A little bit of history slips away ...

[The Walrus]

Are they sure she hasn't actually been dead for 20 years?

[Mr Magister]

First in Minnesota. Eleventh in the United States. Twenty-
third in the world. Ruth Anderson of Marshall, who at 112 years old
held the title of the oldest person in Minnesota, died at 4:05 a.m.
Tuesday at Avera Morningside Heights Care Center in Marshall.

Ruth Peterson was born July 24, 1899, in Ellsborough Township in
Murray County, one of a set of twins. Her brother, Abel, died when he
was 13 months old.

"Ruth was the world's oldest surviving twin," said Bev Anderson,
Ruth's daughter-in-law. "She was in the Guinness World Book of
Records."

When Ruth Anderson was 106, she moved from Boulder Estates Assisted
Living, (where she was the first person to move in to the new
facility) to Avera Morningside Heights. She had another bedroom at
Boulder just for her quilting, but gave that up when she moved to the
nursing home.

"But she still did her scripture reading and played Scrabble," said
Bev Anderson.

Ruth Anderson played her final game last Thursday.

"Every Thursday morning a local woman, Murial Caldwell, came to play
Scrabble," said Bev Anderson.

For Ruth's 110th birthday, Dave Kraft of Marshall wrote to Parker
Brothers telling the company about Ruth's faithfulness as a Scrabble
player.

Parker Brothers contacted Bev and asked what could it do for Ruth. Bev
Anderson told the company that Ruth had worn out still another game,
so the company sent her "a beautiful deluxe edition and a plaque
saying she was in the expert Scrabble club."

At the age of 60, Ruth married her sister's widower, George Anderson,
and helped raise his four sons, her nephews, in the Ruthton area.

Ruth was recently interviewed by WCCO-TV reporter Liz Collin. The
interviews were aired Nov. 26 and Nov. 27.

Bev Anderson said that Ruth's health was "failing the last couple of
days" so her death was not unexpected. Funeral arrangements are
pending.

[Mr Magister]

A 1920s screenwriter (1900-2012) :

LA MESA, Calif. -- Frederica Sager Maas, the third oldest person in
California, has died in San Diego County at age 111.
Dr. Stephen Coles of the Los Angeles-based Gerontology Research Group
says Maas died Thursday night at the Country Villa skilled nursing
facility in La Mesa.
Maas, a screenwriter and author, chronicled her life in her
autobiography "The Shocking Miss Pilgrim: A Writer in Early
Hollywood." Her screenwriting credits include the 1925 silent film
"The Plastic Age" starring Clara Bow and Gilbert Roland.
Coles says the oldest person in California is now 112-year-old Soledad
Mexia of Chula Vista, followed by 111-year-old Avice Clark of
Placerville.
The oldest person who ever lived was Jeanne-Louise Calment, who was
122 when she died Aug. 4, 1997, in Arles, France.

[Mr Magister]

Marcelle Narbonne (25 March 1898 – 1 January 2012) was, at the time of her death, the oldest living person in France and Europe. She was also the 8th-oldest validated living person in the world.

Another Frenchwoman, Marie-Thérèse Bardet (born 2 June 1898) is now the oldest known European.

[Mr Magister]

Delma Dorothie Kollar (née Lowman; October 31, 1897 – January 24, 2012) was an American supercentenarian and one of the oldest 100 verified people ever. On her last birthday, she became one of only 88 people to have attained the age of 114. Before recent research, she was thought to have been born in 1898. However, from the data in the census closest to her date of birth, and due to the fact that her younger sister was born in February 1899, this was proved to have been wrong.

[man_in_a_suitcase]

Florence Green died at Briar House in North Lynn on Sunday - two weeks before her 111th birthday.

She had joined the Women’s Royal Air Force shortly before the end of the conflict, in 1918, and worked as a waitress at Marham.

According to wikipedia she was the last WW1 veteran.

Link
Wiki entry

[Mr Magister]

San Francisco Chronicle reports:

Rose Cliver, 1906 SF quake survivor, dies at 109

Demian Bulwa

Monday, February 20, 2012

Those who keep alive memories of the 1906 earthquake in San Francisco will gather today to honor one of the last people known to have been alive when the great city was brought to its trembling knees.

Rose Cliver was 3 years old on April 18, 1906, when the quake and resulting fire killed more than 1,000 people and ruined more than 28,000 buildings. When she died Saturday at a residential care home in Santa Rosa, she was 109.

She attended an annual commemoration of the disaster in 2009, and "enjoyed her 15 minutes of fame," said her son, Don Cliver of Santa Rosa. She told The Chronicle that day that she and her family, who lived in Bernal Heights, had climbed Bernal Hill after the quake and "watched San Francisco burn."

Don Cliver said his mother wasn't supposed to live long after her premature birth, but was the picture of health thereafter. One of 13 siblings, she lived an ordinary life - marriage, homemaking, two children of her own - and enjoyed traveling and quarter slot machines in her later years.

It was only after a stroke and a fall a couple of years ago, her son said, that she moved in with him in Santa Rosa and accepted help with cooking and cleaning.

Lee Houskeeper, an organizer of the city's annual earthquake commemorations, said she will be honored at noon today at John's Grill at 63 Ellis St. This year's April 18 remembrance, he said, will be dedicated to her. Funeral services have not yet been scheduled.

Her death, Houskeeper said, leaves four known '06 quake survivors.

[Mr Magister]

Stella Nardari-Vecchiato (23 December 1898 - Feb 23 2012) was an Italian supercentenarian. Aged 113 years 62 days, Vecchiato was the oldest person living in Italy since the death of Venere Pizzinato, on 2 August 2011, although Dina Manfredini was (and still remains) the oldest living Italian person in the world. She died ranked as the world's 10th oldest living person. Vecchiato is one of the ten oldest people ever from Italy and the oldest person ever from the region of Veneto.

[Mr Magister]

Joannes "Jan" Aloïsius Goossenaerts (30 October 1900 – 21 March 2012) was a Belgian supercentenarian. Following the death of Stanley Lucas of the United Kingdom, he was the oldest verified living man in Europe. At the time of his death he was the world's 3rd-oldest living man.

[Mr Magister]

Leila Alice Denmark (née Daughtry; February 1, 1898 – April 1, 2012) was an American pediatrician. She was the world's oldest practicing pediatrician until her retirement in May 2001 at the age of 103.[2] She was one of the rare supercentenarians renowned for reasons other than longevity; the only such person living to be 114. On December 10, 2011, at age 113 years 312 days, she became one of the 100 oldest people ever. At her death she was the 4th-oldest verified living person in the world and the 3rd-oldest verified living person in the United States.

Denmark is credited as co-developer of the pertussis (whooping cough) vaccine in the 1920s and 1930s.

[Mr Magister]

Oldest woman in Scotland dies aged 110.

Scotland's oldest person has died at the age of 110.

Janet Sheed Roberts, who celebrated her 110th birthday last August, is understood to have died last week.

She was born in Cabrach, in Moray, in the summer of 1901 and was the last surviving granddaughter of William Grant, who founded the Glenfiddich distillery in Dufftown in 1886.

Mrs Roberts lived just a few miles from the distillery, and had a whisky named after her.

Eleven bottles of the Glenfiddich Janet Sheed Roberts Reserve were produced to mark her 110th birthday.

The first bottle was sold at the Bonham's whisky auction in Edinburgh on 14 December last year, fetching £46,850 which was donated to international charity WaterAid.

Another bottle was sold on 10 February for £44,000 at an event hosted by the Walking with the Wounded charity.
Olympic runner

Then at an auction in New York on 15 March a bottle sold for US$94,000 (£59,252), breaking the record for the most expensive bottle of whisky ever sold at auction.

Mrs Roberts studied at both Glasgow and Edinburgh universities, reading law at Edinburgh, where she was the only woman in her class.

She played hockey there and during one mixed game is reported to have found herself marking Eric Liddell, whose Olympic success was captured in the film Chariots Of Fire.

Mrs Roberts practised law for many years and met her husband Eric at the firm McGrigor Donald.

Mr Roberts later became a director of William Grant and Son and she promoted the business around the world with him.

[Mr Magister]

Wikipedia reports:

Cora Hansen (25 March 1899 – 18 April 2012) was an American-born Canadian supercentenarian who, at the age of 113 years, 24 days, was the oldest validated living person in Canada, a title she had held since Margaret Fitzgerald died on 20 October 2009 at the age of 113 years 34 days, At the time, Hansen was 110. She was the last living Canadian born before the year 1900.

[Julian K]

It's just amazing that there are still people alive who were born in the nineteenth century. Simply staggering!

[Mr Magister]

We're now down to 25 verified, 3 awaiting validation and 7 other possible people left alive who were born in the 1800s (1896-99). Plus 19 verified, 4 awaiting validation and 45 other possible people left alive born in 1900 (still the nineteenth century).

[richard l]

William Lawlis Pace dies aged 103

William Lawlis Pace, the holder of the Guinness World record for living the longest with a bullet in the head, has died aged 103.

It is almost 95 years since he was shot – by his older brother, in 1917, accidentally with their father's .22 calibre rifle.