RIP: Leila Backman Shull

Leila Backman Shull
16 October 1894 – 22 December 2007

ZUI this article from The State (SC):

Leila Bertha Backman Shull, the oldest South Carolina resident and one of the oldest people in the world, has died. She was 113.

Shull died Saturday at her home, Todd Caughman, manager of Caughman-Harmon Funeral Homes, said Wednesday.

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Shull was married to Lee Shull for 45 years and never remarried in the 47 years after he died. She had four children, 15 grandchildren, 34 great-grandchildren and 40 great-great-grandchildren.

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Shull was the fourth oldest person in the United States and the seventh oldest in the world, said Dr. L. Stephen Coles, co-founder of the California-based Gerontology Research Group.

The last supercentenarian* whose death I commented on here was 113-year-old Bertha Fry of Indiana, who died on 14 November. Since her death, four others have also died, according to the Gerontology Research Group (GRG): Kuni Numata of Japan (1 Feb 1896-16 Nov 2007), Leona Tuttle of New Jersey (13 Apr 1896-23 Nov 2007), Hisa Tokumoto of Japan (25 Feb 1896-27 Nov 2007) and Julia Tharnish of Nebraska (6 Jun 1897-13 Dec 2007). Five women and one man have been added to the GRG's list of validated supercentenarians, so as of 28 Dec 07 the list contains 76 people - 67 women and 9 men - ranging from Edna Parker of Indiana (born 20 Apr 1893) to Carolina Peretti-Scaramelli of Italy (born 21 Oct 1897).


* Someone who has lived to reach his or her 110th birthday.