Oldest Texan Dead at 114

[Mugu]

AP

Arbella Perkins Ewings celebrated her birthday March 13 with a proclamation from Mayor Tom Leppert and speeches by friends and family. She blew out all 114 candles on her birthday cake.

"She was telling everyone, 'It's time to meet my maker,'" Sabrina Porter, the retirement home's executive director, told The Dallas Morning News. "It was a blessing that she went so peacefully."

At the time of her death, Ewings was the oldest person in Texas, the second-oldest American and the third-oldest person in the world, according to the Gerontology Research Group, a California group that tracks the world's oldest people.

As of March 1, the organization had validated 81 "supercentenarians" who were 110 years or older. The oldest, Edna Parker of Indiana, will turn 115 in April, and the second-oldest, Maria de Jesus of Portugal, turned 114 last September.


Complete article at:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/03/23/national/a003745D28.DTL&tsp=1

[pepperbear]

1. 19th century babies are vanishing. n/t

[MilesColtrane]

2. Yup.

Those damned chicken fried steaks will kill I tell ya!

[Starbucks Anarchist]

3. Did she go to school with John McCain?

:hide:

[angrycarpenter]

4. To live that long sounds great, but...

It would mean being elderly for 50 years. Find a way to beat frailty and I would be happy to live that long. Until then about 70 is a good age to live.

[SoCalDem]

5. Not the oldest anymore

:)

[SidDithers]

6. Oldest Texan dead again?. It's like that title is cursed...

credit Seth Myers, SNL :)

Sid