Warsitz Tuesday morning, Bertha Warsitz was looking for some ice cream. When activities leaders entered her room, she would ask “Are you going to take me for something to eat?”

She also enjoyed all the attention she was receiving for marking her 101st birthday.

All morning, people sang “Happy Birthday” to her as she sat in her wheelchair and smiled at them. And when people tried to talk to her and ask her questions, she would turn the conversation 180 degrees. The interviewee became the interviewer.

“She’s a very spunky person,” said Mary Buttaccio, an activities director at the Garden Gate Health Care Facility on Union Road. “She knows what she wants. She’s determined, and she’s got a great sense of humor.”

Throughout the morning, she reminisced about her time as a youngster, riding in her father’s car and watching the world change around her.

Warsitz was born in 1911, the same year the Monte Carlo races began. She also shares a birthday with Irish actor Eddie Byrne, who appeared in “Star Wars” and the 1959 version of “The Mummy.”

Born in Cheektowaga to Bertha and Urban Maurer, Warsitz met her husband, the late Herbert Warsitz, at Crystal Beach. They lived in Cheektowaga, where Herbert worked for M&T Bank.

Warsitz had two sons, Warren and the late Herbert. Warren Warsitz lives in Williamsville and stopped by to spend the day with his mother at Garden Gate.

Warsitz said she likes to play bingo and used to be a pretty good bowler. She was a member of the Our Lady Help of Christians Church and the Canisius High School Women’s Club when her sons attended that school.

She has been a resident at Garden Gate since 2009.

“There is a lot of learn from them,” Buttaccio said of Warsitz and the other residents. “Life wasn’t as busy when they were younger. They enjoy every little thing you do for them. They appreciate it.”

(Story ideas for this feature can be sent to Cheektowaga Bee Editor Matt Krueger, Bee Publications, 5564 Main St., Williamsville, or call 204-4915.)