FOLLANSBEE - A Follansbee woman and long-time member of the Brooke-Hancock-Ohio-Marshall Retired and Senior Volunteer Program recently celebrated her 100th birthday, which was officially Sunday.

Anna Riska, known to many as Annie, was treated last week to a surprise party at the Brooke County Senior Center, which she regularly visits to participate in bingo and other activities. Angie Kircina, center kitchen manager, arranged the party.

Riska also served until recently as a bingo caller at area nursing homes as a member for more than 15 years of RSVP.

During the party, Follansbee Mayor Tony Paesano presented to her a mug commemorating the city's 100th anniversary in 2006 and other gifts and invited her to appear in the Follansbee Community Days parade next year.

Riska has seen the city change in many ways, having moved there from Carnegie, Pa., in 1922 at the age of 14 following the death of her parents, who were immigrants from Austria and Hungary.

The second youngest of eight children (and the only one surviving), Riska moved in with her sister and brother-in-law, Catherine and John Cecelones, and helped them to run their department store and candy shop.

A long-time member of St. Anthony Catholic Church, she remembers when it was at the corner of Raymond Avenue and Jefferson Street and shared space with St. Anthony School, before the present church was built in 1942. She also is a member of the Steubenville chapter of Catholic Daughters of America.

She recalls when trolleys carried people along Main Street, which was lined with wooden boardwalks instead of sidewalks.

Many of the younger senior citizens on hand for Thursday's party remembered as children, buying penny candy and visiting Santa Claus at her store, which she eventually took over before selling it in 1972 to the owners of Alco's.

Though Riska didn't marry, she has many nephews, nieces, great-nephews and nieces and great-great-nephews and nieces. She celebrated her birthday again with family at the Serbian-American Cultural Center.