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St. Matthews Native With Love of God, Quilting and Bingo Turns 105

Cheeseboro raised 9 children, 47 grandchildren and 37 great-great grandchildren

Calhoun County, SC (WLTX) -- Friday, Mr. Roscoe Cheeseboro Sr. of St. Matthews turned 105.

We learned at his birthday celebration that the Calhoun County native lives a life of faith surrounded by a large, loving family.

"Pops, how you feel?" his daughter asked him at his home Friday afternoon, after a day of eating cake and mingling with family members.

"I feel fine!" he said.

July 20, 1913, Cheeseboro was born in St. Matthews.

"He went to John Ford High school I think six months, then he left and had to go home and work in the field picking cotton for his mom and dad," said Cheeseboro's daughter, Leathene Stewart.

Cheeseboro eventually started a family and became a carpenter, building houses in the community.

"He raised 9 children, 47 grand children and 37 great-great grandchildren," said Stewart. "He would sit on the front porch with us and play his guitar and sing us songs. We would sit around him and clap our hands and sing with him."

Cheeseboro is a man everyone knows, his family says. In fact, he lives on a street bearing the family name: Cheeseboro Court.

"One of the ministers came in [to dad's home] and said, 'I came in to lift him up, but here he is lifting me up!'" said Cheeseboro's daughter, Sarah Johnson.

After retirement, Cheeseboro took up sewing.

"In his spare time when he's not on the phone talking to people, he would make quilts, and quilts, and quilts!" said Stewart.

Cheeseboro's family tells us he's a good teacher, too. They say he helps friends at the local senior center learn how to quilt. On his 100th birthday, he helped make 27 quilts.

"'I may not have book knowledge, but I can use my common sense!' That's his famous line," said Cheeseboro's daughter, Carrie C. Vennie.

His daughters tell us in his 105 years, their father has never been in trouble.

We're told the secret to his long and healthy life is a dash of quilting, a pinch of bingo and a whole lot of faith.

"He would come home [from church] and he would make a list of people that he didn't see in church," said Johnson. "Then starting Monday morning, he would get on the telephone and call those people just to see how they're doing."

Family members tell News 19 that Cheeseboro was raised by his grandmother, who lived to be 102. Could it be genetics? Maybe. To Cheeseboro, his long life is a blessing from God.

"He tells people that the secret to living is serving God," said Stewart. "'Serving the good master!' is the way he would say it."

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