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On April 30, 1925 Barbara Reilly was born in San Jose, which means she recently celebrated her 100th birthday. Four generations of her family gathered at Mabie Southside Skilled Nursing Facility in Hollister to celebrate her long life.
Balloons with curling ribbons hung all around the room while photos from the past century stood framed on a table under a large Happy Birthday banner. The guest of honor herself sat with a tiara carefully placed on her head as her family filed in to greet her.
Reilly was raised in San Benito County, graduating from Hollister High at just 16 years old in 1941. She spent many years living in San Juan Bautista, raising five daughters with her husband, Jack.
According to her kids, she was a pioneer, working to support her family and for the love of her jobs—after working at a department store for a period of time, she spent over a decade at the Office of Education as Assistant to the Superintendent.
“My mom was wonderful,” Holly McBride, one of her five daughters, said, reflecting on her childhood. “There wasn’t anything she wouldn’t do for us.”
Her daughters grew up to have their own kids—Barbara now has 16 grandchildren and 15 great-grandchildren. Nearly 20 family members came to celebrate with her on April 30, 2025. Each wore a white name tag to help her recall names.
Reilly’s memory has slipped away as she’s gotten older but occasionally she remembers the name of a loved one and the room lights up with cheers of excitement. Despite this, she’s still sharp as a tack according to McBride, who plays games with her twice a week.
“It’s funny how the mind works,” McBride said. “She doesn’t remember a lot…She knows faces, not names. But boy, she knows how to play Gin Rummy. She double checks my math on the score… She has like 56 games to 500 to my like 24 and I don’t let her. And I go ‘give me a break.’”
“I do think that this is her legacy,” Lisa Cole, her eldest granddaughter, said as she looked around at her family. “She brings everybody together. Her and my grandfather always did that. They kind of pulled everyone together and she’s still doing it. It’s super fun to get to reconnect and laugh and still joke around, like we see each other every day.”
The BenitoLink Internship Program is a paid, skill-building program that prepares local youth for a professional career. This program is supported by Monterey Peninsula Foundation AT&T Golf Tour, United Way, Taylor Farms and the Emma Bowen Foundation.
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