Henrietta McKenzie joined the centenarian community when she celebrated her 100th birthday on Aug. 22 and enjoyed cutting the cake with family and friends at her daughter’s home in Hyde Park last month.

McKenzie, who has lived in Mattapan since February 1970, was born in Thompson Town, Clarendon, Jamaica and was educated there, but received a GED diploma upon arriving in Boston. She worked initially at Boston Children’s Hospital and the Sherrill House in Jamaica Plain and then joined the Boston Public Schools for the 1970-71 school year. She worked as a teacher assistant at the Joseph Lee School on Talbot Avenue for 10 years and then transferred to the Washington Irving School in Roslindale, retiring from there in 1999.

She is the mother of three children, Trevor, Lorna, and Paul. She is also grandmother to eight children, and great-grandmother to nine. Deeply religious, she said she is Baptist, and her favorite book is the Bible, while her favorite quote is, “Jesus is always there.”