- April 30, 2026
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Jean Craig Flynn is old enough to have seen lots of changes in the world.
She remembers when a horse-drawn rig would deliver ice for the ice box, and when a milkman supplied the household's milk.
However, over the past couple of decades, something has remained constant in her life: swimming.
On most days, the Siesta Key resident swims 27 to 30 pool lengths of about 65 feet. She's turning 100 on May 7, and while she says age may have slowed her, she still enjoys it.
In fact, she believes swimming, a pursuit that has earned her the nickname "Jingle Jean, the Swimming Queen," is behind her longevity.
Flynn notes an article she read stating that swimming is the best activity a person can do for their mind. But she says what draws her is "the feeling, the reward you get, when you get out of the water.”
“One of my friends says, ‘Oh Jean, aren't you exhausted?’ And I said, ‘No, I feel like I could fight a tiger,'" she said. "It gives you energy, and it also releases any of the tension that you've got, and problems.”
It was later in her life that Flynn began swimming regularly.
It started at a cottage her family had purchased when she was 14, at Higgins Lake, Michigan, a place famous for its turquoise waters.
She was staying there after the death of her first husband, Dick Craig, in 2003, after they had been married 53 years. (She later married Hal Flynn.)
She was still grieving when she went for a swim in the lake and realized that she felt better.
From there, she began increasing her distance.
She began swimming laps at the fitness club in her home of Grand Blanc, Michigan.
"I walked both my hips off, so then I had to do something else," she said, noting she received a double hip replacement in 2007.
The first time, she swam half a length of the pool before she was out of breath, but she worked her way up to 53 lengths. She just wanted to see how far she could go.
Her son Jim Craig says he has a competitive spirit he might have inherited from her. Flynn says swimming doesn't have to be competitive.
“There might be two fellows, one on both sides of me, and they're just going like blazes, right past you, and you don't care," she said. "You just are doing your thing. He's doing his thing, this fellow is doing his thing ... but I just wanted to see how many I could do and still feel good.”
She also says swimming has been "wonderful therapy."
“You could get on the steps and think, ‘Oh, I have 10 things that are really bugging me,’ and you get in the pool and you swim for about maybe 15-20 minutes — I always swam about an hour — if you get out you say, what was I thinking? What was I worried about?… It just vanishes.”
Another bright aspect has been the "nice, wonderful" people she calls her "pool pals."
She says in Grand Blanc, where the pool is adjacent to a hospital, she has met people including doctors and radiologists.
"It’s just fun to have that association with a lot of people that you never would run across,” she said.
She exchanges texts with some of her pool pals, and many of them also belong to the local area, one example being a man who would count laps for her.
Another set of friends kept a watchful eye, including a couple of girls who would stand at the end of the pool, watching for kids crossing into Jean's lane.
“One of them had a whistle, and she'd blow it and she'd say, 'Out of the lane,'" she said. "She was so funny."
She and her Dick Craig settled on Siesta Key as many friends from the Flint, Michigan, area also lived there, and since 1996, she has been a resident of Gulf & Bay Club.
Flynn says the fact that she's turning 100 in just a week is hard to comprehend, stating, "I feel like I'm about maybe 70."
She credits her faith in God as a reason for her longevity.
“I've always depended on him to look after me, and I've just had a lot of trust in him, and I'm thankful that he's let me stay on this earth this long, given me all these blessings,” she said, noting her three children, eight grandchildren and nine great grandchildren.
She also notes that at the age of 99, swimming can pose new challenges.
A couple of bouts with COVID over the past two years set her back, forcing her to rebuild her strength.
She says during a time when swimming becomes difficult, she pushes through for the "ice cream at the end of the trail."
“The one thing I think that you have to think about when you get to be this age: it would be fun to be able to go out and romp around, because I always like to be active and jump around and ride bicycles and that type of thing, but you sort of have to go with the flow, and you've got to recognize that your body is just sort of slowing down and, and you've got to accept that fact,” she said. “If you don't, you're going to be miserable. You might as well enjoy it and and be happy."
Her mindset has managed to inspire at least one other.
Her neighbor Heidi Kreiner-Ley, who is turning 70 this year, says after the foundation was poured for her new home in Toronto, Canada, the first thing she did was go to a pool company.
She says her friends also share her admiration for Flynn.
"We all agree we're going to be more like Jean, all of us, because obviously she's got the formula down to get to be 100," she said.
That formula? "Spreading joy, happiness, and gratitude."
