Photo by courtesyPhoto Veola Palmer, 98, watched her great-great-granddaughter BreAnn Fields show her Heifer Wednesday at The Great Frederick Fair.

"I've only had three husbands," Palmer said at Wednesday The Great Frederick Fair. "My last one is still holding on."

All of her husbands were military men because she lived near Fort Belvoir, Va., she said.

Palmer was at the fair to watch her 14-year-old great-great-granddaughter, BreAnn Fields, show her Heifer steer. Palmer has 13 grandchildren, 26 great-grandchildren and 16 great-great-grandchildren.

BreAnn won Champion Heifer last year at the fair and Reserve Champion this year.

"She's 98, but sometimes acts like she's 60," grandson David Ahalt said. "She's fiery, feisty."

When her second husband died, her daughter was desperate to get her married off again, Palmer said.

"She was having too much fun being single," daughter Dottie Ahalt said.

Palmer recalls attending Montgomery County fairs.

"I loved it, but The Great Frederick is better," she said.

Palmer and her husband, 94-year-old Marshall, live at Northampton Manor Nursing Home in Frederick .

"She married a younger man this time," grandson Ronald Ahalt said. "She told me she would like to live to be 100 to be a pain to me."

Palmer was raised on a farm and milked cows. She remembers riding in a horse and buggy when her parents lived in Leesburg, Va.

The nursing home will tell you she's one of the happiest people there, Dottie Ahalt said. "They all love her."

Palmer gets up in the morning and makes sure her makeup and earrings are on with special clothes for the day. Her favorite meal is Kentucky Fried Chicken, and she made the best roast anybody could make, Dottie Ahalt said.

"She's crazy, but I love her," BreAnn said.

Ahalt's four children are Tommy Havenner, Dottie Ahalt, and two deceased sons, Vernon and Charles Havenner.