Of all the technological marvels Grace Burns has seen throughout her lifetime, the most amazing has been the television, she said.

“I was already married when I got my first TV,” said Burns, who turned 100 on Thursday. “My husband and I took a vacation to California, and we brought back a black-and-white television set. We had to buy one in California, because they weren’t being sold in Colorado yet.”

Aspen Trails, a retirement resort in northeast Colorado Springs, toasted the city’s newest centenarian during a lunchtime party in her honor. But to hear her tell it, the birthday wasn’t a big deal.

“When she learned that we were celebrating her birthday, she said, ‘Really? But it’s just another day,’” said community manager Kaitlyn Pennebaker.  “And we all said, “Oh, no, it’s not!’”

Born in 1924 in southwestern Nebraska, Grace remembers going to school, on a horse-driven buggy, before she reached her fifth birthday. The country school she attended housed about 15 students, ranging from first to eighth grade.

“There was no kindergarten,” she said. “The teacher didn’t have any first-graders, so she begged my mother to send me to school. So, off to school I went. I was about 4½.”

People born in the 21st century can barely remember a time when people didn’t carry telephones around in their pockets and purses. But Burns remembers.

“We had one telephone when I was little,” she said.

“It was a community line. There were any number of people on the same line, and you had a special ring for your phone. Of course, people always listened in. That was common. You could hear the other receivers. I didn’t see anything unusual about it, because everybody was in the same boat.”

Grace attended school in Nebraska through 11th grade before her family moved to Denver. She graduated from Denver’s North High School when she was 16.

“I turned 17 that July, after I graduated,” she said. “I didn’t think anything about it. It’s quite remarkable now, I guess.”

Grace remembers working several jobs, including manufacturing flies at a fishhook factory, before meeting her husband, James Burns Jr., through a church group. They were married in 1944.

“James was in the Navy, a radioman, during World War II,” Burns said. “When he came home, he went to Denver University on the GI Bill and became a teacher. He was a wonderful teacher.”

The couple had three children, two sons and a daughter, and moved to Colorado Springs in 2006 to be closer to their two sons. James died in 2014. Their eldest son died a little over two years ago, Grace said.

Residents and employees at Aspen Trails offered gifts and hugs on Thursday, marveling at how good Burns looked.

“When I first got here, I was shocked to find out that she was our oldest resident,” Pennebaker said.

“You put us all to shame,” one resident told Burns.

“You don’t look older than 80,” another said. “It almost (expletive) me off.”

Burns laughed at that.

Burns makes it a point to walk each day, outside when weather permits. When the weather doesn’t cooperate, she walks the halls of the resort.

“If you don’t keep moving, it’ll stop.”

“She gets around really well,” Pennebaker said. “She’s involved in a lot of activities here, and she gets good nutrition, which also helps.”

Pennebaker said 100 years of life is cause for celebration, whether Burns thinks so or not.

“Just think about everything she’s seen between 1924 and today,” she said. “The changes in technology, the Depression, World War II, all the way through to the (COVID-19) pandemic. Amazing Grace, we call her.”

Asked the secret to her longevity, Burns just shrugged.

“My mother lived to be 82, and my father died at 65,” she said. “I have no idea how this happened.”