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Great-Great-Granny Earns Masters Degree
at 94
MediaCorp
News
Australia
August
2, 2007
A
94-year-old Australian great-great-grandmother has become the oldest
person in the world to earn a masters degree, local media reported on
Thursday.
Phyliss Turner, described by one of her sons as having "an amazing
brain", took her masters in medical science at the
University
of
Adelaide
in
South Australia
.
Turner had been forced to leave school at the age of 12 to help her mother
care for the family after her father abandoned them, the Daily Telegraph
reported.
Nearly 60 years later she enrolled for a Bachelor of Arts degree in
anthropology at
Adelaide
and won a 12-month scholarship to study at the
University
of
California
.
"I entered university when I was 70 and I came top in the essay
section when I did my entry exam," said the mother of seven, who has
23 great-grandchildren and nine great-great-grandchildren.
She graduated in 1986, did her honours in 2002 and then entered the
university's medical school to do her masters.
Professor Maciej Henneberg, her supervisor, said Turner had "a lively
and fresh intellect". The boast about her "amazing brain"
came from her son, Tom.
"We are very proud of her," daughter Anne O'Herran said.
"She is the oldest higher degree research graduate in the world and
we're putting her in the Guinness Book of Records."
The master herself said she was delighted.
"I feel very, very happy after five years of study, but sorry that I
am just a little bit immobilised," said Turner, who uses a walking
stick.
"I don't feel old and I would like to go on to further study, but I
am a bit of a liability to other people now."
Despite her academic achievements, Turner said she was most proud of her
seven children and two step-children.
"They were all very good children," she said.
Granddaughter Sue Rudall returned the compliment: "She is a strong
old matriarch," she said.
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