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Rosalie Forte, of Milford, talks with Gertrude Noone during the 2008 Centenarian Celebration at the Jewish Community Center in Woodbridge. Noone was one of 19 Centenarians recognized at the luncheon.
MILFORD — Gertrude Noone knows what she thinks, and says it without pulling punches.

Rightly so — she's had plenty of time to figure things out. At 109, Noone is the oldest person in Connecticut and as spunky as a 19-year-old.

Noone, whose pink-painted fingernails clasp into a firm handshake and whose face breaks easily into a grin, said her outlook can be summed up in the old song lyrics, "Que sera, sera ... whatever will be, will be," and her independence.

She'd rather cut her own food, thank you.

"Just take life as it comes," she said. "You don't know what's going to happen. You don't know that you're going to live to 109. I don't worry."

That doesn't mean she doesn't care. Noone, who lives at Carriage Green at Milford, an assisted-living home on Plains Road, voiced her opinions Wednesday on politics, the stock market and marriage with a sparkling sense of humor over a piece of carrot cake.

She was among 19 people age 100 and over from New Haven County who were honored Wednesday at the Agency on Aging's 22nd Annual Centenarian Luncheon, which celebrates Older Americans Month this month, at the Jewish Community Center in Woodbridge.

There are 800 people in the state who are at least 100, said Robert Norton of the Connecticut Commission on Aging, who attended the luncheon.

One of those honored, Mildred Johnson of Shelton, was celebrating her 100th birthday. She gave credit for her long life to God, "a power greater than myself."

She and

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Noone share the thrill of living.

Noone, who never married, said she's happy on her own.

"I didn't have to do any laundry ... nothing like that," she said. "I'd rather go to New York and see all the shows. When I got to be the age when they were all looking for husbands, I looked the other way."

Many women of her time — she was born Dec. 30, 1898, in Ansonia — chose a mate because they wanted financial security, Noone said.

Some "would take anything that came along," she said. "It wasn't a case that they loved the man. It was a case of whether they'd be better off. I thought I had a nice life as it was. I lived my life."

And she's still living it; her favorite pastimes are reading and going out for lunch.

Her niece, Deborah Woods of Milford, said she sees her aunt, who has a busy schedule, every week. They get manicures together biweekly.

"She's very with-it," Woods said, laughing over a quip from Noone. "She's very engaged in life."