RIP: Arbella Ewing

Arbella Perkins Ewing
13 Mar 1894 – 22 Mar 2008

ZUI this article from Fox Television, Dallas:

A North Texas woman, who was Texas' oldest living person and the third oldest American, died Saturday, just a few weeks after turning 114 years old.

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Ewing grew up in Streetman, Texas, located 89 miles south of Dallas, during Grover Cleveland's term in the White House. She moved to Dallas with her late husband Frank Ewing in 1936.

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Ewing lived without assistance until she turned 113. She was a resident at Grace Presbyterian Village in Dallas at the time of her death.

According to the Gerontology Research Group (GRG), Mrs Ewing was actually the third-oldest person in the world, and the second-oldest person in the US, at the time of her death.

Mrs Ewing is the fifth supercentenarian to die since the death of Tsuneyo Toyonaga on 22 Feb 08. The others were B Ethel Darby of England (6 Jan 1898-25 Feb 2008), Tatsuno Ioda of Japan (2 Jan 1897-4 Mar 2008), Lazare Ponticelli of France (7 Dec 1897-12 Mar 2008) and Blanche Chevrier of Maine (20 Feb 1898-20 Mar 2008).

The GRG's list of validated living supercentenarians (people who have reached their 110th birthday) currently includes 77 people (11 men and 66 women), ranging from Edna Parker of Indiana (born 20 Apr 1893) to Charlessa Wiggins of Illinois (born 9 Feb 1898). Only one of them, 111-year-old Eunice Sanborn (born 20 Jul 1896), lives in Texas; she is the 13th-oldest person in the US and the 26th-oldest in the world.