When you reach 100 years old, you have lots of stories to tell. But among the most poignant comes from a woman who had to tell U.S. Army Air Corps pilots to shut up.

Audrey Michalk, 100, was part of a centenarian celebratory lunch Monday at Carriage Inn, 1400 Katy Flewellen Road. She joined the Army Air Corps during World War II after deciding that nursing wasn’t for her.

“They put me in the Signal Corps,” Michalk said. “I used to talk to the American pilots and tell them to shut up because they were blabbing all over the place.”

In an era before everyone had radar to track planes, German pilots picked up radio signals of the American and British airplanes returning from their bombing raids. Michalk pointed her hands down towards the table at an angle to describe what would happen.

“The Germans just came down and shot them down because they talked too much,” Michalk said.

If Tuesday’s luncheon were to give awards for furthest distance traveled to Katy, chances are Michalk would receive it. She was born in the United Kingdom and grew up in Sunderland, which she said was a four-hour drive from London.

While she was stationed in London, she crossed paths with the future queen.

“She was Princess Elizabeth then,” Michalk said. “She drove a truck on the base where I was. She was a very nice person, too. She’s just a regular person. No nonsense about her. She did the work she was supposed to do. We had a lot of fun. Why not? She’s a very nice person.”

Michalk said she was friends with a U.S. naval attache. He asked her to travel to the U.S. after the war and look after his little boy, who wasn’t old enough to school. When the boy got older, she said, she was set to return to her homeland. But she met Simon Michalk, and he invited her to come see him in Bishop, Texas. Bishop is near Corpus Christi and about 193 miles south of Katy.

“He asked me to marry him, and that was end of the story,” Michalk said. They had one son, Stuart, who accompanied her to Monday’s luncheon. He is retired from the oil and gas industry.

The family suffered tragedy in June 1974. Simon Michalk was shot to death after attending a church meeting in Corpus Christi. But Audrey continues to be strong and carry on, in part because of the no-nonsense attitude she displayed during the war years.

Herbert Nunn’s journey to Katy began in southwestern Missouri.

Nunn grew up in Granby, about 40 miles from the Arkansas state line. He had begun studying accounting at the University of Missouri when World War II broke out. He served in the Army Air Corps and was stationed on Guam before the war ended.

“I finished my degree thanks to the GI Bill of Rights,” Nunn said. “It was a great program.”

Nunn pursued his career, mostly in Kansas. He came to Texas after being enticed by his daughter Cindy and her husband, Bill Haskett. A grandchild can be pretty persuasive.

The Hasketts were longtime educators in the Katy Independent School District. Last year, the Katy Independent School District named a junior high school in their honor. Katy Tiger football fans know Bill as the voice of the Tigers at Legacy Stadium.

The journey for 102-year-old Lorene Jones didn’t take her that far. She’s a native Texan and grew up in Granbury, near Fort Worth. Growing up in ranch country, she embraced ranch life.

“Daddy would take us to the fields and pick the cotton,” Jones said. “You get a sack, hang it on your shoulder, and then you bend over and pick the cotton.”

She no longer lives on the ranch, but she’s got her spirit. About 10 years ago, she said, she was on family property when she and others saw a snake. Jones got her gun and shot the snake.

Rosa Lee Hankey grew up near Durant, Okla. She had married in July 1941, only five months before the Pearl Harbor attack. Her husband went into the service, serving in an Army hospital unit.

“They took everybody,” she said.

She plays the piano today and has been known to participate in “Name That Tune” games with friend. She said she was blessed, even with hip and knee replacements.

“If you honor your parents you’ll be blessed with a long life, Hankey said. “I have good blood pressure and good cholesterol. But I’ve had lots of surgeries.”