Frances Kain Shevenaugh's youthful appearance so contradicts her age, fibbing about it requires absolutely no skill. "I tell people I'm 90, and they won't believe it," said Shevenaugh, 106.

Small wonder. The abundance of thick, beautiful white hair crowning her head could incite envy in the hearts of women decades younger. Striking blue eyes, unobscured by spectacles, beam a smile from a face of nearly lineless, fair skin. The slim, tiny woman walks at a brisk pace, unaided but for an arm to clasp during a climb up the stairs at one of her haunts, the YMCA in Winter Park, Fla.

She's a modern miracle, and a pronounced exception to common notions about aging. But there's nothing common about Shevenaugh. In an era of few higher education opportunities for women, she transcended the female roles of her time to join the very first women admitted to Tri-State College. She embraced change, evolved as a professional, and enjoyed a remarkable life extending beyond the limits of the tumultuous 20th century.

She achieved it all by simply pursuing her dreams. Born July 16, 1901 in Zanesville, Ind., she moved with her family in 1912 to Newton Falls, Ohio, where she attended elementary and high school and worked summers for the Newton Falls Post Office. In 1921, she accepted one of many opportunities which punctuate her long life—she entered TSC, and earned her teacher certificate.

"I had a sister, Ida Mae Can Camp, who lived in Angola," Shevenaugh explained. "She gave me an opportunity to stay there, and I had a car. You got into school, and you were able to get into things." The campus consisted of two big buildings, she remembered.

After earning certification, she turned down an offer to teach in Kansas, not much more than a frontier at the time. "I didn't want to go that far," she said, and that ended the chapter on teaching. However, she possessed mathematics and organizational skills which, coupled with her education, served her well in a lifetime in business.

For four years beginning in 1922, she worked in the lumber and steel businesses back home in Newton Falls. She figured project estimates for the Newton Falls lumberyard before accepting a position as bookkeeping clerk for Youngstown Steel Co. She advanced to assisting the company president during that short time.

The use of her talents empowered her. "I felt important because they hadn't been letting women into business before that," she said. The Youngstown job led her to her husband, Frank Shevenaugh, an engineer with the company.

But Frances was not fated for a domestic life. Frank became ill, and she cared for him until his death eight years later. They had no children, and she never remarried.

A 30-year career in business followed. She moved to Altoona, Penn., after her husband's death, working for the Pennsylvania Railroad for five years. She then relocated to California to live with her sisters, Fern and Carolyn, in 1941, beginning a long stint with the Maryland Casualty Co. "I wanted to be a cashier, and I did so for 25 years," she said.

"The Orange County Council on Aging wants to do a TV piece with her now. She says,'Why do they want to talk to me?'"

Retiring in 1966, she moved with Fern to Santa Anna, Calif., where Carolyn lived with her husband, Murray. She lived with and cared for all three until their deaths. She moved back to Indiana, living in Auburn for 10 years before moving to Deland, Fla., and then Orlando, where she now lives with her niece, Sandy Gill.

She astounds all who know her by working out with other seniors in classes at the YMCA three times a week, and traveling to remote destinations with Gill and her family. In 2005, she traveled to a dude ranch in Colorado and enjoyed some horseback riding. In the past few years, the adventures have included swimming with dolphins, riding a catamaran, deep-sea fishing, cruising in the Caribbean, and visiting Alaska for ATV and dogsled rides.

Frances can't understand all the fuss. "She wants to know why everybody wants to make a big deal over her" said Gill, with whom "Aunt Fran" has resided for the past eight years. "The Orange County Council on Aging wants to do a TV piece with her now. She says,'Why do they want to talk to me?'"

Frances said she always chose walking over driving when she could, and attributes her longevity to that active lifestyle. "She always chose the fit route. She's exercised all her life, and I think that helps," said Gill, whose home holds a treadmill, exercise bar, Universal machine and light weights for the family's use.

Shevenaugh presented gifts to the university's New Horizons capital campaign and its Department of Education in 1997, when a campus visit revealed enormous changes since her life as a student there . "I went back and saw some of those changes. It does seem like a lot of time has passed," she marveled. Her support was recognized on May 1, 1997, with the naming of the Frances Kain Shevenaugh Department of Education.

"I had a chance to go to school, and I'm glad I had the opportunity," she said in Florida this past spring. Progress and opportunities for women have increased enormously since her school days, she said. Having a career was "just easy for her," Gill said. "She's very methodical, very organized."