(Photo: JimJim00 gerontology.wikia.org/)
CHARLOTTE, NC — For most of Hester Ford’s life, she thought that her birthday was on August 15, 1905. But after some digging by the Gerontology Research Group, they found census bureau documents that say she was actually born in 1904, which means she has become the 7th oldest person in the world at 115.
Ford took the mantle of the oldest living American last week when Alelia Murphey passed away at 114 years and 140 days old.
Ford was born the youngest daughter of a farmer in South Carolina. She and her husband raised 12 children. They have 58 grandchildren and over 120 great-great-grandchildren, according to The Charlotte Observer.
In an interview with WBTV on her 111th birthday, she said that she credits God with her health. Even with her advanced age and the problems with her memory and hearing, she told WCNC that she could still quote Psalm 23 “without skipping a beat.”
To put Ford’s age in perspective, she was born just eight months after the Wright Brothers took their first flight at Kitty Hawk, while Teddy Roosevelt was President.
She was 10 years old at the beginning of World War 1, 29 at the beginning of the Great Depression, and 35 at the beginning of World War 2.
When Hester Ford was 65 she saw the Apollo 11 astronauts walk on the moon.