A birthday celebration was held at Lister Home where she is a resident.
Mrs Cooney was born on July 7, 1912, into the Herlihy family at Naseby, the eldest of seven children of James and Catherine Herlihy. She has a sister, Bridget, still living in Dunedin.
Her grandparents came from County Kerry, Ireland, in the 1860s in search of their fortune on the Hamilton gold fields in the Maniototo.
In 1876, they bought Greenbank, in Patearoa, and started farming. The property remained in the Herlihy family for five generations..
Mrs Cooney had lots of stories to tell about happy days growing up at Greenbank, picnicking and swimming in the Taieri River.
After attending Patearoa Primary School, she boarded at St Philomena's in Dunedin. Being the eldest in the family, she joked that as a teenager she was not allowed to attend district dances until her younger brother, Verdun, was old enough to escort her.
Horses were an important part of life in those early years, both for transport and working the land, but for the Herlihy family, also horse racing. The family had success with major race winners Gold Boa and Gold Song.
After leaving school, Mrs Cooney became a nurse and spent many years nursing with the Sisters of Mercy at the Mater Hospital in Dunedin.
In the early to mid-1940s, when a bridesmaid at a friend's wedding, she met her future husband, best man Matt Cooney.
They were married at St Joseph's Cathedral in Dunedin on April 22, 1946, and lived at Willow Glen in Ikawai, until retiring to Waimate in 1976.
A great homemaker, she enjoyed Country Women's Institute and in her spare time sewing, mainly needlework. She was talented with a crochet hook and turned out some beautiful pieces of work.
Her real interest was her family of two daughters, Rosaleen and Cynthia, and three sons, Mike, Terry and Phillip.
She has nine grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren, who were at her 100th birthday celebrations.
Mr Cooney died in 1996 and Mrs Cooney stayed in her home in Waimate until moving to Lister Home in 2005.
