Anita Laurenzi was 21 and newly married in 1929 when she emigrated from Mosciano San Angelo in Italy's Abruzzi region. She already knew how to cook well and is still hot on the stove as she turns 100 years old.

She was born on April 16, 1908, the second youngest of Guglielmo and Theresa Geroni's eight children. She married Luigi Laurenzi in Italy. He had worked briefly in America before returning to Italy to marry.

Her introduction to America was a difficult one; the country was in the midst of the Great Depression. One of her earliest memories was of soup lines at Holy Souls Roman Catholic Church in Carnegie.

"It was terrible to see our poor neighbors lined up for soup. But we were lucky and had just enough where we didn't have to join them. It was a bad time," she said.

Mr. Laurenzi's first job was at Columbia Steel and Shafting in Carnegie, earning 25 cents an hour. Eva, the first of their three children, was born in 1930 and died in 2002. Then came another daughter, Estay Mikolajcik of Green Tree, and a son, Louis of Carnegie, with whom Mrs. Laurenzi now lives. Her husband died in 1991 at age 91.

Mrs. Laurenzi said she had a simple method for keeping peace in her marriage. If an argument came up between her and her husband, "I killed it with silence," she said.

She said a glass of wine each day, a love for the Steelers and Pirates and two granddaughters and two great-grandchildren contribute to her longevity. But what really drives her is cooking every day.

"Her Italian offerings such as gnocchi, ravioli, manicotti, wedding soup and biscotti are to die for," said her son, Louis.

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