The Oldest Person In The United States Is From The Midwest
Meet the oldest living person in the entire nation, 114-year-old Thelma Sutcliffe.
Thelma was born on October 1, 1906, in Omaha, Nebraska, where she still resides. As of today, she's 114 years and 214 days old. That also makes Thelma the oldest Nebraska resident in the state's history, and the 7th-oldest person in the entire world, in addition to being the oldest living American. Last October she was the 4th-oldest American and the 11th-oldest in the world:
Married an almost uncomprehensible 97 years ago, in 1924, Thelma's husband Bill passed away five decades ago. The two had no children, according to the Omaha World-Herald.
KETV says Thelma has fought through two breast cancer battles in her life. She's lived to see 21 different presidents hold office, beginning with Theodore Roosevelt. Thelma was only eight when World War I started and was not yet a teenager when the Spanish Flu pandemic started in 1918.
More than a century later, the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted Thelma's life. She's clearly still got plenty of spunk. Thelma got her vaccination as soon as it became available but her longtime friend Luella (Lou) Mason told the Omaha World-Herald that talking Thelma into a COVID test prior to the vaccinations was a non-starter:
They went in to test her for COVID and they told her that I had approved the test. She looked at (the swab) and looked up at the person holding it and said, ‘You’re not going to be sticking that thing up my nose. You can tell Lou to stick it up hers.’
Thelma isn't concerned with her age, taking things as they come. Mason says,
She always says, 'What good does it do to worry?' I think that's how you live to be 114 years old.
I hope she lives many more.
The Gerontology Research Group lists 19 people worldwide who are over 110 years old. They are all women, with the oldest being 118-year-old Kane Tanaka of Japan. The other three Americans are all 113-years-old. Maude Harris of Florida (17th-oldest), Bessie Hendricks (below--born November 7, 1907... 18th-oldest) of Lake City, Iowa, and Irene Dunham of Michigan (19th-oldest).
*The video below is slightly dated. It was produced just over a month ago, on April 1, 2021.