World's oldest person dies at 115 (Daughter of slave who voted for Obama)

[Libertas1776]

Source: BBC World News



The oldest person in the world has died in Los Angeles at the age of 115 of suspected heart failure. Gertrude Baines, born 6 April 1894, had held the title since January, when a Portuguese woman, Maria de Jesus, died, also at the age of 115.

<snip>

Ms Baines, whose father was once a slave, was believed to be the oldest ever African-American voter when she cast her ballot for US President Barack Obama in November 2008.She said she was voting for him "because he's for the coloured people".
She celebrated her 115th birthday in April and received a letter of congratulations from Mr Obama.

Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8251596.stm

---

I can only imagine the incredible things she witnessed in more than a century's worth of living. The daughter of a slave voting for this country's first black president; truly one of the most profound moments in US history.

[Ezlivin]

1. What was the cause of death?

I plan on living to 116....

[sakabatou]

18. Suspected heart failure.

[polichick]

2. Bless her - what a great story! nt

[goclark]

3. My minister mentioned her in a sermon a few weeks ago

She lived near our church on Adams Blvd in Los Angeles.

May she rest in peace.

[PDJane]

4. A long and eventful life indeed........

But though we all may be inclined to wait
And follow some development of state,
Or see what comes of science and invention,
There is a limit to our time extension.
We all are doomed to broken-off careers,
And so's the nation, so's the total race.
The earth itself is liable to the fate
Of meaninglessly being broken off.
(And hence so many literary tears
At which my inclination is to scoff.)
I may have wept that any should have died
Or missed their chance, or not have been their best,
Or been their riches, fame or love denies;
On me as much as any is the jest.
I take my incompleteness with the rest.
God bless himself, can no one else be blessed.

(from Lesson for Today by Robert Frost)

[Laf.La.Dem.]

5. RIP

:cry:

[kimmerspixelated]

6. SHe's seen some great changes.

I hope she hasn't turned on the tv since the bigoted teabaggers began their plight. She would believe that time was reversing itself!

[Xipe Totec]

7. Safe passage, Miss Gertrude n/t

[Faygo Kid]

8. Love that diet: Bacon and fried chicken.

Genetics may have had just a bit to do with it, bless her heart.

[Vidar]

9. RIP Ms. Baines.

[Robb]

10. And in the "unclear antecedent" department...

...I thought to myself, "A slave voted for Obama and this is her daughter?!?" :D

[Karenina]

11. Robb is a dingbat.

Give it up dude. The rules we learned have been erraaa... suspended until further notice. :rofl: :hug:

[Chef Eric]

14. +1 nt

[Yupster]

21. Same thing I thought

Who knew slaves could vote?

[trof]

28. Same here

[bigmonkey]

12. She was 20 when World War I started.

An adult when WWI began! Amazing.

[Chef Eric]

13. Hey Libertas1776, your modifier is dangling. nt

[Dogmudgeon]

15. Three Centuries!

In 1894, there was no widespread public electrification, radio was still a decade and a half away (and TV was almost 50 years in the future, though experimental TV was demonstrated when she was 29), Relativity and its twin theory on the Photoelectric Effect were a dozen years in the future, and although educated people no longer held the world to be a mere Biblical 6000 years old, they thought its age to be "a hundred million years old or so".

She was my age -- 51 -- when Hiroshima and Nagasaki were obliterated. The explosion of Tsar Bomba and release of Dr. Strangelove would come after her 68th birthday.

She was 75 when Apollo 11 went to the Moon. And she stole 40 years more from the Grim, if Tardy, Reaper after that.

That's Life writ large!

--d!

[MadMaddie]

19. That is something isn't it?

The things that she experienced, we lose so much history when we lose these elders.

[shanti]

22. what a life she has witnessed!

her heart just gave out...i hope it was peaceful...

[The Croquist]

16. A bit of a rude comment alert...

She looked a bit familiar to the daughter of a slave that read a poem in Ken Burns "The Civil War" so I looked her up on IMDB. She wasn't listed in the credits. I've got the DVD but I'm not sure where to find it.

However, she did pop up in a 2009 "post production" "How to Live Forever" movie / documentary.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1172957/

Maybe they should change the name.

Seriously though lets look at her life:

1894 Born (Good)
1898 Spanish American War (Bad)
1903 Wright Brothers Flight (Good)
1908 Model T (Good)
1917 US entry into WW I (Bad)
1920 19th Amendment granting women the right to vote (Good)
1929 Great Depression (Bad)
1933 FDR inaugurated as President (Good)
1941 US entry into WW II (Bad but necessary)
1945 Atomic bomb (No comment)
1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott starting the modern civil rights movement (Good)
1957 Civil Rights Act (Good)
1964 Civil Rights Act (Good)
1965 Voting Rights Act (Good)
1968 MLK assassinated (Bad)
1968 Civil Rights Act (Good)
1969 US lands on the moon (Good)
2001 911 (Bad)
2009 Barack Obama inaugurated as President (Good)

She witnessed a hell of a lot of changes in her life. Some good, some bad but over 115 years she saw the US become a better place. I hope that people could say the same when I leave the earth.

Bless her...

[TxRider]

17. There's a woman of 106 with a similar story

Who lives a few miles from my parents. I believe her husband was a slave.

It was big story around there.

[shanti]

23. the flu epidemic of 1918

she survived that too.

[applegrove]

20. Godspeed

[FreedomTrain]

24. The slave voted for Obama?

So who did the daughter vote for?

[Sultana]

25. FUCK OFF, can't you read?

[proteus_lives]

26. Troll!

Enjoy your brief stay.

[proteus_lives]

27. RIP and Godspeed to Ms. Baines.

She must have been something.