AUBURN — Dorothy Eileen Kennedy Prince celebrated her 100th birthday with family and friends at St. Phillip’s Catholic Church on Aug. 28, after receiving a special blessing at Sunday Mass.

The St. Phillip’s family groups organized a buffet luncheon. Prince had a large cake, but fortunately did not have to blow out 100 candles.

She has lived in the Lewiston-Auburn area since 1994, although she first arrived in 1934 when she entered Bates College on a full scholarship, graduating in 1938. She grew up in Manchester, New Hampshire.

After college she worked in Washington, D.C., first as a congressional secretary and later as secretary to the Foreign Service Examining Board. There she met her husband, Edward. After a 40-day whirlwind romance they were married and set off for their first foreign assignment to war-torn Budapest. Those two years were filled with the joys of young marriage, good friends and the birth of their first child, Noelle. They also witnessed the closing of the Iron Curtain around Hungary with the repressions stowed upon its people – dramatic, oppressive and distressing.

Their sons Jonathan and Anthony were born in Montreal in 1949 and 1950. In 1951 the family moved to Wellington, New Zealand, where they spent the next three years. They enjoyed its extraordinary beauty, despite frequent waits for sheep crossings on the country roads. In 1952 Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip visited New Zealand, and the Prince children hailed her waving Union Jacks flags.

The family next moved to Helsinki, Finland, across the world in the northern hemisphere – a feat of packing for six months with three little children and a fourth on the way. Philip was born a month after their arrival in December of 1954. Despite these early challenges, Dorothy loved the Finns, their arts and warmth, and the beauty of the country, and was sad to leave after only 20 months.

Their next foreign assignment at the end of 1960 took the family to Dublin, Ireland, which they enjoyed immensely and made lifelong friends. Some are still in touch with Prince and her family. A three-year assignment to Ankara, Turkey, followed their time in Dublin, which they very much enjoyed. The older children started college and did not move with the family to Tehran in 1966. The family remained in this fascinating country for four years.

Edward and Dorothy retired to Tamworth, New Hampshire, in 1973. She continued to live there after Edward’s death, until moving to Schooner Estates in Auburn in 1994. She moved to Woodlands in Lewiston this year.

Her children live around the world: Noelle in Virginia, Jonathan in Sacramento, Philip outside Portland, Oregon, and Tony in Hanoi, Vietnam. All of them came for her birthday, along with her four grandchildren who also live all around the country. Her sister Joan Anderson of Connecticut and her son Rob and family attended her celebration, as well as cousins on both sides of the family. It was a joyous reunion, made especially wonderful by Prince’s supportive friends from St. Phillip’s.