When she was still traveling, and at 84 she was climbing mountains, someone asked Azella Taylor if she'd ever married and had children.

"I never married," she responded. "But I have 20 or 25 children."

Students from Olympia, Washington who were in Azella Taylor's class still stay in touch decades later, inspired by her independent spirit and unique teaching approach, which often involved puppetry.

Recently they gathered to throw her a 97th birthday party, and they arrive annually for her "December 23rd party".

"She was our Forrest Gump," Paige Porter told the Tacoma, Washington News Tribune. "If there was something important that happened, it seemed she'd been part of it."

A world traveler before becoming a teacher, she had stories about meeting Ernest Hemmingway, Chiang Kai-shek and Ansel Adams.

(WATCH the video below and READ the FULL story from the News Tribune)