My own opinion is tempered by personal experience, and I have always thought the women of Deep East Texas were tougher than a steel-toed boot.
My great-grandmother – dad’s mother’s mom - lived well into her 80’s, and I can remember seeing her mother, my great-great-grandmother attending my great-grandma’s funeral. I was still pretty young, so my impression was that she looked older than dirt, but she was still getting around on her own.
Now, as of yesterday, a 114-year-old East Texas woman is considered to be the oldest person in the world.
Eunice G. Sanborn of Jacksonville (pictured above) gained that distinction after 114-year-old Eugenie Blanchard, a nun who was said to be the world's oldest person, died Thursday on the French Caribbean island of St. Barts.
The Los Angeles-based Gerontology Research Group, which keeps track of such things, listed Sanborn as being born on July 20,1896. Blanchard's birth date was Feb. 16, 1896.
Dr. L. Stephen Coles, of Gerentology Research, told The Associated Press that, with the death of Blanchard, the group considers Sanborn the oldest person in the world. Coles also says he spoke to Sanborn's family Thursday and "she's doing well.”
In an April interview back in April, Sanborn told the Tyler Morning Telegraph that she loves everything about her life and has "no complaints."
-UPDATE -
Right after I posted this morning, another article came out saying that Eunice is 115, not 114.
According to the family, Sanborn was born on July 20, 1895, in Lake Charles, Louisiana. She moved to Jacksonville after her first husband, Joseph Orchin, died.
Although she never worked outside the home, Sanborn stayed busy with community activities her entire life and was an active member of First Baptist Church of Jacksonville, where her membership remains.
Sanborn survived a bout of scarlet fever when she was a child but lost two sisters to the illness.
She outlived three husbands and her only child, Dorothy, and credits her long life and good health to her belief in Christ.
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