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ramonmercado Psycho Punk
Joined: 19 Aug 2003 Total posts: 17657 Location: Dublin Gender: Male |
 Posted: 12-10-2006 11:37 Post subject: |
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| Quote: | 'World's oldest man' dies in Cuba
By Stephen Gibbs
BBC News, Havana
Benito Martinez said he came to Cuba from Haiti in 1925
A Cuban man who claimed to be the oldest person in the world has died in hospital at what he believed was the age of 126.
Benito Martinez, whose age was never proved, was the star attraction of a Cuban government campaign to promote healthy lives for its oldest citizens.
He was absolutely certain that he was born in Haiti in 1880.
Mr Martinez had long enjoyed being living proof that it was possible to live happily to a very ripe old age.
Until his last months, he led a relatively active life, tending plants outside his one-bedroom house, visiting the local old people's home and being more than happy to demonstrate that being 120-plus did not mean you could not dance.
Toothless grin
He was born in Haiti and is believed to have come to Cuba in 1925 at the age of 45 as a farm labourer.
He worked for a while on a ranch in eastern Cuba, which happened to be owned by Fidel Castro's father.
His neighbours remember the man with the broad toothless grin as always being very old.
He never married, something which together with a life of hard work, fresh vegetables, not too many cigars and little alcohol, he attributed to being the secret of a long life.
Mr Martinez was the leading light of Cuba's 120 club, an organisation which aims to promote healthy living for the elderly.
The Cuban government, which takes great pride in the fact that the country's average life expectancy is 77 years, the same as the most developed nations, tried but failed to uncover baptism records or a birth certificate in Haiti.
For that reason Benito Martinez was never officially the world's oldest man. But he died convinced that he was.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6042982.stm |
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| OldTimeRadio Great Old One Joined: 15 Aug 2005 Total posts: 5539 Location: Cincinnati, Ohio USA Age: 71 Gender: Male |
| Posted: 13-10-2006 05:08 Post subject: |
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Does anybody recall the Ecuadorian (I think) gentleman who became front-page US news around 1958, because of his claim to be 168 years old? His claim was supposedly endorsed by other residents of his village.
Ah....he died a few months later. |
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| OldTimeRadio Great Old One Joined: 15 Aug 2005 Total posts: 5539 Location: Cincinnati, Ohio USA Age: 71 Gender: Male |
| Posted: 13-10-2006 05:19 Post subject: |
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In the early 1950s a dear friend of mine, then in her very early twenties, sat in a bar in Dover, Delaware.
An elfin-featured old man, pleasantly inebriated, reeled up to her.
"My name is Aloysius McGillacuddy," he announced, "and I'm a THOUSAND years old!" |
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| Mr_Seaweedski The Frumious Bandersnatch
Great Old One Joined: 25 Aug 2002 Total posts: 415 Location: High in the Huddersfield Hills Age: 5 Gender: Male |
| Posted: 16-10-2006 02:09 Post subject: |
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| Question, how old was the oldest person (with proven documents) when they died? Most unproven oldies (no birth cert) seem to claim about 126, but all official cases seem closer to 113/4. Hmmm? |
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| Mr_Nemo Joined: 10 May 2006 Total posts: 525 |
| Posted: 20-01-2007 03:37 Post subject: |
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/6281243.stm
World's oldest woman dies at 115
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The world's oldest woman has died at the age of 115 in a Montreal retirement home, Canadian media have reported.
Julie Winnefred Bertrand was born 16 September 1891 in the Quebec mill town of Coaticook near the US border.
She was officially proclaimed the world's oldest woman, and the second oldest person, after the death of American Elizabeth Bolden in December.
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(C) BBC '07 |
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| OldTimeRadio Great Old One Joined: 15 Aug 2005 Total posts: 5539 Location: Cincinnati, Ohio USA Age: 71 Gender: Male |
| Posted: 20-01-2007 06:33 Post subject: |
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What's the longevity record for individuals more famous for things OTHER than their extreme longevity?
After all, Bob Hope, Madame Chaing Kai-Shek, Irving Berlin, Leni Reifenstahl, Eubie Blake, Rose Kennedy, George Abbott, George Burns, and British aircraft designer Sopwith, among a good many other celebrities, all made it past the century mark.
But the record among already-famous people seems to belong to the great Olympic skier "Jackrabbit" Johanssen, who made it to 111...and who was still skiing at 107! |
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| Kondoru Unfeathered Biped Joined: 05 Dec 2003 Total posts: 5719 Gender: Unknown |
| Posted: 20-01-2007 23:40 Post subject: |
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| Alexandria David Neel. 101 |
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| OldTimeRadio Great Old One Joined: 15 Aug 2005 Total posts: 5539 Location: Cincinnati, Ohio USA Age: 71 Gender: Male |
| Posted: 20-01-2007 23:58 Post subject: |
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| Kondoru wrote: | | Alexandria David Neel. 101 |
And didn't Professor Margaret Murray also make it past 100?
P. S. Mea culpa, I almost forgot to list the late Queen Mother! |
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| Mr_Nemo Joined: 10 May 2006 Total posts: 525 |
| Posted: 26-01-2007 02:54 Post subject: |
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/6296089.stm
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World's oldest person dies at 115
The world's oldest person, Emiliano Mercado del Toro, has died aged 115 at his home in Puerto Rico.
His great-niece, Dolores Martinez, said he died like a little angel, and that his great great-nephew and a carer were with him at the time.
Mr Mercado del Toro had been having difficult breathing recently but was alert before his death. |
(C) BBC '07 |
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| OldTimeRadio Great Old One Joined: 15 Aug 2005 Total posts: 5539 Location: Cincinnati, Ohio USA Age: 71 Gender: Male |
| Posted: 26-01-2007 05:01 Post subject: Two More Famous Centurnarians |
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Adolph Zukor, the founder of Hollywood's Paramount Studio, lived to be 103 years old.
Hal Roach, Sr., founder of the Hal Roach Studio, lived to be one hundred.
I find it statistically remarkably that of the eight or 10 major Hollywood studios, TWO of the founders lived to age 100 or more.
Last edited by OldTimeRadio on 14-02-2007 03:10; edited 1 time in total |
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| gncxx King-Size Canary
Great Old One Joined: 25 Aug 2001 Total posts: 13303 Location: Eh? Gender: Male |
| Posted: 26-01-2007 17:14 Post subject: |
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| It must be that clean, clear, pure Los Angeles air. |
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| OldTimeRadio Great Old One Joined: 15 Aug 2005 Total posts: 5539 Location: Cincinnati, Ohio USA Age: 71 Gender: Male |
| Posted: 29-01-2007 02:47 Post subject: |
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| I have to confess that as a child I assumed that a statistically noticeable minority of individuals lived to be 120 years old. It was because of a fairly widespread playful insult - "My great-grandmother lived to be 120, and when she'd been dead two weeks she looked better than you do now!" |
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| Mr_Nemo Joined: 10 May 2006 Total posts: 525 |
| Posted: 30-01-2007 00:01 Post subject: |
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/6310363.stm
World's oldest person dies at 114
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The world's oldest person, Emma Faust Tillman, has died in the US aged 114.
Mrs Tillman, the daughter of former slaves, died "peacefully" on Sunday night, said an official at a nursing home in Hartford, Connecticut.
Mrs Tillman had lived independently until she was 110 and had never smoked or drank, her family and friends said.
She only became the world's oldest person last week, after the death of a 115-year-old man in Puerto Rico, the Guinness Book of World Records said.
"She was a wonderful woman," said Karen Chadderton, administrator of Riverside health and Rehabilitation Center in Hartford.
Mrs Tillman had been very religious and had always attributed her longevity to God's will, according to her family and friends.
She was born on 22 November 1892 on a plantation near Gibsonville in North Carolina.
In an interview with a local historical society in 1994, Mrs Tillman said her parents had been slaves.
Longevity appears to be common in Mrs Tillman's family - three of her sisters and a brother lived past 100.
Japan's Yone Minagawa, who was born in 1893, is now believed to be the world's oldest person. |
(C) BBC '07 |
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| nataraja Great Old One Joined: 05 Sep 2005 Total posts: 106 Gender: Unknown |
| Posted: 30-01-2007 02:19 Post subject: |
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| Quote: | | His great-niece, Dolores Martinez, said he died like a little angel |
So, how do angels die, then? Aren't they supposed to be immortal?  |
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| OldTimeRadio Great Old One Joined: 15 Aug 2005 Total posts: 5539 Location: Cincinnati, Ohio USA Age: 71 Gender: Male |
| Posted: 30-01-2007 06:19 Post subject: |
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| So in just the past 10 days the world's lost two 115-year-olds and one 114-year -old, with all of them in North America. |
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