This week marks the 100th birthday of Jean Couzens.

Couzens was born Oct. 5, 1909, in Wailua, Oahu, Hawaii. She married John R. Couzens in 1939. They moved to Auburn in 1945 when John joined the practice of Marsh Lowell. Within the year, they built their first and only home on Terrace Street.

She will be celebrating her 100th birthday with her son, Richard and his wife, Sherry; her daughter, Julia and her husband, Jay Allan; her grandchildren, Ryan, Eric, Jeremy and Rachel, and her great-grandchildren Stanley and Liam.

On the occasion of Couzens’ 90th birthday, then Auburn Mayor Kathy Sands, proclaimed officially for all that she had received, in 1987, the Vernon Gould McCann Distinguished Citizen Award for “her dedicated years of service to Auburn and Placer County youth and civic groups in helping to achieve a better life for all.”

That award was given to Couzens for her involvement with the PTA, Bluebirds and Cub Scouts, Children’s Home Society Auxiliary, Community Concerts, Volunteer Bureau, Placer County Legal Auxiliary, Auburn Faith Community Hospital Guild Auxiliary, Republican Women, American Association of University Women, Auburn Faith Hospice Program and the Auburn-Placer County Library.

Couzens served on the board of the Auburn Public Library and on the Auburn-Placer County Library Advisory Board; she founded Friends of the Library and the Children’s Summer Reading Program, and was a forerunner of the NOON Program. She was a book reviewer for the Auburn Journal, Sierra Heritage, Auburn Sentinel and KAHI Radio, as well as for Thursday Club.

In 1988, Couzens was selected by the Auburn Journal as one of the 100 people who most influenced the Auburn community’s first 100 years.

In 1990, she received the California Association of Library Trustees and Commissioners Award for outstanding service for libraries, followed by an award in 1995 by Soroptimist International’s “Woman of Distinction” for her community service and the Rotary Foundation’s “Paul Harris Fellow” for appreciation and significant assistance given for better understanding among people of the world. She also spearheaded the Placer County Courthouse Project to return the court to the courthouse.