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Valley
woman becomes the nation's oldest person
Associated
Press via The Vindicator
October
9, 2003
CAUSE FOR CELEBRATION
- 96-year-old Tillie O'Hare, right, will help her big sister, Charlotte
Benkner, celebrate her 111th birthday with a party Nov. 16.
North Lima
— Charlotte Benkner is now the nation's oldest person and the world's
third-oldest, according to a research group.
The German-born woman will turn 114 on Nov. 16.
Elena Slough of
Trenton
,
N.J.
, documented as the nation's oldest person, died Sunday at the nursing
home where her daughter died three days before. She was 114 or 115,
according to two sources.
Slough
died in her sleep at the Victoria Manor Nursing Home, where she and her
90-year-old daughter, Wanda Allen, lived, according to Judy Moudy, a
supervisor at the
Lower
Township
facility.
Benkner is now the nation's oldest person and the world's third-oldest,
according the Gerontology Research Group.
Her biography
Benkner was born in
Germany
in 1889 and moved to
New York
with her family as a child. Her father was a chef in a
New York
restaurant. She and her husband moved to
Youngstown
, where he had a job at United Engineering Co.
She was one of 11 children and has hinted the secret to her longevity
is in her genes. Her father lived to be 95.
She also said her eating habits, which include rarely eating sugar or
candy, also played a role in her longevity.
Benkner lives in Glenellen Senior Suites and Villas —
Lakeside
. She is presently in St. Elizabeth Medical Center for observation,
according to Minnie Colon, the residential coordinator at Glenellen.
Benkner's younger sister, Tillie O'Hare, also lives at Glenellen. She
was sleeping this morning and hadn't heard the news.
Benkner, who had no children, was honored last year for her work with
Camp
Fire
girls.
Former title holder
Slough
was born
July 8, 1889
, making her 114 years old at the time of her death. But Krista Rickards,
director of marketing at Victoria Manor, said
Slough
's son had a 1930 document that listed his mother as being born in 1888,
which would have made her 115.
What is not in dispute is that
Slough
had been the oldest person in the
United States
since April, when 113-year-old Mary Dorothy Christian died in
San Pablo
,
Calif.
Christian was born
June 2, 1889
.
"[
Slough
] is the oldest living American as of the time she died," Dr. L.
Stephen Coles, executive director of the Gerontology Research Group, said
Sunday.
The organization, which is affiliated with the UCLA School of Medicine,
maintains a Web site of the oldest people alive. Three types of
documentation — birth or baptismal certificates, marriage certificates
and census data — are used to verify ages.
According to the organization's Web site,
Slough
was the third-oldest living person in the world. Kamato Hongo turned 116
last month, and Mitoyo Kawate turned 114 in May. Both are Japanese.
The oldest person on record was Jeanne Calment, a Frenchwoman who was
122 when she died in 1997.
Slough, who was born Elena Rodenbaugh in a log cabin in Horsham, Pa.,
lived through 21 presidents and seven U.S. wars.
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