Woman Dies at 112, the Oldest Known Person
MIAMI — Birdie May Vogt, born the daughter of a Union Army captain the year of Custer’s last stand, died at age 112 after being recognized as the oldest documented living person, a retirement home spokeswoman said this week.
“She was blind and she was deaf. She just kind of faded away,” said Alice Freeman, a receptionist at East Ridge Retirement Village. “We were hoping she would last until her 113th birthday” which would have been in 11 days.
She died in her sleep Sunday night at the retirement home’s medical center, said nursing director Alice Ruo.
“It never occurred to me I’d live to be this old,” Mrs. Vogt said at 107. “I don’t know why the Lord leaves me here. My minister says the Lord still has things for me to do.”
The 1989 edition of the Guinness Book of World Records listed her as “the oldest living person for whom there is adequate authentication.” Her birth in Akron, Ohio, on Aug. 3, 1876, was recorded in a family Bible.
That year, Alexander Graham Bell patented the telephone, Ulysses S. Grant was President and Gen. George Custer died in an Indian battle at Little Big Horn.
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