Features

San Pablo woman, 113, named oldest American

By Ron Harris The Associated Press
Thursday November 07, 2002

SAN PABLO — She’s short, strong-willed and has a taste for KFC chicken dinners and Twinkies. Meet 113-year-old Mary Christian of San Pablo — the newest oldest American. 

Christian was pronounced the oldest American last week by the Gerontology Research Group, a nonprofit collection of volunteer demographers who study aging and chronicle those who age long and gracefully. 

Christian became the nation’s eldest after last week’s death of Mary Parr, 113. After Parr’s death, John McMorran, also 113, held the title briefly until Christian’s age was confirmed. 

Born in Taunton, Mass. on June 12, 1889, Christian now holds the distinction all to herself. 

“She’s physically in good health. She’s always astounding her doctors,” said her great-granddaughter, Sharon Hanney. “She had a cold when she was 102 and got over that.” 

Christian moved with her family from Massachusetts to California at age 10. She was working in a Richmond chocolate factory when the 1906 earthquake hit, and she recalled for relatives that the boss let employees take bits of the broken sweets home after they fell on the floor from the shaking. 

Christian now lives at the Creekside Care Center in San Pablo, an eastern suburb of San Francisco. Only a few of her closest relatives can hold a conversation with her, as she only recognizes their familiar voices, Hanney said. 

The elderly woman worked at a cannery, and later at a Macy’s, and grew up in Richmond before the city held that name. Christian has lost much of her vision, and essentially is bedridden, but retained her taste for fast food until two years ago. 

“She used to be just crazy about Kentucky Fried Chicken. We would take her to KFC,” Hanney said. “She also loved Twinkies.” 

It’s the genes Christian inherited that are whetting the academic appetites of researchers, says Dr. Stephen Coles, an instructor of gerontology the UCLA school of medicine. 

“Supercentenarians live as long as they do because they grow old more uniformly and they don’t have a weak link like heart disease that takes them out of the running early,” Dr. Coles said. 

Dr. Coles is part of the group that verified Christian’s age.