Q: Who are current oldest residents of Georgia, the United States and the world?
—David Dickey, Dallas
A: The oldest resident of Georgia is Ila Sewell Jones, who is 113 and lives in Rome. Her son, Ike Sewell, has several thoughts about how she has lived for so long, but two stick out.
“The first observation is that she comes from a line of people that have lived a long time,” Sewell said. “The second observation is she’s a 5-foot-1 lady who has never weighed more than 110 pounds, and she always ate right.”
Jones was born Ila Arminda Stargel on Aug. 21, 1903, in a two-room log cabin in the Cane Creek community of Lumpkin County, just north of Dahlonega. The retired teacher is the world’s 13th oldest person, according to the Gerontology Research Group, and second oldest in the United States, behind Delphine Gibson.
Gibson, who lives in Pennsylvania, is four days older than Jones. Following Jones are Vera Van Wagner, born and living in New York, and Lessie Brown, born in Georgia but now living in Ohio, who were both born in 1904. Jamaica’s Violet Brown, at 117, is currently the world’s oldest living person.
A physical education teacher for years, she regularly worked out, even participating in exercise classes at the assisted living facility where she now lives until she was 105. Sewell said his mother takes vitamins and appetite supplements regularly, but no long-term medications.
The world’s oldest people often stick to routines, such as exercise and healthy eating, said Robert Young, Guinness Book of World Records’ senior consultant on gerontology and director of the Gerontology Research Group’s supercentenarian research.
In addition to her physical health, Sewell said his mother didn’t carry mental baggage and has an outstanding outlook on life.
A positive outlook is common among centenarians, Young said.
“They tend not to get stressed about things,” Young said.
When she was just 7, Jones witnessed the 1910 passing of Halley’s Comet from a hilltop near her home, Sewell said. Nine years later, just after the end of World War I, she began her lifelong career as a teacher, starting in a one-room schoolhouse in Cane Creek and then later at the Georgia School for the Deaf and a range of schools in north Georgia and Alabama, teaching subjects from math to physical education. She was married twice, and lived in Alabama, Texas and California before moving back to Georgia at 88 years old.
Jones lived on her own until she was 95, after which she moved to Roman Court Assisted Living in Rome.
Becky Sewell, Ike’s wife, said Jones still maintains her sense of humor, which her family sees on their regular visits.
“Ike and his brother went to visit, and [they] said, ‘Here are your two boys, aren’t we good looking?” Becky Sewell said. “She said, ‘You think I can’t see, don’t you?’”
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