The Oldest Person in the United States Dies At 115

Bessie Hendricks, the oldest person in the United States, has just died. She was 115 years old.

She was born in rural Iowa on November 7, 1907. That was a very long time ago. Just to put that in perspective, Teddy Roosevelt was the sitting president. The Titanic had not yet been built, let alone set sail or, of course, sunk to the bottom of the northern Atlantic. Cars had been invented, but mass production of cars was still some years off, meaning that most people had never seen a car yet. Radios had not yet been invented, and obviously, neither had television. Motion pictures were still a novelty, and it was all still in black and white. The British Empire was the leading world power, with Germany seeming to emerge as a possible rival in Europe. The United States was by then also generally regarded as a major world power, although many believed that it was still mostly a rural backwater who's status as a world power was still a little suspect. World War I was still the better part of a decade away from breaking out, and it would end shortly after Bessie turned 11 years old.

In her lifetime, Hendricks lived to see both World War I and World War II, with the Great Depression in between. She saw her nation, the United States, rise to become the leading superpower in the world, and she lived through the Cold War, ultimately seeing the Berlin Wall fall, and the end of the Soviet Union. She saw the rise of the internet and the information age. 

She got married in 1930 to Paul Hendricks, and they remained married until his death in 1995, just months shy of their 65th anniversary. 

Obviously, she seems to know how to live a long and happy life. Some of her recommendations? Work hard and try to avoid both stress and, interestingly enough, doctors. She did have one vice: sweets, which should come as a relief to many of us (myself included). 

America’s oldest person dies aged 115 after sharing secret to her amazingly long and happy life by Kim Novak, January 7 2023:

https://vt.co/news/americas-oldest-person-dies-aged-115-after-sharing-secret-to-her-amazingly-long-and-happy-life?fbclid=IwAR0V0DtbxLXww9Ca5TrtI5Vj6bh0G9rfYaarntSNNh67rAekenBnVy70Uro