'Life is for the living,' Millie Cox, one of first female Marines in WWII, says at age 100

QUINCY − The email arrived out of the blue. Mildred "Millie" Cox didn't recognize the name of the young woman who had sent it believing Cox was her great-aunt.

"She was the daughter of my nephew, who was deceased," Cox says. "Her parents had been divorced when she was 5 and she never knew her father. She had just been diagnosed with cancer and her doctor had suggested finding out more about her medical history through her DNA."

Cox was happy to help; the inquiry also sparked a search into her own roots and led to more discoveries. Cox now has 13 more relatives who are friends on Facebook, including members of her father's family in Turkey.

"My DNA led me to find out who my father really was," Cox says. "I now know where I came from."

Millie Cox has always been someone eager to try new experiences, and she enjoys helping others do the same. As she celebrates her 100th birthday Wednesday, March 27, she also has had her personal place in Women's History Month.

In 1944, the day she turned 20, she was among the first group of women who joined the Marine Corps Women's Reserve during World War II. Some 20,000 women would serve.

Good odds: One of 22 women among 3,000 Marines

After she enlisted in South Boston, she was sent off to basic training in South Carolina, one of 22 women amid 3,000 Marines.

"I liked the odds," she jokes.

Her biggest skill was that she could take 120 words a minute in dictation. She became a stenographer, working out of the office of the commanding officer on Marine bases in North Carolina and South Carolina.

Mildred Moulton was born in South Boston on March 27, 1924, and, while growing up there, she met William "Will" Cox, who was six months older. He was a football star and graduated from South Boston High School in 1942; she graduated from Boston Girls Latin School in 1941.

He enlisted in the Navy. She joined the Marines the day she turned 20 and became eligible, and they soon became engaged. They were married in 1947 and moved to Quincy in 1956.

They had eight children, four of whom survive; 17 grandchildren; and 23 great-grandchildren.

Will worked as a foreman at the South Boston Postal Annex. Millie worked for the Quincy School Department and later became head clerk in the Quincy Veterans Service Office.

Eight years ago, she and Will moved to Brookdale Quincy Bay, a residence for seniors. They had been living for half of the year in Quincy and half in Florida and wanted to settle in a senior community where more services would be available if needed.

Will died in 2017 at age 94 after a fall in a bathroom led to complications, including an infection. It was a difficult adjustment for Millie, she says, but "life is for the living, and so I make every day count."

She is one of Brookdale's welcoming ambassadors who greet new residents. She also serves on the residents council, which addresses residents' concerns. She goes to yoga classes, walks every day and entertains friends of all ages in her apartment with views across Quincy Bay and the Town River. One of her favorite sights is watching the full moon rising.

Encouraged by the great-niece who found her and today is doing fine, she has written her 368-page autobiography, "A Sincere Life."

Ties to several veterans organizations mean a great deal to her. She is a charter member of both the Women in Military Service for America Memorial in Arlington, Virginia, and the Women Marines Association, and is a member of the Marine Corps League and the Morrisette American Legion Post in Quincy. She led the Quincy Memorial Day parade in 1988 and 1990 with the slogan "Women Are Veterans Too."

Becoming a centenarian is a big event in a life already full of them. She is having two parties, has welcomed relatives visiting from across the country and has received 452 birthday cards from the Daughters of the American Revolution, where a relative is a member and a regent.

She says she has been happy because she felt well-loved as a child and now tries to make other people feel good about themselves, "chatting them up, if you will."

She hopes to live independently as long as she can. She doesn't want any of her four remaining sons − Billie, Joe, Michael and Brendan − to say, "What are we going to do with Mama?"

This article originally appeared on The Patriot Ledger: Ahead of her times, Mildred Cox, a WWII Marine, turns 100 in Quincy