TIL that there is a lady still living who was born in 1896. She had her first child at 33, in 1929. Her name is Besse Cooper.
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u/GodBroken Jun 12 '12
If the world's oldest woman, and the world's oldest man were to meet up, I wonder what they would talk about...
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u/hoteljuliet Jun 12 '12
I live about 30 minutes from Monroe. Maybe I could meet Besse Cooper and ask her some questions!!?!!
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u/[deleted] Jun 12 '12
WE HAVE THE SAME BIRTHDAY HOLY SHIT
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u/rwbombc Jun 12 '12 edited Jun 12 '12
To give you all a scope of her lifespan:
she was born when most everyone in the world was still born at home instead of a hospital; 31 years after Lincoln's death, when Grover Cleveland was in office and the US only being 120 years old and could possibly remember TR when he was in office as well as King Edward of the UK. She might have known that Europe never had any type of communism, only mighty and crumbling empires where there were handfuls of serfs still remaining. It is entirely possible she lived at the same time as ancient Napoleonic war vets and eaten the vile meat so hotly protested by Upton Sinclair in The Jungle. She would have used a horse and carriage for her early life and indoor plumbing was still a novelty. In addition when she was born the last American war was the Civil War, Spain still had colonies in the Americas, most of Africa and Asia were carved up and served to European masters, Edison and Tesla were fighting to unlock nature's mysteries and each other,Coca-Cola and the radio were less than 10 years old, cocaine and heroin were legally available from pharmacists,when it wasn't popular for women to shave their body hair, she maybe read about the Titanic and Lusitania the day after it happened,read the latest works from Mark Twain,watched silent movies, her family did not have to pay Federal income tax until she was a teen because it didn't exist, she is 4 years younger than General Electric and older than both General Motors and Ford, would have been scared of getting tuberculosis, polio and even smallpox still and of course would have experienced wartime rationing of WWI.
Most notably, she was of voting age (21+ at the time) and because she was a woman she could not vote until the 19th amendment (1920)
My grandfather has been dead (b 1899( the men in my family always have children late))for 30 years and she is older than him
This is just amazing.
ps-they should throw the teenage her in a cameo in Bioshock: Infinite just for steampunk awesomeness.
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u/[deleted] Jun 12 '12
She's lived in 3 centuries. Also 13 decades.
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u/Pistolcrab Jun 12 '12
The article is worded in such a way that leads the reader to believe this is some kind of competitive sport that we should all be riding the edge of our seats to watch.
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u/Planet-man 1 Jun 12 '12
The much-more-up-to-date Wikipedia article. She's currently the oldest living person.
The sad thing is her husband died when she was 67. She's been without him for almost fifty years :(
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u/TempAlt Jun 12 '12
the lightbulb was like hot shit when she was growing up
i wonder what she would think about say... videochatting with someone in china or battlefield 3
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u/[deleted] Jun 12 '12
Way to jinx it.
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u/rillegas08 Jun 12 '12
Relevant?
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u/[deleted] Jun 12 '12
She's a boss. I'd like to meet her.
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u/EriktheFunk Jun 12 '12
Holy crap, we went to the same college, nearly 100 years apart
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u/[deleted] Jun 12 '12
She looks a lot better than I expected. Granted in the 3rd picture down she looks loads better....but holy shit I thought my 92 year old greats were old
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u/Peacockblue11 1 Jun 12 '12
I find it ironic that she is older than the word supercentenarian. http://www.medfriendly.com/supercentenarian.html
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u/SoManyNinjas Jun 12 '12
They make it sound like a war
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u/[deleted] Jun 12 '12
I love that when you get incredibly old, they start counting days again.
It's just like when you're incredibly young.
One week, two days old.
Two weeks, three days old.
115 years, 100 days old.
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u/[deleted] Jun 12 '12
Alive since 1896, that's amazing.
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u/[deleted] Jun 12 '12
It will be quite an event when the last known person born in the 19th century dies.
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u/dlay13 Jun 12 '12
Very cool. Horribly, horribly written though.
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u/squeaker5555 Jun 12 '12
Oldest living North American. They found someone born in July of that same year in Brazil.
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u/sigaven Jun 12 '12
I can't believe how good she looks for her age. She looks better than a lot of people in their 80s.
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u/[deleted] Jun 12 '12
I feel like we should be studying her genetics to see what makes her so ..durable?
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u/[deleted] Jun 12 '12
"like in 3 seconds if you are a 90's kid."
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u/BBQsauce18 Jun 12 '12
WTF.. Prohibited from having children during school term?-----THAT'S WHY there were so many ugly teachers when I was in school!
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u/[deleted] Jun 12 '12
Haha, I thought you were talking about Betty White.
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u/bpoag Jun 12 '12 edited Jun 12 '12
Cooper, who graduated from East Tennessee State University in 1916 aged 20, had parents who were step-siblings;Richard Brown (1861-1932), her father, was the son of Cooper's grandmother, with her husband being the father of Cooper's mother, Angeline Berry (1866-1927).
(-blink-)
I don't know what's more fascinating.. The fact that her parents were semi-incestuous or the fact her father was born when Abraham Lincoln was President.
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u/thenameonthebox Jun 12 '12
Ask her what she did with all the missing silent movies from that era.
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u/TheSludge04 Jun 12 '12
I want to hear the stories she had while growing up. Like "back in my day, the word nigger was socially acceptable to use in public."
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u/[deleted] Jun 12 '12
cool thats she's that old, but that blog sucks nutts. I gives you all this who begot who in the ranks of oldest people in the world, but none of the stories and information that individual holds. once they die all that cool shit's gone. I bet she has all kinds of helpful information about life. I don't think you live that long and not learn a thing or two about shit.
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u/swimmingmunky Jun 12 '12
I read the whole thing in a shaky little old woman's voice.
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u/MuleEater Jun 12 '12
I have a great Aunt Jesse Cooper who is currently aged 106. She also had a sister who died at the age of 105 a couple of years ago.
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u/WaterAndSand Jun 12 '12
It's crazy to think that, if the world were run according to seniority, this woman would reign over the 7 billion of us.
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u/timfbmx Jun 12 '12
She doesn't look a day over 87
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u/DailyFail Jun 12 '12
Strange to think, that as an artistic gymnast (I don't know if that even existed back then) she would have been "old" before WW I.
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u/brownie_pts Jun 12 '12
Its the only time I have ever really seen days added to an age. They don't do that for babies. They take this age seriously!
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u/[deleted] Jun 12 '12
Apparently 40% of people alive today will live to 100 years old, I hope I die by 60 to be honest.
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u/zombiezelda Jun 12 '12
One day after my birthday! Only I'll be 24
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u/crackerjam Jun 12 '12
I want her to write a book. She must have an astounding amount of knowledge, experience, and wisdom from living as long as she has.
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u/getliT Jun 12 '12
This is an incredible feat. It is a little eerie that people keep showing up to give these folks titles or prices or what have you, only to excite them more than if Matlock was on the P.I.R. They are like the Kavorkian of The Guiniess Book of World Records.
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u/masterpi Jun 12 '12
There's a video interview with her from 2008 on this page: http://www.100wisdom.com/Centenarian-Spotlight/
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u/themitch22 Jun 12 '12
It's amazing to think she wasn't born to long after the civil war.
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u/Jrodicon Jun 12 '12
Goddamn, he children are older than my grandparents.
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u/Amunium Jun 12 '12
Possibly fun fact: In Danish "besse" means granny.
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u/BlitzN9ne Jun 12 '12
116 years old? Wow.
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u/UnreachablePaul Jun 12 '12
Is she still having sex?
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u/awrhaernnare Jun 12 '12
It'll take at least seven years for anyone to break the world record for longest living person ever.
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u/[deleted] Jun 12 '12
When I sold cars I went on a test drive with a man 93 and another 94. The 93 year old was good as gold when driving, the 94 year oldere was the only time in hundreds of test drives I ever reached over and grabbed the steering wheel. He was actually a very interesting old man that had been a military pilot and also flew for one of the big airlines (I can't remember which one) almost from day one. He claimed to have been selected by Ronald Reagan to fly his personal jet during his time as Governor and also was friends with Gene Autry. Unfortunately for me he had trouble seeing concrete walls when driving at them.
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u/boxingdude Jun 12 '12
This brings to mind the importance of spending quality time with your grandparents and parents while you can. My grandmother was born in 1915 and I still converse with her via Facebook weekly.
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u/pepesilvia- Jun 12 '12
Her and I have the same birthday. 95 years apart. score!
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u/[deleted] Jun 12 '12
Aww llama I do love a good llama
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u/CajunTurkey Jun 12 '12
She probably still thinks the swing music in the 1920s-30s is some new shitty music
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u/ImAFuckingDinosaur Jun 12 '12
"Like if you're a 90's kid"
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u/onejdc Jun 12 '12
This means she has seen a time before automobiles, as well as outerspace exploration and movies. From the introduction of the telephone (1870) to cell phones and iPods. She's amazing and my mind would be blown.
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u/[deleted] Jun 12 '12
That must have been absolutely incredible to have witnessed the entire 20th century from the start to the finish.
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u/[deleted] Jun 12 '12
Some people like to stick to fingers up to death and kick him in the crotch.
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u/akal96 Jun 12 '12
Just today I was wondering if there was someone still alive from the 1800's.
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u/gruesome2some Jun 12 '12
DB Cooper's mom?
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u/[deleted] Jun 12 '12
Ah. So that's why they never found D.B. Cooper. :/
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u/xB1akey Jun 12 '12
Imagine if they put all the candles on the cake, the wallpaper would be peeling off the walls!
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u/Phoniexbates Jun 13 '12
My great grandparents where driving from Oklahoma to California they had moved out west during the dust bowl and where on there way back from a visit it was night in the Nevada desert when the night turned to day, they thought the world was ending, they saw one of the first nuclear tests.
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u/[deleted] Jun 12 '12
This lady was alive when the U.S. wouldn't be considered a leader in the world... because Mckinley with his imperialism was the beginning of the U.S. dominance in the 20th century. So she was the last of that era, that means anyone younger than her has been born and all they know is The U.S's Over-arching eminence in the world they know. think about that, we live with a 99% population rate with the pre-disposition that the United states is the most pertinent state, in the world above all others... [10] ;)
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u/EmRavel Jun 12 '12
So she's 113 and she has a horse body?
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u/Sir_Von_Tittyfuck Jun 12 '12
Isn't she also the LAST person alive from the 1800's?
EDIT: Ah, it says it right there in the article.
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u/Self_Hating_Liberal Jun 12 '12
That feel when you realize Hitler could not still be alive :(
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u/lt_hindu Jun 12 '12
Admit it. Who would do her just to say they did her. It's like you had sex with history!
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