[Deathwatch] Charlotte Benkner, once world's oldest person, 114

[Deathwatch Central]

Charlotte Benkner / Ohio woman who was world's oldest person dies at
114

Tuesday, May 18, 2004
By Gary Rotstein

Charlotte Benkner's reign of acclaim as the world's oldest person was
short-lived -- it didn't even last until her death -- but her longevity
was nonetheless inspiring to others.

The serene and petite resident of a North Lima, Ohio, assisted-living
residence died early Saturday at St. Elizabeth Hospital in Youngstown
after two weeks of hospitalization. She was 180 days past her 114th
birthday, surpassed in that regard in history only by 32 other
supercentenarians whose ages have similarly been verified with official
documentation.

Mrs. Benkner, a widowed ex-housewife who lived in Pittsburgh as a young
newlywed nearly a century ago, never cared much for the fuss that
accompanied Guinness World Records' recognition of her as the oldest
living human. That title fell to her in November after a Japanese woman
died.

In April, investigators from the Gerontology Research Group, an
all-volunteer organization affiliated with the UCLA School of Medicine,
announced they had verified a Puerto Rican woman, Ramona Trinidad
Iglesias-Jordan, was actually about two months older than Mrs. Benkner.


It's unlikely that the former title-holder would have been put out by
the news. She seemed to tolerate rather than cherish the honor.

"What's the difference whether I'm 50 years or 100?" she told reporters
and photographers who visited her last year at the Glenellen Senior
Suites and Villas-Lakeside, where she lived since 2000.

Her health remained steady until recently, although the sister she
lived with at Glenellen, Matilda O'Hare, died in late January at age
99. Mrs. Benkner had no children, but a nephew and his wife looked
after her, along with the staff of the long-term care center.

"We're saddened, but what an inspiration she was," said Jim McMurray,
co-owner of the Glenellen facility, who noted she had been attending
church services regularly within the center until her recent
hospitalization.

"We would say many times in our services and at our activities, 'Look,
we're missing several people. However, Charlotte made it, and we could
all make that effort,'" McMurray recalled. "It was a matter of
admiration and appreciation, that people here were able to know her and
be part of the extended family for the oldest person in the world."

Mrs. Benkner was known for a voracious appetite, and Glenellen's dining
hall has been named in her honor.

She was raised in Peekskill, N.Y., where her family ran a hotel and
where she is to be buried.

Her husband, Karl, a civil engineer for Carnegie Steel in Youngstown,
died in 1967. Mrs. Benkner then moved to Tucson, Ariz., where she and
her sister resided until returning to Ohio four years ago.

Age documentation can be a tricky thing, with some people seeking
attention by claiming to be older than they are once they're at or near
the century mark. There was no question about the unassuming Mrs.
Benkner, who had an 1889 birth certificate, 1890 baptismal certificate
and 1908 marriage license bearing her age.

Such documents were only recently found and validated by the
Gerontology Research Group for Iglesias-Jordan, who lives in a San Juan
nursing home.

Published reports earlier this month from Belarus, formerly part of the
Soviet Union, said Hanna Barysevich had just celebrated her 116th
birthday near Minsk, which if true would apparently make her the
world's oldest person. Guinness World Records uses the GRG's
investigators to try to verify such claims, and that has not occurred
as of yet for Barysevich.

"I've heard of a number of Russian cases that hit their local press,
and on further investigation, the claims evaporated," said Dr. Stephen
Coles, GRG executive director. He said Barysevich's case is suspicious
in that she's not someone widely mentioned previously for her advanced
age.

The research group lists 42 women and two men verified as
supercentenarians, living to 110 or older, including one Pennsylvanian,
112-year-old Gladys Swetland of Coudersport. There are believed to be
many more people that age in the world, but documentation is hard to
come by because record-keeping was less rigorous when they were young,
especially in undeveloped nations.