Mother-in-laws are normally the butt of hundreds of jokes so Frances Parsons could perhaps expect an gentle ribbing from her son-in-law – Black Country’s comic Aynuk.

But the funnyman has always been too fond of his mother-in-law, who celebrated her 100th birthday yesterday, to tell any gags at her expense, according to his wife Mollie Smith.

“They have always been very close. Although he’s told lots of jokes, they have never been aimed at her,” she added.

Mrs Parsons marked her milestone with her three children Mollie, aged 72, Graham, 66 and 63-year-old Heather and her six grandchildren and 12 great grandchildren at the Tiled House care home, in Pensnett.

And she also received a special visit from Mayor of Dudley, Councillor Pat Martin, on the day as she blew out her candles in front of 50 guests.

Mrs Parsons has lived in the Black Country all her life after being born in West Bromwich on November 22, 1909.

Her parents Mary Ellen and Steven Dixon lived in Bernard Street and had two sons Fred and Len.

After leaving school, Mrs Parsons worked at Joseph Lucas & Sons, a motor car component manufacturer based in Birmingham.

Soon she moved to work at the National Pensions Office in Dudley which was around the time when she met her first husband Horace Kynnersley when she was aged 19.

But it was another eight years before the couple married.

Mr Kynnersley worked as a photographer and worked for a short time for the Express & Star after the pair decided to move to Oakham Road, Dudley, following their marriage.

“We were a close family, I remember trips to Bournemouth and picnics out and about,” said Mrs Smith, who is married to Alan ‘Aynuk’ Smith and lives in Netherton.

Mrs Smith said her father suffered from illness in his later years and died in 1966 from Tuberculosis.

Mrs Smith said her mother was out at the Conservative Club in Dudley with friends when she met her second husband widower Ernest Parsons who was a telephone engineer.

The couple married at St John’s Church in Kates Hill in 1969 – where Mollie and Alan were also wed.