Jean Gordon
Wednesday, November 19, 2025 1:08 pm
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Izell O. Flack sat in the dining room of Fair Haven in Forest City recently munching on a donut during snack time and talked about turning 104 years old on October 29. Her daughter Rachel Jimeson, 61, joined her mom for the afternoon.
Mrs. Flack has another daughter, Sherry Floyd, a retired McDowell County School teacher. She also has five grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.
"I felt like an old grandma" Mrs. Flack said when she talked about turning 104 years old. Family and Fair Haven friends and staff celebrated with her with gifts and a birthday cake on her birthday.
Mrs. Flack has had good health all her life and never had to take any medication until she fell and broke her leg about four years ago. With the help of Rachel, (who has two grown children) she was able to stay at home in Marion until February (2025) when she moved to Fair Haven. Sherry knew that was better for her mom because of her job at the VA Clinic in Forest City. Rachel stayed with her mom weekends and nights and there was a caregiver during the day.
"So I was able to keep her at home until February," Rachel said.
Mrs. Flack talked about the day she went to a doctor when she was 42 years old and got the surprise of her life.
"I thought I was dying," she said. She was always healthy and the trip to the doctor was out of the ordinary. She was more than surprised to learn at age 42 she wasn't dying, but was pregnant with Rachel. Daughter Sherry was born in 1948.
Mrs. Flack was married to Paul E. Flack and although they were later divorced, the couple remained friends and shared parenting.
Mrs. Flack was a daughter of Ambrose Odom and Willie McFarland Odom of Casar and lived a simple life.
Growing up, all the children had chores to do and one that Mrs. Flack disliked was picking cotton.
"I'd hide behind the shrubbery," she laughed. But when the chores turned to making molasses, Mrs. Flack was all in and vividly remembers the sweet molasses she would taste from the sugar cane.
Another favorite chore at home was milking cows.
At their childhood home, Mrs. Flack said the family had a "homemade swing" and they played baseball and other games. The children were also taught to obey and respect their parents and if they didn't there were consequences. "She'd get her hickory stick," Mrs Flack said of her mother. "She was the boss."
Mrs. Flack went to Casar High School in Cleveland County where she played basketball. "That was my favorite part of going to school," she said. She talked about the more than an hour long bus ride to school.
Growing up, she also watched her dad play baseball. He played with the Farm League but had to go to the war.
Raising her own children, Mrs. Flack worked several jobs including working at Bost Bakery in Valdese and at a hosiery mill in Shelby.
"I was asked to travel to New York," she said to be a model for the hosiery product. She turned the job down.
She would later retire at Drexel.
She never traveled much, although she lived in Mississippi when her husband Mr. Flack was stationed there while in the military. However, Mrs. Flack traveled to Germany with Rachel to see daughter Sherry and her husband when the couple had their first grandchild in 1974.
"Germany is the prettiest place I've ever seen," she said. "We went to a bullfight there," she said.
They stayed two months traveling to several other areas in Europe while camping all the way in a Volkswagen van.
"We loved camping," Mrs. Flack said.
She is a longtime member of Mt. Moriah Methodist Church and with a gentle smile said her favorite Bible story is "Jesus Loves the Little Children."
"I love it here," Mrs. Flack said of Fair Haven while finishing her snack.