Dear Listers: The Marin County Genealogical Society has begun to recognize the Marinites that are 100 years of age and older. [Thanks Jerry Moore for your great idea!] San Rafael once held the distiction of being home to the World's Oldest Man. This week's Eastman's Newsletter had a related story. May we all live to be 100+ --- in good health and sound of mind! It may take that long to break down some of our brick genealogical walls! Happy Trails, Lauren ............................... The following article is from Eastmans Online Genealogy Newsletter and is copyright 2003 by Richard W. Eastman. It is re-published here with the permission of the author. Information about the newsletter is available at http://www.RootsForum.com. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ - Oldest American Dies at 113 The oldest American has died in San Pablo, California, at the age of 113, two months short of her 114th birthday. Born when Benjamin Harrison occupied the White House and Queen Victoria ruled England, she was 113 years and 312 days old. Mary Dorothy Christian witnessed the great San Francisco earthquake, enjoyed junk food, and lived alone until she was 102 years old. Mrs. Christian was born on June 12, 1889, in Taunton, Massachusetts. She moved to San Pablo in 1900 with her family. Christian once attributed her longevity to manual labor, recalling for an interviewer that her Portuguese immigrant father led her to the family potato patch when she was 9 and handed her a hoe. As a teenager she was hired to label cocoa cans and make candy at the Van Amden Chocolate Co. That job ended when the 1906 San Francisco earthquake destroyed the candy factory. She later became the second telephone operator for the Pacific Telephone Co. in Point Richmond, worked in the cafeteria of the Standard Oil Co., and for 13 years operated the elevator and worked in men's clothing at Albert's department store, which became Macy's. Retiring from Macy's in 1954, she later became a nanny and worked until 1971, when she was 81. She married O.R. Christian in 1907 and gave birth to two sons before the couple divorced in 1922. She outlived her sons and seven siblings. She used neither cigarettes nor alcohol and enjoyed a hearty diet. "Meat and potatoes, that's what I like to eat. And broccoli," she told the San Francisco Chronicle last year. She also admitted that she was fond of Kentucky Fried Chicken and Twinkies. The honor of "oldest American" now falls on Elana Slough of New Jersey, also 113 years old, 26 days younger than the late Mary Dorothy Christian. The oldest living American man is 112-year-old Fred Hale, who lives in New York. The world's oldest person is a Japanese man who is 115. The oldest person on record was a French woman who was 122 when she died in 1997. There are other claims for even older individuals, but documents to prove the claims are unavailable. These people are all "super centenarians," one who has lived to be 110 years or older. The Gerontology Research Group now recognizes 45 living super centenarians, all of whom who are listed on its Web site, http://www.grg.org.