Photo by Joelle Motes

Former schoolteacher Thelma Pierce is celebrating her 100th birthday. She said school has changed a lot since she was young. "We had one book for the whole year," she said. "We didn't have a desk-we sat on a bench." Pierce attended Alabama Normal College in Livingston, now the University of West Alabama, and Howard College, now known as Samford University, before teaching school for 39 years.