World War II vet celebrates a century

Fern Kinsey Jacobson was a high school senior in Grants Pass, Oregon when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941.

The Fawn Lake resident, who turns 100 tomorrow, remembers listening to the radio while President Franklin Roosevelt delivered his "day that will live in infamy" speech and declare war on Japan.

"I determined at that time I'd help my country," Jacobson said in an interview with the Journal.

Jacobson would have to wait a year before she came of age to join the war effort, enlisting in the Navy Women's Reserve (WAVES) to ensure U.S. Navy personnel fighting overseas received...