in 1936. This was the first of many moves for the Rose family. During this time the family also grew to include to two children. The couple now has eight grandchildren, 11 great-grandchildren and one great-great-grandchild.

Eventually, the Rose family made its way to Washington state, where Herb and Frances took advantage of living in the great outdoors. In the 1960s, the couple became enthusiastic game hunters; in 1967, Frances experienced one of the thrills of her life when she shot and killed a caribou in Canada. "I didn't have that much hunting experience — I was just lucky," she says.

In the later part of the 1960s, Herb was assigned to work for Westinghouse in Southeast Asia. During this time, the couple lived in the Philippines and traveled to exotic locales in Singapore, Indonesia and Australia. They loved the adventure of traveling, so when Herb retired in 1979, they went on a safari in South Africa. In 1981, they went to China; in 1982 to New Zealand, Australia and New Guinea; in 1983 to India, Nepal and Bhutan; and in 1984 to Russia and Mongolia.

Herb died in 1993 at the age of 93. Soon after, Frances moved to Santa Fe to be close to her daughter Margaret and Margaret's husband, Ralph Vail, who have lived in Santa Fe for 50 years. Frances has never regretted her decision to relocate and truly enjoys living at Ponce de Leon. "It has been just the right place for me. There are many activities to keep me busy and I've made some new friends. Best of all, I know that Margaret is nearby."

Ana Pacheco is at work on the city of Santa Fe's 400th Anniversary Commemorative issue that will be published in the Santa Fe New Mexican on Feb. 7. Her weekly tribute to our community elders appears every Sunday; she can be reached at 505-474-2800.